Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite [November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009],

He was the first TV News Anchorman for CBS and led them to the #1 rating over NBC in the early 1960's. But the joke among some young people, by the 1970's, went like this:

Walter Cronkite told me that if I voted with the GOP my vote would destroy social security, result in race riots on the streets of America, and involve the USA in a massive war in Asia.

I should have listened to Uncle Walter...I voted GOP and sure enough Lyndon Johnson did all of those things.

Those who have taken the time to read Walter Cronkite's written words since he was replaced at CBS now realize that he was indeed just a talking head [empty?] reading lines written by anonymous others.

Cronkite began his career as a disc jockey on WKY radio after being forced to withdraw from The University of Texas after four semesters of study. He traveled to several other AM radio stations as a sports reporter. He finally became a TV reporter in Washington, DC with WTOP in 1950 and because of his booming, officious voice and College Professor like looks was able to work his way up the TV glamour ladder.

But in later years he revealed that he had little insight into the events which swirled around him. He obviously supported Lyndon Johnson for President in 1964 and had no problem with Johnson's lies about Vietnam or other subjects. But Johnson lost Cronkite's support when he announced in 1968 that, unlike Harry Truman in 1952, he would seek a second full term. Evidently Cronkite felt as though Johnson had broken a deal in which Johnson would be a caretaker President until Robert Kennedy was ready to run for the office.

Cronkite then staged a mock visit to Vietnam during which he expressed shock at the lies he had been reporting all the years he supported Johnson. Cronkite blamed Johnson. But because Cronkite was seen by millions every night he assumed that he understood the American people. He never guessed that by derailing Johnson he had set the stage for a man he truly hated, Richard Nixon.

In later years Cronkite noted that the smartest man he ever met was Jimmy Carter. He noted that communism was a good system and he upraided John Kerry for not being Liberal enough. The saddest thing is that because he performed in front of millions he thought he knew the heart and soul of the American people. In reality we knew him but he never knew us.