Thoughts of Cronkite

I grew up watching Walter Cronkite on the news. He was trusted in our house like he was in millions of others. His sad passing highlights the long ago passing of responsible and unbiased broadcast news, as well as print news.

It prompted me this evening to put my DVD of "good night and good luck" into the machine and watch it. Anyone who has not seen this film, should, and soon. It starts with the first few lines of his speech at the RTNDA Convention in 1958. The speech can be found here - http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/commentary/hiddenagenda/murrow.html

The movie itself is relevant to politics and so called journalism today. Murrow, Friendly and their team took on McCarthy, the Air Force and, by extension, the U.S. Government. They stood up for a principle when it would had been much easier to go with the flow, look away and ignore what was happening. They risked their livelihoods and futures.

From what I remember and what his contemporaries and those who came after say, Walter Cronkite reported with an even hand and with great integrity.

Was this the passing of an age? I regret that I believe so. One only need look at the stories that are reported first and the biggest headlines these days. Michael Jackson's death pushed the turmoil in Iran completely off the front page. The plight of his children are the headlines over health care in this country. A sensational celebrity antic is more important than American service men and women in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan. Headline grabber at all costs, Sarah Palin, decides to quit part way through her term takes more, much more, time and space than ANYTHING else.

Yes, yellow journalism has always existed. The very sad thing is that yellow journalism is the mainstream now, and can be found in the one time standard bearers of print and broadcast news. And, one doesn't need to look inside or at minute 23. It is front page and story number one. Even sadder is that the populace in general seem to love it, even prefer it. What hope have we?