Younger Americans may have trouble believing this:

[kpete]

Link to tweet

[madaboutharry]

1. One day Walter had enough of just reading the news.

One day had enough of reading the numbers of GIs killed in Vietnam every week. He looked into the camera and said the war in Vietnam was wrong.

Richard Nixon knew then and there that the American people would turn. And they did. Nixon is quoted as saying to his advisors "We have lost Walter, we have lost the American people."

But credit to Walter he saved the day he gave his opinion for something important.

[rsdsharp]

12. That was Johnson.

Cronkite delivered his editorial on February 27, 1968 after the Tet offensive.

[madaboutharry]

14. Right, President Johnson.

[dflprincess]

56. Also after "Uncle Walter" went to Vietnam

and did some reporting from there himself.

I knew a couple of adults whose minds he changed.

[radical noodle]

75. Yes, Johnson. It was 1968

During a February 1968 broadcast, Cronkite said, "To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could."

It didn't say it was wrong in so many words. He tried to give us a way out. If we had taken that advice in 1968, how many of our troops would be living in retirement today rather than having their names etched on the Vietnam War Memorial?

[ChazInAz]

21. I remember that night.

[Funtatlaguy]

2. Yep, and even older Americans remember Edward R Murrow.

[3Hotdogs]

26. Harvest of Shame and the McCarthy hearings.

Well, at least we got Mika and Joe.

[Solomon]

3. Yep. How well I remember those days.

It's also why my wife and I find ourselves constantly outraged about what passes for "news" these days.

[thesquanderer]

49. It's about the need to fill 24-hour news channels.

It doesn't take them long enough to tell us what happens, so they have to fill the time with "analysis."

[redstatebluegirl]

4. Walter was the go to in our house.

I was 7 when JFK was killed, I will never forget seeing the coverage he and CBS did during that time. I grow weary of the talking heads. They covered the Nixon stuff without them, why can't we do it now?

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

28. Why?...easy...

24 hour news, all day, all night. I was 11 at that time, you had...what?...about an hour of news shows in the evening... national news, not local. Gotta find something to fill those other 23 hours.

Get ‘em lathered up, repeat, all day. Oh wait the hour changed...lather ‘em up, repeat...cuz maybe someone wasn’t listening last hour to the same story being told now.

Now you have to pay for all that convenient redundancy...corporate selling blather....and we are where we are now.

[dmr]

43. Yup, 30 minutes of local, sports & weather at 6, then 30 minutes of national news at 6:30.

We watched both every single night.

In our house, my dad was partial to Huntley-Brinkley on NBC. If I was at the neighbor's house we watched Uncle Walter on CBS.

It didn't matter who you watched, they all just gave you the facts.

I remember listening to the adults discuss current events. Our parents knew how government worked, and had a good working knowledge of history and geography. I remember them being good critical thinkers. Sadly, none of that is true in America today.

I can't imagine my dad falling for the bullshit that is spewed today. I don't fall for it, either, no matter which side it comes from.

My son is almost 30, when I found they weren't teaching civics anymore, I taught him. In fact, one summer, I taught him and a small group of his buddies in my home or at the library. This was at the height of the Iraq war. I was scared to death these boys would come of age and be sent off to fight Bush's* war.

Today, my son still pays attention, and still live-streans CSPAN. He has told me that he and a couple of his old friends talk politics online, one of them is a DUer, as is my son. This makes me smile.

My apologies for rambling ...

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

45. Not rambling...

Remembering that’s different. Huntley-Brinkley, some of the best. I know....civics....teach you how and why the government works...my oldest is in his (cough)early fourties....his sister and him learned about government from School House Rock.

I’m just a bill.........cartoons.

[2naSalit]

5. Remember them both...nt

[FakeNoose]

6. Not only were journalists unbiased in those days

... but television journalism observed the "fairness doctrine." Any opinion or party that got airtime to present their views, meant the other party or opposing side got equal time in presenting the other side. Editorial opinions by the journalists such as Cronkite weren't allowed unless they were clearly designated as such. Almost always, someone with an opposing viewpoint would claim free air time to present another opinion, so the news outlets avoided editorial comments.

National news organizations such as CBS, NBC and ABC were highly respected, but they didn't require their news departments to "make money" on ratings and advertising like they do now. When Ronald Reagan struck down the fairness doctrine, it ushered in the sad situation we're living in now.

[Texin]

19. There is no such thing as "no bias". Cronkite had his biases, but he didn't let them intrude.

The Fairness Doctrine precluded such biased intrusion in conveying a news story. Cronkite was a wartime journalist in WWII. He had seen war up close and personal, so to speak, so someone like him criticizing Vietnam spoke volumes. I'm not certain, though, how CBS okayed him voicing the opinion that the Tet Offensive/Vietnam was wrong - though I imagine by then many journalists if not most agreed with this.

[thucythucy]

48. Did he actually say the Vietnam War was "wrong."

My recollection is that he stated it was unwinnable, that we were in a stalemate.

Not a question of right or wrong, but a question of whether the policy was working.

[Poiuyt]

58. Cronkite coming out against the Vietnam War was a big turning point for a lot of people

[juxtaposed]

59. agee

[OnlinePoker]

61. He didn't say it was unwinnable but did say it was "mired in stalemate"

He then said the only rational way out was through negotiation. Here's the commentary:

[thucythucy]

69. Thank you.

"Stalemate"--which contradicted all the Pentagon pronouncements about "a light at the end of the tunnel."

At the time questioning the honesty and integrity of the military leadership and the administration in any way was a huge deal.

[luvallpeeps]

52. Couldn't agree more!

The beginning of the end was the Gipper. It has escalated bigly these days. Fairness Doctrine is much more important than people realize, and many or most have never even heard of it. Three things I believe would be huge in righting this ship are
1.reinstating the fairness doctrine
2.getting rid of citizens united
3.paper ballots

[Beartracks]

64. The Fairness Doctrine encouraged facts & facts have a liberal bias.

===========

[Mr. Frost]

71. A situation that no one can escape.

The final death nail of the FD is privatized news media.

[Golden Raisin]

7. There was no 24/7 TV news, no cable networks

only a handful of channels and print newspapers were still a major force. TV Anchors like Cronkite, Murrow, Huntley & Brinkley, etc. all started as bonafide, experienced field journalists/reporters. They were not just pretty/handsome faces who (cluelessly) read the news. If a program was interrupted for "breaking news" or a "special bulletin" it was genuinely something seismic and super important, like JFK being assassinated.

[Roy Rolling]

73. Interesting

Now we have a jillion news outlets. Are there a jillion news stories happening each day?

[Midnightwalk]

8. And they covered a lot

International, national, sports weather and one human interest story

[Arkansas Granny]

9. When I was growing up, Walter Cronkite was required viewing.

[Oneironaut]

10. As a "younger American," I know. I think most of us do.

There is very little “news” now. There’s essentially none on 24-hour cable news stations. CNN is basically the same talking heads and the same guests saying the same things every night, and it’s mostly opinion.

Cable news is profit-driven now, and the truth is usually boring.

[quakerboy]

72. Disagree

The truth is not boring. It just doesnt match the needs of advertisers or investors

[safeinOhio]

11. Remember this

[peggysue2]

13. Don't remember Murrow but I definitely remember Cronkite

He was the voice of the news, the voice of America every night. I vividly recall Cronkite informing the public of JFK's death, his expression of shock and grief. As I recall, he took off his glasses, looked at the clock over his shoulder and gave the exact time of death. The expression on the man's face, the grim acknowledgment, was duplicated on every adult's face at the time, even my father who despised Kennedy's politics.

I think the biggest thing is Cronkite was absolutely trusted by the public. That level of trust has never been duplicated. Can't think of single journalist, pundit, talking head or news reader today who would qualify as Cronkite's equal.

It was a different world.

[dameatball]

23. Yep. I was in 7th grade science class when he made that announcement. Our teacher just left the tv

on after that and didn't even try to teach any science. Yes, he took his glasses off and looked straight into the camera and gave us the bad news.

[keithbvadu2]

25. Walter was trusted enough that many wanted him to run for President.

Walter was trusted enough that many wanted him to run for President.

He turned it down... He knew that he was not qualified.

[ooky]

15. Those days are gone forever.

[madville]

16. We don't have news anymore, it's all opinion

And people watch the opinion they agree with.

[DavidDvorkin]

17. Much as I liked him, Rather, and the rest, it was CBS News

That kept hammering, every night, the number of days Americans had been held captive in Iran. That helped destroy Carter and give us Reagan.

[Timer]

40. It was ABC that started having a show every night called "The Iran Crisis--America Held Hostage...

Day 125" or whatever (the number of days was updated every night). Roone Arledge, then president of ABC News, created it. I thought the idea of the whole country being held hostage, drummed into our consciousness night after night after night, was in effect, a political vehicle to fire up opposition to President Carter.
This nightly show later evolved into "Nightline."

[VWolf]

18. And that's the way it ..... was (sadly) n/t

[debsy]

55. "And that's the way it is." - Walter Cronkite after every nightly news broadcast when signing off.

The younger generation would recognize Ron Burgundy's, "Stay Sexy, San Diego" tag line.

What a stellar news anchor he was. And very outspoken against George W. Bush, as well, just as Dan Rather still is. He was a fine man. The shit we see now - on any channel - doesn't even remotely resemble news as it was when we were growing up.

[Ferrets are Cool]

20. While everything you said is true 100% factual

you left out an important part. CBS NEWS WASN'T THERE TO MAKE MONEY!!! What they cared about was journalism.

[bobbieinok]

22. Many warned that NBC's decision to put news dept in entertainment was beginning of end

It was the number crunchers' who decided.

The claim was that it cost too much money to have all those reporters out actually investigating what was happening, who was trying to pull some strings, etc.

Their bottom line--doing 'real news' costs money. But if we only do entertaining' stories, we'll make a ton of money--and NEVER, EVER disturb an advertiser!!

[Ferrets are Cool]

33. Yup!

[loyalsister]

46. Two things essential for public health and well being should not operate with a profit motive

Healthcare and news delivery service.

[hfojvt]

36. I was gonna say that Walter did NOT make the kind of money they make today

But then I researched. He was paid $1,000,000 a year for seven years even AFTER he retired from the nightly news. That's pretty good money in 1981. Diamond Dan was said to have gotten either $8 million for five years or $20 million for ten years. Darned good money, but not that much considering what Walter was making for not working (or for working sporadically).

Okay, again to my surprise, 1 million dollars in 1981 is only equivalent to $2.89 million today. I thought it would be more like 5 or 6.

[IronLionZion]

24. I doubt younger Americans ruined journalism

The trend of shifting from facts to opinions to entertainment to viral memes happened over a long time. Unfortunately now a lot of people get their news from an image posted online with some text on it, just like this OP. Sometimes originating from a Russian troll farm and spread through twitter bots.

What can be done to make news great again? #MNGA

Fake video is getting better and more believable, and then we're really going to have no idea what's real anymore when we can't trust our own eyes.

[Doremus]

47. It happened with the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine. And the

repeal of the laws regarding news market ownership.

There were no news monopolies then. There were strict laws governing market share. Now we have 3 or 4 giant media conglomerates that force feed their points of view 24/7. Much to our great harm as we see today.

[jayschool2013]

27. Read your news

Don't watch it, unless it's as a supplement or complement.

[underpants]

29. and follow the story

The first headline can sway even the press (Fox News was champions of this in their beginning) especially because it rarely includes the full equation. Follow stories.

[infullview]

30. And you can thank Republican Ronald Reagan for deregulating broadcast rules

[Mr. Frost]

70. Even if the FD gets reinstated

The damage is done. A FD return would only affect terrestrial radio and standard network television. We now live in a satellite/online/cable world as those are privately owned entities where FCC can't intervene.

[underpants]

31. We didn't watch him. We watched John Chancellor on NBC

and he did the same thing. Just read the news.

[Panich52]

32. Besides Uncle Walter, I also liked duo of Harry

Reasoner & Howard K Smith. After reporting the news unembellished, they would take turns on alternate evenings delivering an opinion piece. Fair & balanced for real.

[pink-o]

34. There was a movie called "network"

Won Oscars in 1977: this is the famous "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore" scene. But the real premise was all about how this TV Network is trying to bring their news department onto the same page as their entertainment dept. Meaning that the news, which up till that point was not on a ratings system, was now supposed to find a way to rope in an audience and keep them riveted. William Holden delivered some great lines about how that would ruin real news, but the whole underlying idea was that this could only be satire because it would NEVER happen IRL.

There was a lot of metaphorical winking and nudging and a great speech by Ned Beatty about how there was no America, only General Electric, General Motors and all the other corporations.

And we laughed. HaHa, isn't that precious, funny film, strictly in the realm of fiction.

[Ferrets are Cool]

35. And don't forget about Huntley and Brinkley

[FiveGoodMen]

38. Opening their show every night with the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 9th

It was a VERY different era!

[Blue Owl]

37. Today's mouthpieces could learn a thing or two from ol' Walt

n/t

[Moostache]

39. What was missing then was a fact-free opposition screaming about Cronkite every night and all day

There was no Right Wing Hate Radio covering the country coast-to-coast with 24 hour a day information-free distortion and outrage binges...

There was no Fox "News", blaring propaganda and "whataboutism" all day long...

There was actual real and genuine concern on the part of most politicians to NOT lie to the public and especially not on camera...

The "news" is still there, in places like BBC America and PBS and NPR - even some TV personalities like Maddow or Hayes do a good job of presenting facts and contextualizing them. The problem I have is that the constant interviewing of talking heads and paid consultants is what leaves the reports open to claims of "bias" even when they are factually true and just upsetting to some people...the news should be reported with the perspective/information/exposition of the experts as part of the report, not as part of a round table format that runs all day long on a loop.

News is not "fake", it's just lazy. Lazy formatting. Lazy follow-up questions. Lazy cross-examination of liars on camera and off.

CNN long ago gave up the "serious news" channel label in favor of joining the ratings rush that nearly everyone else runs. But make no mistake, this is NOT a "both sides are doing it" kind of false dichotomy. Just because the right wing yells louder and longer and more vitriolically does not mean that "everyone is the same". That kind of BS thinking and statements are part and parcel of why we currently have the least qualified and worst president in the history of the republic...

Giving up on the press because the right wing whining is louder than the protests of the journalists is depressing as fuck...

[FiveGoodMen]

44. "fact free"

Whoever claims to present the news and then lies should be executed for treason.

Yes, I know that won't happen.

And yes, I'm completely serious that it should happen.

[juxtaposed]

60. mchael savage expressed those same thoughts one day on his radio show

[hunter]

41. My dad came home from his union job to the house he owned...

... would pop open a beer, and watch Walter Cronkite.

It was CBS News in our house, both local and national.

I mostly remember their space program coverage, and the war, and the assassinations. I was obsessed with the space program.

Long retired, with a union pension, my dad is still a television news junkie, mostly MSNBC and CNN.

My wife and I don't watch any television at all. Our television plays DVDs and Netflix. That's all it does.

The written word is a much better medium for news than television. Television is much more appealing to the more primitive areas of our mind which are less capable of critical thinking.

[Cha]

42. To Walter Cronkite!

[Soxfan58]

50. And

Was the most trusted man in America.

[delisen]

51. We need Newsreaders not celebrities who wannabe stars.

I have to read and listen to the Guardian and the BBC and cobble together other sources to obtain something close to actual news. I can tell where my friends are getting their news from by the relative states of ignorance they live in.

Cronkite was ethical and cared about truth and about people "doing the right thing." He was not a manipulator.

The problem with the modern "news manipulators" is that is the corrosive effects they have on the minds of the listeners and viewers.

[mwooldri]

67. My sat radio in the car is often on BBC World Service.

The Google Home regularly plays BBC World Service.

I have never had to worry about a time going away where someone read the news and that's that. The UK has a national treasure in the BBC and the Beeb does the whole world a service. Yes, the BBC does analysis (they have two English language TV news channels to fill plus language services) but the fairness doctrine is essentially still in effect in the UK.

[LiberalLovinLug]

53. He'd be labeled a libtard, soclialist, terrorist loving, fake news guy working for the "deep state"

In this present day.

[bdamomma]

54. We always

listened to Walter during dinner times, you don't find men like this anymore.

[enid602]

57. Preachers

I don’t want to date myself, but I can remember a time when TV preachers were less political.

[crazycatlady]

62. It is not younger Americans who watch cable news 24/7

In fact a quick Google search tells me that the median age of a Fox News viewer is 66.

[Honeycombe8]

63. I remember him announcing that JFK was dead. Everyone loved Cronkite, as far as I know.

He was a standup guy.

But people wanted cable television. And tv that was on 24/7. Without commercials. And they were willing to pay for it. And thus began CNN. The rest is history.

We have the political entertainment talk shows because that's what people want. They want more information than a line or two. They want to hear analysis and breakdowns and connecting the dots, and what it all means. They want to know what it means for their political party, in particular.

So don't blame tv for giving the public what it wants.

I'm a cordcutter, so I don't have cable. I belong to a cordcutting group. Most of the people in that group are proud they have "cut the cord," but then they proceed to recreating by streaming, what they supposedly just left in cable. Baskets of services, many of which they don't want, for higher than on-demand costs. Well, that's cable, except you stream it, and it costs a little less. But not much. They still want their CNN, MSNBC, FOX, Hallmark, HGTV, etc.

As long as people want it, it will be provided.

[Hotler]

65. Remember the "You are There" series when we were kids?

[byronius]

66. It is a fact that Walter Cronkite became a Randi Rhodes fan, and suggested she replace him.

He listened to her show in his later years. And I can see why -- she's very facty. With the facts there.

I loved Walter Cronkite as a kid. I miss that part of America -- normal, civic-minded, rules-of-debate America. It was just a part -- but the most important part.

[scarytomcat]

68. I remember ... we have truly lost something

Amy Goodman is of the same mold DEMOCRACY NOW

[colsohlibgal]

74. This Is The Legacy Of Reagan

To be fair to Reagan by the time he went along with ditching the long standing Fairness Doctrine he likely was already suffering some mental decline. But the result of that action directly led to where we are now. Where we are is tens of millions of people voting for this narcissistic lying racist excuse for a human being.

Drumpf’s hard core supporters are a lost cause, basically they are totally Nazi like. It is the otherwise sane empathetic people who support him that hopefully continue to abandon this loser. He makes Nixon look good.

Along a different track none of this would be happening without the Electoral College. There is a move to dump it which we desperately need to do. No Electoral College no Dubya no Orange Evil Clown.

[X_Digger]

76. So it's a nice sentiment, but it has problems.

With a limited news cycle, journalists (and more importantly editors) had bias in what they chose to cover and what they conveniently ignored or played down. Or they could focus on one perspective in a debate- not choosing a side; that would be obvious, just- look over here, not there.

Having a family member who teaches the history of journalism is an interesting experience.

[llmart]

77. This is why I don't have cable or watch TV "news".

I'm like many on here - old enough to remember when Walter Cronkite was a fixture in our house around dinner time. But alas, those days are over and now everything is "breaking news". Our generation remembers when a national emergency was just that - a national emergency that was a call to all citizens to listen to what we were being told because a trustworthy person was relaying the facts to us.

This country has sunk so low now that I really have no expectations that it will ever be the country we once aspired to, at least not in my lifetime. Rampant capitalism is not always a good thing. Our news outlets should not be in the business of making profits.

[c-rational]

78. +1

[rlegro]

79. Cronkite's Vietnam visit...

...didn't result in an editorial, but rather an analysis, based on his eyewitness reporting. There was and remains a difference. Anyone can have an opinion. Informed opinion, or analysis of facts that form opinions, are much more valuable. If he was alive today, Cronkite might be saying that in the view of "this reporter," the continuing debate over climate change ignores plainly observable fact and study by scientists and now even average people.

That said, the main premise of this post remains true. Cronkite wasn't perfect but he was fair-minded and as objective as possible. Maybe because he started out his journalism career as a newspaper reporter witnessing, among other things, the front lines of WWII. That experience was commonplace among CBS News correspondents from the same era. Edward R. Murrow and others reported from the front lines. Their observational skills were honed in ways that many of the later era's "embedded reporters" somehow evaded in being shown, for example, selected portions of the Iraq battlefield by Defense Department hand-holders.