Walter Cronkite began the descent of jounalism into liberal bias.

@debrakcarey (19887)
United States
August 16, 2009 8:35pm CST
Walter Cronkite: Quintessential Liberal-Progressive Mr. Cronkite, the influential and well-liked anchorman of “CBS Evening News” from 1962 to 1981, died at age 92. Thomas E. Brewton However nice a person he may have been, Walter Cronkite was, more importantly, a model voice for liberal-progressives’ brand of socialism. His lack of understanding about the nature of the Constitution and about the founding ethos of the United States allowed him to warp the minds of millions of Americans with the historicism that characterizes liberal-progressivism. In a syndicated opinion column dated August 10, 2003, Siding with the powerless: Ideas from 60 years in journalism, Mr. Cronkite wrote: We journalists reached our intellectual adulthood with daily close-ups of the inequality in a nation that was founded on the commitment to equality for all. So we are inclined to side with the powerless rather than the powerful. If that is what makes us liberals so be it, just as long as we adhere to the first ideals of good journalism. This is blatant misrepresentation. Neither Mr. Cronkite, nor anyone, can present a single fact to support the contention that ours was a nation that was founded on the commitment to equality for all. It’s true that the colonists carried on the English tradition that everyone is equal under the law, that ours was to be a government of laws, not men. But the equality that Mr. Cronkite and his liberal-progressive confreres took for granted is the opposite: an economic equality compelled by government tyranny. Mr. Cronkite’s assertion can be chalked up either to ignorance of the circumstances leading to the War of Independence, or to intentional manipulation of public opinion. Neither is a worthy thing. Anyone consulting the most influential documents leading up to the Declaration of Independence, such as the letters of Samuel Adams to members of the committees of correspondence in all the other colonies, will see that the rights of private property were the most important single unifying element among the colonial representatives at the Continental Congress. At the initial meeting of the Continental Congress, Adams was the most famous man present, because he had set the tone for the whole debate. You will find that Samuel Adams repeatedly cited John Locke’s Second Treatise of Civil Government, in which the justification for ousting James II was the natural law doctrine that citizens had brought into political society inalienable rights to life, liberty, and private property. Of these, noted Locke, by far the most important was the right to protection of property against the arbitrary seizure or taxation by the crown. Locke contended that James II, by infringing property rights via confiscation and imprisonment, had broken the social compact and forfeited his right to rule. Samuel Adams, in several letters, quotes Locke extensively with regard to property rights and says that those views are precisely the case for the colonists against George III and Parliament. This is also a key element in the case stated by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. Our whole justification for breaking with England was preservation of natural law rights. That is the reason for the Declaration’s reference to the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God. Mr. Cronkite doubtless believed that his liberal-progressivism really helps the less fortunate. But even Mr. Cronkite must have tumbled to the unmitigated disaster resulting from LBJ’s Great Society and Jimmy Carter’s double-digit inflation that wiped out more than half the value of people’s life savings. What Mr. Cronkite and his fellow mainstream media liberal-progressive-socialists advocated is no less than the doctrine underlying Lenin’s Soviet Union, Mussolini’s Italy, and Hitler’s National Socialist Germany. I don't know about you but when a nation's press had been taken over by one ideology with an agressive agenda...you have begun a slide into tyranny. When the nation's press/media lies, distorts and only presents one point of view, or a single party's agenda....the people can no longer make informed discisions on who is fit to lead. This has come about how? MONEY means POWER. Our news sources are all owned, with very few exceptions...by an elite few with billions at their disposal. And the few independent news sources are ridiculed as 'fringe elements' and thus disarmed as a reliable or credible source of information. We live in such times. I grew up listening to Walter Kronkite....I will say he was a household fixture for many.
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3 responses
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
17 Aug 09
I completely agree that Cronkite was not the unbiased journalist that the media likes to make out he was. To his credit, he did suppress his liberal leanings much more than news anchors of today, but in his day the open discussion of one's personal opinions was not encouraged in newsreaders. People will continue to ignore Obama's references through the years regarding the redistribution of wealth and refuse to acknowledge what he couldn't have made more clear - he is a socialist.
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@debrakcarey (19887)
• United States
17 Aug 09
That was and is the plan....if Cronkite had come right out in plain words with what he believe the public THEN would have not accepted it. Now....we're so conditioned by the propaganda...it doesn't seem strange to us at all. Kinda like when you indulge in violent video games...you get desensitized to the violence....liberal mind set seems normal to us now. In the sixties it was edgey and not very well accepted by the common folk.
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@Destiny007 (5805)
• United States
17 Aug 09
I grew up listening to him as well. Now I know that he did a lot to cause us to lose Vietnam, which we had won. His lies are responsible for a lot of deaths at the hands of his Communist friends.
@debrakcarey (19887)
• United States
17 Aug 09
I grew up in a home that was influenced by my Austrian Jewish step grandfather's views.....he hated socialism and understood it first hand....he was here in the states when Austria was invaded by Hitler...he went back after the war and couldn't find any of his family. He hated communism because that is what was used against his people....their involvement with the communists. I was privledged to have this influence...and I was an odd ball amongst my peers. I supported the troops in Viet Nam....and demonstrated for those who were being called baby killers. I knew from early on...governments start wars...and soldiers only do as they are told.
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• United States
17 Aug 09
Well I dont see kronkite as an unbiased reporter....Im sure he was biased and I feel he was open about the fact that he was telling the news from his point of view....but i was really young when he was on the news every night in the 60s and i never paid a lot of attention to him...besides I believe no matter who you are you are biased...everyone has opinions and every news anchor or media personality tells their stories from their perspective....each of us choses whom to watch by where our ideals stand. Anyway this article isnt really as much about Kronkite as it is about the constitution and the way the media is handled...or mishandeled in this country... I understand what he is saying about the constitution but like any document that was ever written by man it is open to interpretation.....only those there at the time know exactly what is meant by each sentence or each word....so this guy may be right about what they mean by every man created equally and then again the "liberals" may also be right in the way that they interpret it... As well each president we have has their own thoughts and values....of course their personal feelings on issues come into play when they are making decisions....there is no way to make decisions without using what you know about life.....we as a country vote for a new president every 4 years...every election some folks are mad and some are happy but either way we always make it throught o the next election where we will try again....but once in office we have to trust our president to do the right things for our country....no matter what the president does there will be some for and some opposed to every decision...it cant be avoided.... One thing is for sure America is and will continue to be the greatest country! As long as we stay united! When people start talking about civil wars and the like again that is when America will be no more... We nwwd to stick together and have faith that Obama will do a good job and if you dont like him then vote again in 4 years.... I dont believe that we are headed toward socialism as so many say we are...i just dont think so..... as for the media yep it is all owned by someone and so that is whos point of view you get but you can always change the chanel til you find one you agree with....thats not so in some countries! You are never going to find anyone that is 100% unbiased....except maybe a robot....but of course they only say what they are programmed to say and so will still be biased by whomever programmed it...lol
@debrakcarey (19887)
• United States
17 Aug 09
Pixel...you know I love you...so I will disagree kindly and say only that I hope you are right. The facts that I see....point towards more than JUST socialism. I do agree Walter Kronkite was not a rabid liberal...he truly cared about a 'kind, good America.' He thought the Democrats had the answer. What is happening NOW...is not happening at the hands of men & women who have America's best interests at heart....it is taking place because we, the people have been apathetic about our government. Something that I think has been orchastrated, and fed by the media. Once you have a people who do not value what they have, it's easier to take it from them. Those in charge now do not want the same great America you and I want...they want POWER and they want us to pay for it. WE don't have to trust anyone...I do not choose to allow this travesty of a President...to continue to lie, cheat and steal unopposed. If a White Republican did and said what he has done and said just in the first 100 days in office...the press, the people and the whole of Congress and Courts would be all over him. I DON'T TRUST HIM. And I encourage you to read more in depth...from sources who don't trust him either. It's time to take off the rose colored glasses...and I say this with the utmost respect. We have been duped...it's time to realize that it is not business as usual in America.
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