Jul 18
That's the way it was
Hardly a week goes by in our media training classes that we don’t hear complaints from our students regarding the news media. Often, it is about the media’s lack of objectivity. Often, they believe the news media is too opinionated.
We hear that Fox News is too conservative, that CNN is too liberal and that most newspapers are terribly biased in their reporting.
Oh, for the good ole days when reporters kept opinions to themselves.
That was one of the comments I heard Friday, just a few hours prior to learning of the death of the legendary Walter Cronkite: the most trusted man in America.
I was a student when Walter Cronkite first took over the anchor chair and I vividly remember sitting in a high school study hall when he reported on the death of President John F. Kennedy. In Vietnam, I used to view his newscasts – usually days later – after they were flown over to our information office. It was interesting to be in the war and see how it was being covered back home. It provided us with a perspective you couldn't get anywhere else. Partly as a result of his broadcasts, I changed my personal perspective on the war. Much of America did the same and as a result, Walter Cronkite changed American history. President Lyondon Johnson figured if he had lost Walter Cronkite's support, he had lost middle America's support.
Year’s later, I remember his reporting on Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to step foot on the moon. I’ll never forget it. My son was born the next day.
By the time Walter Cronkite was covering the Watergate scandal, I was a political reporter and saw his newscast as the one all other journalists used as a yardstick to measure their professionalism.
I was overjoyed at the thought in 1976 that I was going to scoop CBS on Jimmy Carter clinching the Democratic presidential nomination. But Walter wasn’t going to let that happen. He led with it the night before my paper could run the story.
Then there was the story I broke in China in 1978 about student unrest at the universities. Walter led with it and attributed it. I was in Seventh Heaven when I learned about it. To me, having Walter Crokite use your story was the gold standard. It couldn't get much better than that for a young reporter.
I never had the chance to meet Walter Cronkite, but clearly he was a big part of my life, as he was part of most Americans’ lives who watched television news in the 70s and 80s.
When I first started in public relations, Walter was no longer the CBS anchor, but he was still very much a part of journalism. My opinion is that he always will be.
As for the charges that many of today’s reporters and news anchors lack objectivity, it depends on whom you are comparing them with.
If Walter Cronkite is the standard, no one else will ever measure up. There will never be another Cronkite. And, that is just the way it is.
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5:13 PM Mar 9