Thursday, July 23, 2009

Remembering Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite was, and always will be, one of my heroes. He was, for me, the voice of reason in the midst of chaos. No drama or hysteria -- just the news delivered with clarity, integrity, and fairness. His passing marks the end of an era -- an era when 'journalist' was a respectable and honorable term. With rare exceptions, we're left with Talking Heads who seem hell bent on converting us to whatever side they espouse. Walter never would have lowered himself to the shoddy standards of today. That some are saying with his passing that Rush Limbaugh is "the most trusted name in media" and that my friends is a huge insult to Cronkite's memory.

As with all my heroes, I have a collection of favorite quotes by him and I'm sharing them with y'all as a tribute to a truly fine man who touched our lives for many decades.

* America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.

* 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.

* In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story.

* There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free.

* Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.

* We are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders.

* The great sadness of my life is that I never achieved the hour newscast, which would not have been twice as good as the half-hour newscast, but many times as good.

* I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything he's got,

*I want to say that probably 24 hours after I told CBS that I was stepping down at my 65th birthday, I was already regretting it. And I regretted it every day since.

Thank you, Walter!!!! You will be missed greatly!

And that's the way it is . . .

Happy (albeit mournful) Blogging!!!!!!!!!

Kay

10 comments:

  1. WaiMei99Those are some good quotes in this tribute to a rare and amazing journalist.

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  2. I agree. We don't really have news reporters anymore. They read the 'news' which is given a corporate approved slant or they play the he said/she said game giving equal weight to very disparate arguments in the name fairness or they present conjecture or prejudice as fact or they treat gossip as though it were real news. I really do miss Cronkite and his cohort!!

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing his words and wisdom. He will be greatly missed. A giant among men.

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  4. I never missed him in the evenings.

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  5. I loved Walter Cronkite. I miss him every time I hear these dingbats report the news like wannabe movie stars. He was a no-nonsense, non-dramatic, honest and respectable man.

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  6. Walter was a one of a kind. Today's media frenzy drives me bonkers, and the mention of Rush Limbaugh makes me crazy! What a bozo...an unbelievably overpaid buffoon.

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  7. Kay,
    You've blogged a nice tribute to Mr. Cronkite. I met him once. We talked about sail boats. It was like talking to an old friend. Cordial. Interesting. And a nice memory for me.

    He was, in my opinion, reasonably unbiased when reporting the news. After he retired I discovered that he was, in his personal views, a bit to the left of center.

    It's not entirely fair to compare him to Rush Limbaugh who loudly (and obnoxiously) proclaims his far to the right politics. Limbaugh clearly is an opinion commentator. Walter reported the news - and he did it well.

    Dixon

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  8. Thanks for these quotes. I'll never forget watching him wipe away tears during the '68 Democratic convention. He had a great influence for good.

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  9. Rush Limbaugh a journalist????

    He was once called on an inaccuracy and his defense was that he was an entertainer [and, presumably therefore, didn't have to be accurate].

    Sigh...Mr. Cronkite is gone just when we need him most.

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  10. I will never forget him either, Kay. I remember him coming on to tell us about JFK.

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