What Walter Said . . .

[Dinger]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/18/opinion/main5172303.shtml

From CBS, of all places,


"Why Cronkite Fretted About Media's Future


Walter Cronkite never stopped being a journalist.

The former CBS anchorman cared not just about the next story but about the future of reporting in a country where was known for the better part of a half century as "the most trusted name in news."

So it should come as little surprise that what worried Cronkite in the last years of his life was the collapse of journalistic quality and responsibility that came with the increasing dominance of newsgathering by a handful of media corporations.

"I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that," Cronkite told me the last time we spoke about media issues. . . "



Makes me wonder what CBS will say when Dan Rather passes on.





Walter said The Iraq War Was A "Disaster":

http://cbs5.com/local/walter.cronkite.iraq.2.452801.html *Video and article:

"Cronkite In CBS 5 Interview: Iraq War A 'Disaster'

SAN JOSE (CBS 5) ― It was in 1968, when CBS Anchorman Walter Cronkite did a tour of Vietnam, and came back highly critical of that war.

His pronouncement that the Vietnam War was unwinnable led to such a shift in public opinion against the war that President Lyndon Johnson said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost America."

The 90-year-old Cronkite was in San Jose on Friday addressing the Commonwealth Club. In an exclusive interview with CBS 5, he weighed in on the situation in Iraq.

"We should have gotten out a long time ago. This is a mistake, this entire war there, it's a disaster. And the earlier we get out the better," Cronkite said. "It's a terrible disaster. Look at the loss of lives of our young Americans there and those who have been maimed for life, for what purpose? No purpose we can define."