I am seeing a lot of confusion on recent history. I keep seeing Walter Cronkite held up as the example of what American Journalism should be. I think that a more accurate memory would be that he is the one who built up trust and then betrayed the country.
Keep in mind he is the one who lost the Vietnam War.
Why do I say that? It goes back to the Tet Offensive of 1968. For years all the antagonists of the Vietnam war had observed a truce during Tet. It was an important holiday to the Vietnamese and was honored as such. About the closest we in the West can come to the Tet Truce was the Christmas in World War I when the two sides came out of the trenches and sang Christmas carols together. It is hard to believe, but it happened.
In 1968 the South Vietnamese and American forces were on stand-down to recognize the day. The Communists decided that this was their chance to win big. They infiltrated large numbers of North Vietnamese troops and gathered up all the Viet Cong they could find. Then, when the allies were totally unprepared, they attacked. They expected to have a walk over and bring the war to a screeching halt.
It didn’t work out like they planned. In spite of being totally unready the Americans and South Vietnamese rallied and cleaned the Communists’ clock. What was supposed to be a slaughter of Americans turned out to be “the only good commie is a dead commie”. There were a lot of good commies after there failed attempt at an atrocity. It was the biggest defeat that the invaders had suffered.
You would not have known that from watching the news. “Uncle” Walter took the lead in coming on the evening news and declaring that the war was lost because the Americans and Vietnamese had been so severely mauled. It was the original Fake News. And because he had built up such trust with the American public, he was believed. He lied. He deceived. He lost the war because it took a long time for the public to be able to discover that we had won the battle, hands down.
So please. Don’t act like Walter Cronkite was a virtuous icon. He was the father of Fake News.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.