KNZR 1560 Bakersfield, CA Goes Spanish

[michael hagerty]

How we wish for the days of Uncle Walter, "and that's the way it is".

I don't want to spoil the party, but that's such a crock. Cronkite started anchoring the CBS Evening News in April of 1962, and less than six years later, in February, he came out during the newscast against continued American involvement in Vietnam.

Whether you think he was right or not, he's the one who started news down that slippery slope. Not Huntley, not Brinkley, not Howard K. Smith.

Yeah, most of the time, Cronkite played it straight. But he's the one who unlatched the door, and his contemporaries never did.

 

[KeithE4]

I don't want to spoil the party, but that's such a crock. Cronkite started anchoring the CBS Evening News in April of 1962, and less than six years later, in February, he came out during the newscast against continued American involvement in Vietnam.

Ed Murrow was the first TV (maybe there were some on radio) network newsman who aired his opinion on a news program -- specifically about Sen. Joe McCarthy during his See It Now program -- but he wasn't a news anchor. I'm sure Douglas Edwards had his own views on the day's events, but he kept them to himself, and not on-air.

Even though history says he was right, he should have just aired the facts about McCarthy's record, kept his comments to himself, and let the viewers decide. Journalists, unless they are specifically paid to air their opinions (and there have been way too many of them over the last 50 years, but at CBS in that era, it was Eric Severeid), should never air their own personal views when they broadcast their stories. Ever.

 

[michael hagerty]

Ed Murrow was the first TV (maybe there were some on radio) network newsman who aired his opinion on a news program -- specifically about Sen. Joe McCarthy during his See It Now program -- but he wasn't a news anchor. I'm sure Douglas Edwards had his own views on the day's events, but he kept them to himself, and not on-air.

Even though history says he was right, he should have just aired the facts about McCarthy's record, kept his comments to himself, and let the viewers decide. Journalists, unless they are specifically paid to air their opinions (and there have been way too many of them over the last 50 years, but at CBS in that era, it was Eric Severeid), should never air their own personal views when they broadcast their stories. Ever.

I think the distinction between an anchor and Murrow's role is a pretty significant one. He was a foreign correspondent who, after the war, became a blend of reporter, host and pundit.

"See It Now" was designed to give Murrow the ability to make a stand for principles, and he chose traditional American ones in his takedown of McCarthy---all but two minutes of which was airing the facts about McCarthy's record, with this summation:

It took CBS eight years to (mistakenly, in my view) allow Cronkite to stretch in an evening newscast.

 

[Kelly A]

How we wish for the days of Uncle Walter, "and that's the way it is".

Yes, and if only TV was black and white again, and there was no Internet or smartphones, with citizens' civil rights trampled on daily, and everyone could smoke on airplanes and in restaurants....

 

[TomásEstefan]

I don't want to spoil the party, but that's such a crock. Cronkite started anchoring the CBS Evening News in April of 1962, and less than six years later, in February, he came out during the newscast against continued American involvement in Vietnam.

Whether you think he was right or not, he's the one who started news down that slippery slope. Not Huntley, not Brinkley, not Howard K. Smith.

Yeah, most of the time, Cronkite played it straight. But he's the one who unlatched the door, and his contemporaries never did.

Indeed, on one CBS Evening News show back in the day, after they had just shown a video of police chasing/beating a group of student demonstrators, afterwords Mr Cronkite tagged it with "My God what are they doing to our children?"

 

[cc333]

I don't have heaps to ssy about this subject, except for this:

It's my understanding that this development where Walter Cronkite began expressing his opinions during his nightly newscasts is generally seen as a good thing for journalism, and emboldened a whole generation of reporters to follow in his footsteps, and thereby creating the modern news juggernaut as we know it.

He was a legend, but largely a product of the 60s. He probably would be considered too stodgy and conservative for most networks nowadays, but with all the divisions and disagreements happening nowadays, I feel that the bombastic, sensationalist style of most news outlets is contributing to the problem, not helping it, and the calm, unwavering presence of someone like him would be a drastic improvement.

Yes, and if only TV was black and white again, and there was no Internet or smartphones, with citizens' civil rights trampled on daily, and everyone could smoke on airplanes and in restaurants....

I don't think anyone wants that!

I would say that, overall, the world seemed like it was otherwise a slightly less miserable place to be back then, ugly warts notwithstanding (humans are remarkably imperfect, and every era of our history, including now, unfortunately has its ugly points).

What I wish is that I could live in a society with the radio/TV of the 60s and 70s, the Internet and computer technology of the mid-to-late 90s, and the medical tech and civil rights laws and sensibilities of now, it would be pretty much ideal for me.

c