The Real Walter Cronkite

After the eulogies, the fact remains that “the most trusted man in America” betrayed that trust. He helped snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Vietnam and tried hard to do the same in Iraq. — IBD Editorial

Even as a kid, I couldn’t stand Walter Cronkite. I guess it was his overbearing self-importance, and the tagline that fit his personality perfectly: “That’s the way it is.” The most pompous tagline of all time. Though it obviously has tremendous appeal for intellectual sloths and plain idiots, pomposity is a red flag for any thinking person. It clearly is intended to stifle dissent and almost invariably means that the person displaying it is not all he should be, and is up to no good. Think Carl Sagan, Phil Donahue, and NPR’s Bob Edwards — all prize boobs, beloved by lesser boobs. Think Al Gore.

Like Edward R. Murrow before him, Walter Cronkite was a smug socialist sympathizer posing as an objective journalist. In a world that had not gone mad, he’d have been booted off the tube early in his career, or later tried for treason. What a salutary effect his public execution would have had on all the other subversives in America, masquerading as journalists, educators, artists, and political leaders! That’s the way it should have been.