The passing of legendary anchorman Walter Cronkite last weekend at the age of 92 has brought a wealth of commentary about his six-decade career in journalism and a lot of reflection about the man once referred to as the “most trusted man in America.” He reported on some of the most important events of the post-war era — the assassinations of iconic leaders, the highlights of America’s space program and the Vietnam War.
Indeed, it was his comments on the Tet Offensive in 1968 that most glaringly deviated from the calm objective manner that made him a mainstay of American news programming. Having returned from Vietnam, revolted by the carnage after reporting on the battle of Hue, Cronkite boldly told the American public that Vietnam was a “stalemate” that was no longer winnable. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Despite Cronkite’s lofty oratory, Tet was an unequivocal failure for North Vietnam. The Americans and the South Vietnamese beat back the multi-pronged invasion on every front and inflicted losses that amounted to almost the entire North Vietnamese invasion force. Yet, the public believed Cronkite. He certainly believed himself. He would say years later that his assessment helped speed the end of the war, even though America’s military involvement would continue for five more years, ending only when Congress refused to fund the defense of South Vietnam, eventually allowing it to fall to the Communists in 1975.
Cronkite essentially used his power with the public to inject his own views on the situation, and in turn he altered the course of public opinion, which was not as sour on America’s involvement in Vietnam as the rioting college students would have us believe. In his later years at CBS and into his retirement, Cronkite would let slip his true liberal views about America. “We have to find some marvelous middle ground between capitalism and communism,” he said in 1996. And like fellow traveler Sen. Harry Reid, Cronkite refused to believe that victory in Iraq was possible, even while it was happening. In 2007, he said, “[V]ictory no longer seems to be a remote possibility.”
The real legacy Cronkite leaves behind in American journalism is not likely to be discussed or even admitted to by his acolytes. It is the legacy of a journalist who abandoned his obligation to report the facts and instead injected himself and his opinions into every story. He editorialized the news, and created a sad standard that is now emulated by network news anchors, cable news reporters, and newspapers across the country. The truth is now subjective. As Walter would say, “And that’s the way it is.” But that’s not the way it should be.
