Posted by
Mike Bates on Sunday, July 19, 2009 5:14:01 PM
Just as the media – with the exception of Larry King – were finally
getting over the passing of Michael Jackson came the news that former
CBS newsman Walter Cronkite died. Cronkite was an iconic figure
amongst his brethren and media encomia were suitably lavish.
Cronkite was recognized, we’ve been told over and over again, as the most trusted man in America. According to USA Today:
“How did he become ‘the most trusted man in America?’ It was a
Roper survey for U.S. News & World Report, Cronkite once said, and
he won ‘because they didn’t poll my wife.’”
Ever the skeptic, I tried to find that poll. The Roper Center’s
Web site includes a link to data gathered for a 1974 “Virginia Slims
American Women’s Opinion Poll.” Cronkite did indeed do better than any
other male in that sampling. But note how the question was worded:
“And now here is a list of prominent men. (HAND RESPONDENT CARD)
For each man on the list, tell me if you respect him a great deal,
somewhat, or not at all.”
Cronkite’s name was on the list. So were those of 16 other men,
including Marlon Brando, Ralph Nader, Jesse Jackson, Joe Namath and
Frank Sinatra. Yet another contender was Richard Nixon, who that year
became the only president to resign.
Respondents were limited to the names provided. The question
didn’t center on trust, but on respect. A year earlier, a Sindlinger
and Company survey asked a couple of thousand people to rate network
newsmen for “trust and accuracy.” NBC’s John Chancellor narrowly edged
out Cronkite in that poll. What I find interesting is winner
Chancellor scored only 55.8 percent for trust and accuracy, suggesting
that even back then a good number of people questioned what they were
being told by the media.
And with good reason. USA Today’s article noted:
“Cronkite’s influence was such that after he ended a 1968 broadcast
following a trip to South Vietnam during the Tet Offensive telling
viewers that the war could not be won, President Lyndon Johnson
reportedly told his aides, ‘If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle
America.’”
Mona Charen set the record straight in her book “Useful Idiots: How
Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First:”
“Johnson misread the situation. Cronkite did not speak for middle
America, but instead for the liberal intelligentsia and for a growing
segment of the Democratic Party.”
Charen also quotes Cronkite on what he saw as an overreaction to
Soviet threats: “Fear of the Soviet Union taking over the world just
seemed as likely to me as invaders from Mars.” That’s a remarkable
statement from a newsman who had personally witnessed another form of
totalitarianism attempt world domination.
The media Cronkite love fest is understandable to a degree. They
are honoring their own and, in so doing, honoring themselves. But is
it warranted?
In his 1984 “The Liberal Crack Up,” R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr. reflected
on “the weird reverence” accorded Uncle Walter, as he’s now called on
CNN:
“Here was a man who in all his public years never passed on more
than a hint of intellectual substance. He just sat there in front of
that infernal microphone! Yet he was esteemed as an authority on world
politics and a moral paragon. He left no substantial books, no essays,
no memorable epigrams. . . He dwelt in the land of bromides and
wholesome attitudes. He was amiable, but he was unexceptional too.”
Walter Cronkite’s death is sad in the same way most deaths are.
But let’s keep a little perspective here. He simply read the news,
usually as written by other people. He came across as warm and
friendly and didn’t blatantly parade his liberalism until after his
retirement.
But was he “most trusted man in America”? Not likely.