Remember this about Walter Cronkite:

1. He and Eric Sevareid sneered, night after night, at the anti-war activists whose heads were being broken regularly by the American Stasi in almost every city.

2. The only important journalists to oppose the war from LBJ's Tonkin Gulf lies were Walter Lippmann and Izzy Stone. Lippmann was dropped from the year-end CBS reports because of his strong opposition to the war. Stone never had a chance to appear on establishment media. He was too honest for them. They had to smear him.

3. The year 1968, when Cronkite finally turned against the American invasions of southeast Asia, was late in the game. Even the Kennedys had turned against the war by then!

4. Cronkite never opposed the war on moral grounds; only that we were losing, and it was not worth the cost in our lives and treasure. It was a criminally immoral war from the outset.

To praise Cronkite is to demonstrate how poor the standards of journalism - how corrupted they are by big, market driven, corporate media. They are even worse today. Praising Cronkite only makes matters worse.

Not every single thing Cronkite did was Herculean in its morality, truth and insight. Indeed, the points highlighted by Glenn arguably are more noteworthy for their "editorializing" than they are for their "reportage". In part, the effectiveness of Cronkite's observations about truth and his deviations from the role of mouthpiece for Established Wisdom were heightened oerhaps not so much by their bravery as by their rarity. It is because when Cronkite experienced things in a way that brought home to him that the Established Wisdom was a lie -- and then he said so -- it meant that much more to those hearing it. Maybe that's part of the mythos today. Cronkite goes to Viet Nam, sees what he sees, and says on the air how it makes him view the "official line" about winning over there.

By that standard, will we someday look back and congratulate Shepard Smith for what he said on Fox News when it finally became clear (to him) that he has been getting lied to about the Bush administration's torture regime: "This is America! We don't fucking torture!"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/22/shepard-smith-torture_n_190350.html

It's kind of too bad Mr. Smith didn't have any stockpile of presumptive integrity to add weight to his personal gestalt, the way Cronkite did. Then again, if only those Fox News devotees who DO give Smith such credit would listen to what he said, maybe that too could lead to progress. And maybe, in the future, we could look back on the episode and call Mr. Smith a brave and intrepid journalist valuing the truth, even if it did only slip out because he was so pissed off by realizing he had been getting taken.

Oh, but we don't look back, only forward, any more. Never mind.

before opening the mouth:

ondelette:"He didn't turn back when he sprained his ankle.

What's this?

Mason, of Halifax, Mass., headed up the popular mountain for a long day hike on Saturday, but decided to take a shortcut down after spraining his ankle. That’s when he ran into rising water and deep snow until searchers spotted him Tuesday morning, headed toward the mountaintop weather observatory.

Again:

ondelette: "He didn't beg a ride down from the Observatory people when he got to the top."

Oh dear:

“Mason:"I WAS going to hike to the observatory and kind of knock on their door and try to get some hot cocoa and a ride down,” he said in a telephone interview.

"But I never bloody got there".

http://blog.taragana.com/n/eagle-scout-hiker-speaks-of-exhaustion-falling-into-runoff-while-stranded-in-nh-mountains-45006/

• Journalists are a prime target. Is that why those still left standing won't take their blinders off?

Falls Township, PA authorities charged me with a crime. By mail. First-degree criminal "stalking." The crime that's been perpetrated against me by the government-enabled extrajudicial targeting and punishment "matrix" described in my article, "GESTAPO USA."

The crime that has ruined my professional and personal life for the past five years.

http://nowpublic.com/world/gestapo-usa-govt-funded-vigilante-network-terrorizes-america

Pennsylvania law says that for a criminal misdemeanor stalking charge to be applicable, there must be a demonstrated "course of conduct" or "repeatedly" committed acts or communications, with the "intent to place (another) person" in "reasonable fear" of "bodily injury" or "substantial emotional distress."

That's a condensed summary by a non-lawyer; the full statute, and relevant case law, can be found here:

http://www.ncvc.org/src/main.aspx?dbID=DB_Pennsylvania206

I did not commit criminal stalking on evening of June 22, 2009.

That's when I was pulled over while driving my car (which was confiscated and towed); assaulted by a police officer who flung me face-down on the trunk of my car; falsely accused me of "resisting arrest;" handcuffed me so tightly that my wrists ached for a week; did not read me my Miranda rights; kept me confined in a stress position in a parked squad car; threw me into a locked cell for about a half hour; denied me the right to call an attorney or my wife; took fingerprints and mug shots and had me sign three forms; then released me, saying I would be charged by mail with "stalking" (which I was, several days later).

But the "stalking" definition fits what has been done systematically to me for five years, wherever I travel, even out of state.

I am being charged with the very "organized" crime that my articles have exposed. I believe this is an abuse of process, unlawful imprisonment, police misconduct, and quite possibly, entrapment.

All of my telecommunications is subject to not just surveillance, but malicious tampering and interception, including phone calls. Some of my calls seeking assistance have been returned by persons that sound to this veteran journalist as impostors. My important emails typically do not generate a response.

A defense attorney recommended to me by a neighbor who is an attorney wants $2,000 (plus costs) to represent me at the preliminary hearing, and at least another $7,500 if the case goes to trial, regardless of how much time is spent preparing the case.

So I am still seeking representation -- and I want to pursue a police misconduct case. I have requested a police misconduct investigation in a phone conversation with a deputy district attorney. I have received no response. The local ACLU has said they can't help me; I have found that organization sadly lacking.

My hearing is scheduled for Aug. 18th in Bucks County Magisterial District Court 07-1-10 in Fallsington, PA (subject to postponement if my eventual counsel requires more time).

To my media colleagues: coverage invited. I repeat the request despite the mainstream media's appalling and inexcusable lack of coverage of the nationwide extrajudicial targeting network that, I believe, has purged mainstream journalism of some of its best.

I also take note of the dearth of media coverage about the proliferation of silent, injury- and illness-inducing microwave and laser radiation "directed energy weapons" that have been widely deployed...

... the weaponization of the electromagnetic spectrum, a development every bit as significant as the invention of gunpowder.

http://nowpublic.com/world/zap-have-you-been-targeted-directed-energy-weapon-victims-organized-gang-stalking-say-its-happening-usa

Skilled, ethical defense/civil rights attorneys who can play both defense and offense: please get in touch ASAP.

As for mainstream media coverage of extrajudicial targeting and punishment:

Why are mainstream media journalists AWOL? Our profession, democracy, and the rule of law are in the cross-hairs of a federally-enabled police state.

Prior to this incident, I had never been arrested. Now I'm asked for fork over 10 grand to defend myself against what I consider to be false charges. When I am the victim.

Is this justice?

And where are those who are supposed to "comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable"?

Why do I get the impression that most of today's mainstream journalists never heard of A.J. Liebling?

http://NowPublic.com/scrivener

scrivener50@verizon.net