Father Of The Main Stream Media Dies-Goodbye Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite, icon of the American TV news, dead at 92.
“He told it the way it was, more than an anchor, he was an icon, the voice that Americans trusted most”. -CBS News, the Saturday Early Show
How far we’ve come. Cronkite spawned the evening news as his 15 minute nightly broadcast was extended to 30 minutes. Competitors ABC and NBC launched their news programs.
Over the the years much of the American public became addicted to their 30 minute nightly news fix. The network news departments and their titans like Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley and others decided what stories to present, and how to present them. For years ABC, CBS and NBC drove American opinion with their monopoly.
When the first 24 hour Cable News Network launched, everything changed. The big three lost their monopoly. Over the years, as more cable news outlets launched the influence of the big 3 network’s nightly news waned.
Somewhere along the way it became fashionable for reporters to become part of the story, instead of simply reporting it. And since then, the news, especially where politics is concerned has deteriorated into a cacophony of ideology where reporters try to influence the landscape of American opinion.
“And that’s the way it is…. ” Walter Cronkite used to say as he signed off each night, and people believed him. Was there really that much integrity back then, or is it just how we want to remember it?
That may have been the way it was, but it sure isn’t the way it is, anymore.
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