Leftist Propagandist Who Was Driving Engine Behind Vietnam Anti-War Movement, Dead
Jul 17, 2009 77 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Walter Cronkite, died Friday. He was 92.
Cronkite spent the last 30 years promoting ultra-leftist causes.
Cronkite’s longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said the cause of death was cerebral vascular disease.
His 1968 editorial declaring the United States was “mired in stalemate” in Vietnam was a turning point in U.S. opinion of the war.
Since his retirement Cronkite has made clear his Leftist views on a range of issues, including how being a Leftist is essential to being a good journalist.
Advises Kerry: Be Proud of Your Liberalism
“When the National Journal said your Senate record makes you one of the most liberal members of the Senate, you called that ‘a laughable characterization’ and ‘the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in my life.’ Wow!…What are you ashamed of? Are you afflicted with the Dukakis syndrome — that loss of nerve that has allowed conservatives both to define and to demonize liberalism for the past decade and more?…If 1988 taught us anything, it is that a candidate [like Dukakis] who lacks the courage of his convictions cannot hope to convince the nation that he should be given its leadership….Take my advice and lay it all out, before it’s too late.”
It was Cronkite who read the bulletins coming from Dallas when Kennedy was shot Nov. 22, 1963, interrupting a live CBS-TV broadcast of the soap opera “As the World Turns.”
Cronkite was the broadcaster to whom the title “anchorman” was first applied, and he came so identified in that role that eventually his own name became the term for the job in other languages (Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters; in Holland, they are Cronkiters).
Denounces Bush, Calls, Carter “Smartest Presidentâ€
At a March 18 forum at Drew University former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, the Daily Record of Parsippany, New Jersey reported in a Wednesday story, “said he feared the war would not go smoothly, ripped the ‘arrogance’ of Bush and his administration and wondered whether the new U.S. doctrine of ‘pre-emptive war’ might lead to unintended, dire consequences.â€
The newspaper also relayed how Cronkite “said that the smartest President he ever met was Jimmy Carter†and that journalists tilt to the left because “they see the poverty. They see the want” and thus “tend to favor the underprivileged.â€
Dukakis Would Have Won If He’d Just Been More Liberal
“It seemed to me that Michael Dukakis blew any chance he had of defeating George Bush in 1988 when he ran away from the ‘L-word,’ even to the extent of letting Bush get away with accusing him of being a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union. Dukakis ducked that, too, although Bush handed him on a silver platter a chance to defend the sort of Americanism that believes that the Constitution protects all of the country’s citizens regardless of their appearance or the popularity of their cause or the ugliness of the crimes of which they are accused.”
— Cronkite in his 1997 book, A Reporter’s Life
Bill Clinton the Courageous
“Clinton is doing very much what he intended to do when he came into office, he’s trying to rebuild the government to serve the people in a fashion that he feels that is has not served in the last 12 years. And he’s being very courageous in putting forward programs to do that. Naturally, his programs are considered by some almost revolutionary because they are real change and in that he’s doing his very best.”
— Cronkite on the Late Show with David Letterman, February 7, 1994.
“Gawd Almighty,” Shout “the Truths” of Liberalism
“I know liberalism isn’t dead in this country. It simply has, temporarily we hope, lost its voice….We know that unilateral action in Grenada and Tripoli was wrong. We know that ‘Star Wars’ means uncontrollable escalation of the arms race. We know that the real threat to democracy is the half of the nation in poverty. We know that no one should tell a woman she has to bear an unwanted child….Gawd Almighty, we’ve got to shout these truths in which we believe from the housetops. Like that scene in the movie ‘Network,’ we’ve got to throw open our windows and shout these truths to the streets and the heavens. And I bet we’ll find more windows are thrown open to join the chorus than we’d ever dreamed possible.”
— former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, at a November People for the American Way banquet. Quoted in the December 5, 1988 Newsweek.
“It is impossible to imagine CBS News, journalism or indeed America without Walter Cronkite,” CBS News president Sean McManus said in a statement. “More than just the best and most trusted anchor in history, he guided America through our crises, tragedies and also our victories and greatest moments.”
(AP, Pat Dollard, and The Media Research Center)
