Curmudgeon's Corner

No More Cronkites

Posted by Al Campbell on July 18, 2009

Potpourri, Quality of Life, U.S.

There are no more Cronkites.  He was the epitome of the news person who reported evenly and without bombast.  He was to be believed because he had never let us viewers down in any capacity.  He was a fixture in many homes every weekday evening for decades.  He was never involved in any journalistic chicanery.  Simply stated, he was the news person's news person.

There are no more Cronkites.  Journalism seems to have devolved rather than evolved over time.  The people who would be a "Cronkite" do not hold the proverbial candle to that great news person.  We didn't know at the time that Cronkite was a "liberal" as that term was then used.  He was a political person but we never saw that; he never intimated his personal beliefs so far as we ever knew.

There are no more Cronkites.  Look at what passes for news people at the national level today, and you'll not see a "Cronkite".  The nearest person to a "Cronkite" probably was Tom Brokaw.  The group now in front of us daily are not even in the same league.  Maybe there are one or two working their way up the ladder, but they'll probably be beaten down by their editors before they could think of assuming such a title.

Maybe this change was inevitable; maybe not.  But there has been a decided change...and not for the better in my opinion.

There are no more Cronkites...and it seems possible that there never will be ever again.  That is my loss and your loss and the loss of those who follow in our footsteps.  When we lost that breed we lost our ability to trust that we were getting the news without it being interspersed with opinion.

There are no more Cronkites!

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The Curmudgeon Blog today is titled "A Reckless Congress" and is must reading!