There was a day when Walter Cronkite was the master journalist of all of American television news. We knew the serious side of him; the one that told us of John F. Kennedy’s semi-remarkable electoral victory in 1960, the one who carried us through the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo journeys with a tinge of excitement, and the one who told us all it was okay to cry when John F. Kennedy was slain in Dallas.

We didn’t know much about Walter Cronkite beyond what we saw on television or previously heard as a World War II correspondent for CBS Radio. There were references to him having been born in Western Missouri, not far from another plain-spoken man, Harry Truman. We knew that as he rose to the position of managing editor and anchor of CBS News, he became wealthier and loved to sail off the coasts of Massachusetts.

Cronkite lived in an era when the media did not ask President Kennedy about his dalliances. The probing that the media did into other public figures was tame as was the inquiry that looked into the lives of journalists. But that changed. Political figures were disrobed, most poignantly on June 13, 2011 when CNN political correspondent John King came just short of asking Republican candidates in a debate whether they wore boxers or briefs.

Twenty-three years earlier, in 1988, many in the press stalked Democratic Candidate Gary Hart about his supposed relationship with Donna Rice. Some of the photos were quite revealing. But through it all, mainstream journalists worked to protect their own integrity. A reporter for NBC, CBS, ABC, or CNN did not want to be confused with one for the National Enquirer.

In 1980, CNN took on the arduous task of providing real news around the clock. This was a most difficult task; news did not seem to move fast enough to fill each hour in a 24-hour loop. However, CNN adapted and replayed many of their earlier stories throughout the day. They also broadened their scope beyond “hard news” to the three big money-makers: weather, sports, and entertainment.

As peripheral news crept more and more into what the network projected as “real news,” the network was able to maintain the credibility of some of their top anchors and reporters including Bernard Shaw, Don Harrison, Christiane Amanpour and Nick Robertson. As time went on, CNN indulged in the production decision that somewhat doomed NBC’s Brian Williams.They sent their anchors to the scenes of so-called “breaking news.” In some cases it worked well; Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta were outstanding reporting from Gulf Coast in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina and later in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

But more recently CNN began to slide. Anchor/reporter Don Lemon was reporting from the streets of Manhattan on that January night in early 2015 when the Armageddon of all blizzards was to hit the east coast. If you were in Boston, indeed you got hit with such a storm. But in New York, the fury was mainly in the hype; not the snow and wind. All the same, Don Lemon and his crew were driving on the streets of Manhattan in their “Blizzardmobile” even though the city had banned all traffic that was not essential. Lemon wasn’t quite sure what to report; was it really a blizzard or was it a false alarm? He couldn’t make up his mind and neither could his producers. But the reporting reached a new form of absurdity when the Blizzardmobile stopped in the middle of the road; Lemon got out, all the while reporting live, thanks to the dash-cam and wireless mike, and tried to show us how the fallout on the street was good for making solid snowballs. Unfortunately for him, he could not find any good snow in the ice and water, and instead he tried to make a slushball, which simply dripped between his fingers.

If Don Lemon was chagrined, he did a good job of hiding it. However, it was clear that he had taken a hit, not from a snowball but in the form of lost respect from many in his viewing public. Lemon is game, and he has done an admirable job going back to news.

But then, CNN had a not so brilliant idea that truly sandbagged six of its anchors. On President’s Day, they wanted to have the anchors be contestants in a daytime-like game show, answering questions about U.S. presidents. Actually, the questions and answers were quite reasonable, but in order to entertain the audience, the anchors had to do just that, entertain.

Thus we saw John Burnham, Erin Burnett, Alisyn Camerota, Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, and Jake Tapper acting t like hyperactive teenagers as they battled one another for points to give a pittance of money to their favorite charities. I don’t particularly blame the anchors for their behavior; they were put up to it by management. This event was an equal opportunity misfortune.The anchors lost credibility and so did the CNN brand.

Comedian Jon Stewart has led a host of progressives to make fun of CNN. For the most part, I think that it’s fair. But with Fox being a simple propaganda machine for the right. and MSNBC allowing it arrogance to distort any real message that it may be trying to convey, CNN has the mainstream to itself. Yes, it has the problems associated with corporate ownership and providing poll-driven news, but it still is in a position to do a real public service for citizens around the world.CNN seems to be weakening its brand at the moment. It’s not too late to come back from the movement towards absurdity, but CNN had  better reverse its direction in a hurry.

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I grew up to be a liberal; my views, which were largely based on empathy, were formed well before I graduated from high school. I didn’t need Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Brien, or Ed Schultz telling me what to believe or mocking conservatives. I just needed a solid delivery system to receive news – news that included stories on the plight of those inside the U.S. and overseas who were suffering.

As a teenager, almost every evening upon getting home from a day of generally irrelevant learning at school, I got my primary education in 30 minutes (minus commercials) in the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Cronkite, who was his own managing editor, delivered it as it was, blemishes and all. We saw Birmingham’s fire hoses trained on African-Americans who were exercising their right to free speech and assembly. We saw the poverty of Appalachia. We saw the escalation of America’s involvement in Vietnam. And with the senseless slaying of President Kennedy, we learned that whatever questionable reason there might have been for most gun ownership, it paled in comparison “all necessary steps” to minimize the likelihood of anyone who owning a gun unless they had a compelling reason.

CBS Evening News was my first electronic teacher because of the credibility and authenticity of Walter Cronkite. There are those who think that news anchors are just glorified news readers. That may be true of many, perhaps most, but there are some who seem to relay the day’s events with a combination of gravitas and humanity. When it came to space exploration, Cronkite added enthusiasm to the mixture.

Walter Cronkite delivers news on April 4, 1968, shortly before Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Without offering any disparaging remarks about other anchors, since Walter Cronkite retired in 1981, I think that you can count on one or two hands the number of anchors who presented an objective, sensitive and authentic manner. In its early days, CNN had a few, most particularly Bernard Shaw. CBS currently has three journalists in particular who carry credibility somewhat reminiscent of Cronkite.

First is Bob Schieffer, a veteran who tells a remarkable story of how he covered the John Kennedy assassination and who in recent years has on and off been allowed to sit in the anchor’s chair, always with good ratings. Second is Russ Mitchell, who is a weekend anchor and whose demeanor is a refreshing contrast to the sports hype that general precedes his broadcasts. Third is the current occupant of the Evening News, Scott Pelley, who assumed his position in June, 2011. If someone is a news junkie, he or she can get non-hyped and meaningful news seven nights a week on CBS. On weekdays it’s with Scott Pelley, and on weekends with Russ Mitchell.

Scott Pelley has jettisoned the bad puns of his predecessor as well as most of the fluff stories. As I was watching the broadcast on Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, I was struck with the continuity between the news that we received from Walter Cronkite forty years ago and what Scott Pelley was delivering that evening. In each case, important and engaging information was presented in a calm and thoughtful manner. Here is the “storyboard” for the broadcast:

1. The revolution aimed at Syria’s Bashar al-Assad including risky secret interviews by reporter Clarissa Ward.

2. Downed drone in Iran

3. European Debt Crisis – banks downgraded

4. U.S. spending on “Cyber Monday” up 15% from 2010

5. Cutbacks in the Postal Office – report from Burr Hill, VA

6. Director of Federal Aviation Administration placed on leave for DUI arrest

7. Des Moines Register poll puts Newt Gingrich in lead for Iowa Caucus

8. Woman in Afghanistan has been jailed for two years for not marrying her rapist

9. Results from parliamentary elections in Russia

10. NASA reports possible “sister planet” to Earth 600 light years away

11. Fourteen car wreck of exotic cars in Japan [could be considered frivolous]

12. Bringing together amputees from Haiti’s earthquake with others from recent U.S. military engagement in a unique soccer game.

Reporters: Clarissa Ward, Bob Orr, Nancy Cordes, Mandy Clark, Byron Pitts

(twenty-one minutes with condensed commercials)

Even though I like Rachel Maddow and most of the rest of the MSNBC crew, I didn’t need any of them telling me how to feel. The violence in Syria was only matched by the bravery of Clarissa Ward in covering it. The downed drone in Iran illustrated how risky international relations are. Cutbacks in the Postal Service illustrated what’s happening to our domestic work force, particularly those in the public sector. The plight of the woman in Afghanistan reminded us of how easily human rights can be abrogated and what a challenge it is to protect them. And Byron Pitts’ story on the amputees from Haiti and the ranks of wounded American soldiers showed the power of hope and inspiration when combined with creative planning and design.

More and more of us seek our news on the internet. With the wide variety of choices and the presence of excellent journalists in various news outlets including blogs, we can generally find whatever we need.

However, at 5:30 PM [Central], the image of millions of Americans sitting at a computer and literally going in millions of directions is quite different from the era of Walter Cronkite when we had only three choices for electronic news. There was something unifying by the shared experiences we had when many of us ritualistically watched the news each evening. Walter Cronkite didn’t have to tell us; we knew he was ashamed to live in a country in which fire hoses flattened people exercising First Amendment rights. We shared the fear of the Cuban missile crisis and wept with joy when John Glenn finally reached orbit speed.

We can’t fully turn back the clock. Television news has its high points and its low points. Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minnow once called American TV “a great wasteland.” It would be hard to argue with him. But even with imperfections, it’s hard to find a better way to get an overview of what is happening in our nation and the world than watching Scott Pelley. He’s only 54; if CBS doesn’t mess up we have many more years to learn from him. We won’t go back to the unity of the moment that we formerly had. However, high quality has been preserved, or perhaps more accurately restored. Scott Pelley’s ratings are rising; I hope they continue to do so because we’ll have a better informed and likely more compassionate country if they do.

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On February 27, 1968, Walter Cronkite, while anchoring the CBS Evening News, diplomatically and emphatically said “We are mired in a stalemate.” He was talking about Vietnam.

The Vietcong and North Vietnamese had launched a full-fledged attack, known as the Tet offensive, on American and South Vietnamese forces. While the inaccurate casualty numbers may have favored the U.S., Tet was a morale breaker and demonstrated that the U.S. had little or no chance of accomplishing its stated goals in Vietnam.

Cronkite reported from Vietnam on the aftermath of the Tet offensive. On February 27 he wrapped up his broadcast by first stating:

Tonight, back in more familiar surroundings in New York, we’d like to sum up our findings in Vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective.

He ended by saying:

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.

This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.

President Lyndon Johnson accurately said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”

Presently Barack Obama seems to be losing much of Middle America because of his unsteady piloting of the economy and his own stalemate in Afghanistan. Is there a Walter Cronkite-type figure to provide the credibility that we need to hear that President Obama is not succeeding and that conservative Republicans will do anything to ensure his failure?

We have a president who, however well-intentioned, seems to be negotiation impaired. We have a so-called Tea Party that has so much disdain for government that its members are willing to do serious damage to their own personal finances in order to try to prove a false point about how government is the problem.

The word most associated with Cronkite was venerable. The one current journalist who is currently seen as venerable is Cronkite’s old colleague, Bob Schieffer. He occasionally anchors the “CBS Evening News,” and each Sunday morning he hosts “Face the Nation.”

Schieffer has come close to being straight about both Obama and the Tea Party. However, in an effort to be bi-partisan, he does not point out that while Obama’ tactics may be naïve, the Tea Party’s positions are almost delusional.

If not Schieffer, then perhaps a Jim Lehrer or Judy Woodruff. Whoever might step forward now would have a much greater challenge than Cronkite. Cable TV did not exist when Cronkite spoke and he sat in the anchor chair for one of only three networks. His audience was much larger than that of any current anchor.

All the same, we need a voice of sanity. Last October Jon Stewart was on to something when he sponsored a march on Washington for sanity. Unfortunately his immaturity, which is often the source of his charm and humor, kept him from giving the march the focus it needed. The point had to be clearly made that right wing politics are at the center of what keeps us from pursuing sane policies. Nice try, Jon, but we need someone else with more gravitas.

All of this is easy for me to say and difficult for the few Americans with legitimate credibility to do. I’m just hoping.

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Recently, it’s become a sport to poke fun at Larry King.  A talk show host who has interviewed more than 40,000 people on radio and television, he is certainly aware of the pitfalls that confront people of fame.  He has offered more than his share of advice about how to avoid embarrassing moments and presumably learned from them what works and what doesn’t.

I’m far less concerned about King’s personal life than I am about his professional work.  He personifies all but a few on-camera news people in today’s market.  He has the ability to be a serious journalist when real news breaks.  But his credibility is drastically undermined because one evening he’s talking with widows from 9-11 and the next evening he’s digging from the grave the death of Anna Nicole Smith.

In the second half of the 20^th Century, Walter Cronkite was considered “the most trusted man in America.”  He was a remarkable journalist who combined an authoritative presence with a sharp pen for editing both his own and other reporters’ work.  He was the first to tell us the most grim news, “From Dallas, Texas, a flash, apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1:00 PM, Central Standard Time; 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, some thirty-eight minutes ago.”

He also brought us joy and cheer:

“Man on the moon ….Whew boy (laughs) … There he is, there’s a foot coming down the steps. … So there’s a foot on the moon, stepping down on the moon. If he’s testing that first step, he must be stepping down on the moon at this point. … Well, look at those pictures.”

Was he all gravitas?  Almost, and always in front of the camera.  In his autobiography, he acknowledges that he was wowed by mingling with at least one member of the rich and famous, Frank Sinatra.  But Sinatra’s crooning was not to be confused with serious journalism, and Walter Cronkite knew it.  He never cheapened the news; even having the fortitude and persuasiveness to prevent CBS from forcing him to pander to the audience as it had made Edward R. Murrow do.

And what about our news anchors now?   NBC News’  Brian Williams can be serious one moment and then play the role of “Big Head” on Jon Stewart.  When he’s a guest on The Daily Show, Williams and Stewart talk about their home state of New Jersey as if they were in Tony Soprano’s Bada Bing Club.  On CBS, Katie Couric has turned the evening news into a mastery of bad puns.  On ABC, Diane Sawyer’s efforts to be earnest lack credibility both because of all the light-weight gotcha interviews she has done as well as the fact that before going into broadcasting she carried a broom behind Richard Nixon to try to clean up the messes.

I asked a physician who has been to Haiti three times since the January 12 earthquake how Anderson Cooper could report for two weeks from the scene of the devastation and then return to the CNN studio and revert into his special kind of flirtatiousness with newsreaders hired to trivialize the news.  The physician found it incredible that anyone could experience the horror of reporting from a land where nearly a quarter of a million people had died and then “go frivolous on us.”  Perhaps it’s testimony to Anderson Cooper’s fortitude; he’s a good company man and does what CNN asks of him.  Or perhaps he, like so many others, has cheapened his reputation and diminished his accomplishments by “just saying yes.” Cooper and others might learn a lesson from Bob Costas, who refused to be a substitute anchor for Larry King one evening, because the topic was going to be an over-sensationalized California murder.

The landscape is not without hope.  PBS continues to provide us with the experience of Jim Lehrer or Judy Woodruff and bring in fresh talent committed to enlightening audiences.  There are no cute little teasers on the NewsHour, only the sixty-second annoyance of the roll of sponsors.

As always, the American public plays a decisive role in what it receives.  Fox “News” has higher ratings than any other cable “news” outlet, while CNN, which has tried to be reasonably objective, has seen its rating plummet over the past six months.  CNN has serious journalists such as Fareed Zakaria, Christine Amanpour and John King, but serious interpretation of complicated issues is apparently not what enough Americans want.

An article previously  posted in the Occasional Planet asked citizens in public places where “Fox News” is on the television, to ask management to change the channel to CNN or MSNBC.  It has been done; it can be done.  As citizens, we play a role in what news is presented, how it is presented, and who presents it.  It’s another form of voting, and just as important.  WWWD (What Would Walter Do?)

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