Walter Cronkite....RIP..........

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Yes, Godspeed, Rip, and all that. He was a pioneer and an icon, but never forget that he was a liberal, biased commentator who supplied us with twenty-five or so minutes of opinion maybe loosely based on fact every night, then declared, "And that's the way it is . . . ."

He was the grand-daddy of the "raised eyebrow syndrome," indicating his disdain for anything not fitting in with his liberal agenda.

Some quotes from "Uncle Walter" in recent years:

U.S. Must "Give Up Some of Our Sovereignty" to the UN
"It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. To do that, of course, we Americans will have to give up some of our sovereignty....
— Excerpts from a speech by Cronkite to the World Federalist Association on October 19, 1999. Published the December 3, 1999 Washington Times.

Middle Ground Between Freedom and Oppression
"Cronkite, Mr. Middle American Everyman, even advocates a new sociopolitical system. `We may have to find some marvelous middle ground between capitalism and communism,'
— Cronkite quoted in a January 21, 1996 Los Angeles Times Magazine profile by Newsday TV writer Verne Gay.

I think a strong case can be made that he made victory in Vietnam impossible with his statement that ""it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate."

When I got a Master's Degree from Columbus (GA) College in the early 90s, many of my classmates were retired officers from that era. To a man, they said that the Tet Offensive was an absolute disaster for the Viet Cong, but that isn't what we heard from Uncle Walter.

Anyhow, I felt about Cronkite about like I do Charles Gibson now. He was an affable, believable, father/uncle-like figure who could convince people that what he was saying was gospel, when he was actually grinding his own axe.
 
He along with LBJ and Robert S McNamara

redlevel said:
I think a strong case can be made that he made victory in Vietnam impossible with his statement that ""it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate."

When I got a Master's Degree from Columbus (GA) College in the early 90s, many of my classmates were retired officers from that era. To a man, they said that the Tet Offensive was an absolute disaster for the Viet Cong, but that isn't what we heard from Uncle Walter.
Click to expand...

He along with LBJ and Robert S McNamara are on my whish they hadn't been born list.
 
I've been thinking about Walter C. much for the past day or so, now he dies, what a shame. I remember watching how he reacted when we landed on the moon, he was simply amazed and delighted that night by what was happening. I was just a kid, but even then I watched the news and I'd never seen him like he was that night. It is probably the best candid moment of his career, and here we are on the 40th anniversary of the week it all happened. As I type this, 40 years ago Apollo 11 was on it's way to the moon right now.
Rest in peace!
 
I vividly remember Walter from forty plus years ago. Notwithstanding his liberal bias, which I wasn't so aware of at the time, I enjoyed him. It seemed like when you turned on the old B&W "tube", you were "home" when Uncle Walter appeared.

I remember some landmark broadcasts. I remember watching an Air Force crew change the engine on a T33. It flew in, engine changed and flew away on life TV. Uncle Water as giving the play by play.

I remember Cronkite sitting at a table, on the sun drenched Nevada desert, and an atom bomb going off...live...in the background behind him.

I vividly remember him announcing the death of JFK in 1963.

Over the years he fell out of favor with me, especially with the invention of sattelite news networks.

In his declining years, he was just too in the tank for the left wing whack jobs, however I think a large percentage of the public that were not so inclined gave him a pass, just because he was Uncle Walter.

May he rest in peace. Just too bad he went so far to the dark side.
 
In a 1973 public opinion poll by the Oliver Quayle organization, Cronkite was named the most trusted public figure in the United States, ahead of the president and the vice president.

[I know, I know... this poll must have been, what ... (a) rigged; (b) can't be trusted; (c) the pollsters were controlled by the leftist, liberal, anti-America news media; or (d) all of the above.]
 
Still and all, whatever his leanings later (and pretty tame compared to today's opinionated talking heads), he was a pioneer, led an interesting long life, and got to put in another 28 years of retirement time...in good enough health to sail the world or do whatever he chose. Not too bad at all.
 
R. Walter said:
In a 1973 public opinion poll by the Oliver Quayle organization, Cronkite was named the most trusted public figure in the United States, ahead of the president and the vice president.

[I know, I know... this poll must have been, what ... (a) rigged; (b) can't be trusted; (c) the pollsters were controlled by the leftist, liberal, anti-America news media; or (d) all of the above.]
Click to expand...

__________________________________________________________________

You are right R. Walter, he was loved and respected...however the political spectrum had not yet gone completely off the deep end at that time. He was what he was. I like him a lot. Many liked him. He just didn't get it right...in the end.:rolleyes:
 
I will not speak ill of him, but I won't put him one a pedestal just because he is dead.

No matter what you think of the Vietnam conflict, Cronkite almost single handedly turned the US military victory of the Tet offensive into the loss of the entire conflict. After Tet the North was completely on the ropes until Cronkite declared the war lost. Unforgivable, IMO.
 
He wasn't the first popular figure to convince a gullible public that his opinion was the truth, nor has he been the last.

David
 
redlevel said:
Yes, Godspeed, Rip, and all that. He was a pioneer and an icon, but never forget that he was a liberal, biased commentator who supplied us with twenty-five or so minutes of opinion maybe loosely based on fact every night, then declared, "And that's the way it is . . . ."

He was the grand-daddy of the "raised eyebrow syndrome," indicating his disdain for anything not fitting in with his liberal agenda.

Some quotes from "Uncle Walter" in recent years:

U.S. Must "Give Up Some of Our Sovereignty" to the UN
"It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. To do that, of course, we Americans will have to give up some of our sovereignty....
— Excerpts from a speech by Cronkite to the World Federalist Association on October 19, 1999. Published the December 3, 1999 Washington Times.

Middle Ground Between Freedom and Oppression
"Cronkite, Mr. Middle American Everyman, even advocates a new sociopolitical system. `We may have to find some marvelous middle ground between capitalism and communism,'
— Cronkite quoted in a January 21, 1996 Los Angeles Times Magazine profile by Newsday TV writer Verne Gay.

I think a strong case can be made that he made victory in Vietnam impossible with his statement that ""it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate."

When I got a Master's Degree from Columbus (GA) College in the early 90s, many of my classmates were retired officers from that era. To a man, they said that the Tet Offensive was an absolute disaster for the Viet Cong, but that isn't what we heard from Uncle Walter.

Anyhow, I felt about Cronkite about like I do Charles Gibson now. He was an affable, believable, father/uncle-like figure who could convince people that what he was saying was gospel, when he was actually grinding his own axe.
Click to expand...

++++
 
Can we at least agree that we love the Country that gave him the right to speak his opinion as well as us to speak our thoughts. The lesson to be learned by every American is to think for ourselves and never follow like sheep.
 
redlevel said:
Anyhow, I felt about Cronkite about like I do Charles Gibson now. He was an affable, believable, father/uncle-like figure who could convince people that what he was saying was gospel, when he was actually grinding his own axe.
Click to expand...

I have the same impression. The MSM is always searching for new and better mouthpieces, and as the general public seems to get duller and more gullible, the mouthpieces get ever more skilled at their craft.

Walter was at his best narrating the New Year's Concerts from Vienna, where is ever increasing goofiness could do little harm.
 
Last edited:
ingmansinc said:
Can we at least agree that we love the Country that gave him the right to speak his opinion as well as us to speak our thoughts. The lesson to be learned by every American is to think for ourselves and never follow like sheep.
Click to expand...

__________________________________________________________________

Yes, we should all think for ourselves....however...I don't give anyone a pass when they are wrong. Right is right, wrong is wrong.

Damn, isn't life simple?:rolleyes:
 
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