The Talking Dog

July 18, 2009, And that's the way it is

Longtime CBS news anchor, "most trusted man in America" and former TD East 50's neighbor Walter Cronkite passed away at 92. Cronkite himself was unabashedly liberal, but as a newscaster (and news selector), his concern wasn't about "objectivity" (though his was rarely questioned... see above re "most trusted man in America"), so much as getting the story... and getting the story right.

I don't know what Cronkite actually thought of what passes for "journalism" these days, such as the talking-head partisan shouters, or the vapid babbling of conventional wisdom, or of course, the printing of "both sides" press releases to show "balance"... as if "balance" were somehow more important than "truth" and "accuracy"... but I'd like to think he was appalled by it.

Cronkite is a throwback to a different era of journalism: when the broadcast media had the same ethos as the hardboiled city desk editors and reporters in our rapidly disappearing newspaper industry... and again, it was about the story, and not simply getting invited to the best parties and "access"...

R.I.P. Mr. Cronkite.