Oh, hoorah! I thought I was alone in thinking Russert was a shill. I had quit watching his boring kiss-up show long ago, and was surprised his death engendered all that media attention & all those accolades. And there were all those politicians who went on the teevee & said how they quaked in their boots the mornings they had to face Russert. I thought Russert must have improved while I wasn't watching. Guess not.

Anyway, this was a fine tribute to Cronkite, who at least knew what journalism was, even as he doled out a rather bland version of it most nights.

(blogger pourmecoffee found this video clip, below)
http://twitter.com/pourmecoffee/status/2699391218
http://pourmecoffee.posterous.com/i-regret-that-in-our-attempt-to-establish-som

* * * * *

Here's a video clip of Walter Cronkite in 1996.

It's only 20 seconds long, and that was enough time to say everything that needed to be said:

http://www.newseum.org/news/news.aspx?item=nh_CRON090714_2

“I regret that in our attempt to establish some standards we didn’t make them stick.

We couldn’t find a way to pass them on to another generation.”

- - Walter Cronkite, 1996

__________

a handwritten rundown of the CBS nightly news from 4/10/75 on the Wall of my dads office. Walter Cronkite has signed it even Chancellor was the anchorman at that time - but Cronkite had been in the Studio that day and my dad finally met one of his heroes and even shared a Sandwich with him talking about German politics. - "I'm only loved because they don't know what I think"- is written under the frame - and there is a reason why another Salon article opens with that quote of Cronkite -

When my dad as a young German Journalist made a short internship at CBS in New York that's what he learned:

You never tell or show your audience that you are 'partisan'! -

As a Journalist your first and foremost duty is to be objective!! -

You never ever let them know if you are 'right' or 'left' or and THAT's the MAJOR reason why your readers or your audience will trust and believe you!

Do we have the same 'moral' of the tale?!

Question for Glenn: Has this always not been true . . . . Thompson & Cronkite were mere exceptions, even for the past?

We still have a few decent good ones around . . .at the NYT & McClatchy. . .sadly, few with the awesome platform that Cronkite had.

It's just human nature to want to not challenge the powerful and (specially when you are in the small minority). Your story about Hunter S Thompson shows a HUGE amount of courage. Way more than Cronkite. If Cronkite had spoken up a few years earlier, when the Vietnam war was still popular, he probably wouldn't be remembered so fondly, and probably been shutout by the Kennedy WH as well

We should set up an award for courage in journalism ( I say we call it the GlennZilla :-)

I find the monarchicalism here quite depressing. Walter Cronkite was a Good King; Tim Russert was a Bad King. So what? Thank God, the mainstream media are dying, along with "journalism". He bearded the generals? A righteous person would not stand in the same room with generals.

As for Michael Jackson, he was a sight more interesting than any of the mouthpieces of this established order or that, and that's why what's left of the media went on about him for so long. You might try to figure out why that's so, instead of sniff at it. Here's your first clue: he brought something.

C-SPAN's Booknote interviews with Cronkite (see sig for 59:28 video)

http://c-span.org/Watch/Media/2009/07/17/HP/R/20027/Walter+Cronkite+Dies+At+Age+92.aspx

More C-SPAN Programs on Cronkite from archives

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=basic_search&sort=date&query=walter+cronkite+

Thanks for your excerpts, but I disagree. What really brought home the war during the Tet offensive, and changed the viewpoint of the American public, was the photojournalism, and that was mostly, as I recall what I remember seeing in Life magazine, centered on the bloody battle at Hue. And they didn't get it wrong, the point was what was happening, not whether the images projected victory or defeat.

Speaking truth to power, which is what Glenn's piece in large part is about, is important. But speaking truth -- the kind of truth that only comes from photojournalism and it's impact -- is important too. Here is an article about Iraq. Is this person doing something different from Chuck Todd? Absolutely. Is he down and on the street, like Walter Cronkite said? Absolutely. But look at this article. There is something more. The reason we don't have much of this nowadays is it's expensive.

http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0305/pt_intro.html

In fact, the US did strike a knockout blow on the military field. The Viet Cong were never again a factor on the battlefield, so decimated were their ranks. And the North reeled from the absolute drubbing they received on the battlefield in February 1968.

NVA general Vo Nguyen Giap admits as much. But, he added, they won a propaganda victory in Tet, aided in large measure by Walter Cronkite.

Glenn Greenwald (if he had any influence beyond this very small venue) would be another Cronkite if he had his way, wishing victory to our enemies and denying the obvious.

Oh if only some of them would read and pay attention to this and perhaps be changed a little. Thank you for focusing us on this, Glenn.

link at sig

there is another picture in this office here who says: ENTERTAINMENT WON! - and it shows a dude called Jess Marlow joining a cute lady called Connie Chung in a documentary about local News in Los Angeles -

And I watched it and saw how it all started!

I don't think Walter would. That TPM article really points out the problem. Talk show pundits like Gregory care far more about beating the competition in ratings than challenging their guests or helping viewers learn the truth.