O'Reilly Lied About Cronkite & Called Him Insane

[stewert]

First read what Walter Cronkite wrote:

Why I Support DPA, and So Should You
by Walter Cronkite

http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/cronkite022306.cfm

Then read what O'Reilly said about what he wrote in his letter of support for the Drug Policy Alliance.

Here is what O'Reilly said on the 2-24-06 factor:

O'REILLY: You know, I admire Walter Cronkite. The man's nearly 90 years old, still kicking. But there is no question that the former newscaster is a far left guy. Since his retirement from CBS News, he has embraced all kinds of progressive causes.

Here's the latest. Mr. Cronkite now trying to raise money for the Drug Policy Alliance, a drug legalization outfit that's partially funded by our pal, George Soros. Cronkite actually signed a fundraising that said in part, "We have locked up literally millions of people of color who have caused little or no harm to others."

The people Cronkite is talking about are street drug dealers who sell heroin, crack, and meth, among other dangerous drugs. Apparently Walter Cronkite doesn't feel this is harmful. That view, with all due respect, is insane.

Memo to Walter. Hard drug dealers hurt and sometimes kill people, sir. It is ridiculous you do not understand that. Mr. Cronkite is welcome to debate me on the issue any time.

---------

Here is what I wrote to O'Reilly on my website:

Memo to Billy, misrepresenting what someone said by partially quoting them out of context is unethical, misleading, spin, and wrong. Notice that O'Reilly only partially quoted Mr. Cronkite, he cut off the full quote, here it is:

Instead, we have locked up literally millions of people...disproportionately people of color...who have caused little or no harm to others - wasting resources that could be used for counter-terrorism, reducing violent crime, or catching white-collar criminals.

What Mr. Cronkite is talking about are drug users who are not drug dealers who go to jail for 1 or 2 ounces of marijuana that is for personal use. And girlfriends of drug dealers who go to jail for 10 years for giving out a phone number, when she had nothing to do with the sale of the drugs, and the drug dealing boyfriend only gets 5 years. And crooked cops who lie about African Americans and send them to jail for drug charges they never did. Mr. Cronkite was not talking about big time street drug dealers who sell heroin, crack, and meth, he was talking about low level first time drug users getting 15 years to life for a first offense and similar cases to that.

If you read the full letter you will see that Mr. Cronkite does not support any of what O'Reilly said, and it is in fact, a very smart and well written letter that makes some very good points. Like how the drug war is a failure, and how we waste billions of dollars of taxpayer money on a failed war on drugs, money that could be going to fight terrorism, funding our port security, and homeland security. I suggest everyone read the actual letter, and I challenge anyone to get what O'Reilly said out of it. You will see that O'Reilly quoted him out of context and misrepresented what Mr. Cronkite said just to make him look like a crazy old left wing fool.

http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/

[rodeodance]

1. While he definately implied Cronkite was old--I think that, as written,

bill was referring to his 'view". But bill certainly was wrong saying these people are all dealers!!

.....The people Cronkite is talking about are street drug dealers who sell heroin, crack, and meth, among other dangerous drugs. Apparently Walter Cronkite doesn't feel this is harmful. That view, with all due respect, is insane.

[papau]

5. more than 50% in prison are for minor - not street drug dealing in a major

way - convictions.

To pretend otherwise, may not be insane, but forces one to ignore Dept of Justice stats.

All drugs are harmful - but these folks very rarely harm others.

They are not drug king pins with guns who have no problem with killing others.

But we waste our resources when we insist on putting these users behind bars for decades - IMHO.

[stewert]

8. Hmmmmmmmm........

rodeo,

Maybe you are not informed enough about O'Reilly to know what my main point was and maybe you do not know how he works.

O'Reilly screams bloody murder when someone partially quotes him out of context and misrepresents what he meant after he said something. O'Reilly calls it unethical, irrirresponsible, a smear, bad journalism, personal attacks, a cheap shot, etc. etc. etc. And he is always talking about a liberal who did it to him.

Then he does the exact same thing to Mr. Cronkite, he partially quoted one line of a paragraph in a 1500 word letter and misrepresented that Cronkite supports letting big drug dealers out of jail.

That is point #1 that I was making.

Then you say that O'Reilly claims it was his view that is insane, not him, I say that is wrong. O'Reilly does that all the time so that later when someone says he called Cronkite insane he can say they are liars, and that he never called him insane. O'Reilly does that because he knows mediamatters will quote him, so he is covering his ass to deny it after they call him on it.

O'Reilly is calling Cronkite insane, he just words it that way so that he can deny it later by saying Cronkites view is insane. But he is calling Cronkite insane, and he is saying he is insane for a view he does not even have. It's a word game, O'Reilly is a master at it. He does it all the time, he will say kennedy supports all abortions and that is a crazy position. In reality he is calling Kennedy crazy, just as he is calling Cronkite insane.

That is an old old trick used by O'Reilly to level personal attacks on people who he can then deny later.

The worst part was O'Reilly quoting one line from a 1500 word letter and then implying Cronkite supports letting all the drug dealers out of jail. When Cronkite said nothing like it, he was talking about people who just give out a phone number etc. who then get 15 to life when they never sold any drugs.

And O'Reilly never does any of this to any Republicans no matter what they write or what they say, ever. On top of that, it was all done to make Cronkite look like a senile old left wing fool who is against putting drug dealers in jail.

Why, I don't have a clue, but for some reason O'Reilly uses every chance he gets to smear a liberal. Then the other hypocrisy is he says he never uses personal attacks on anyone, but I could show you at least 100 examples of O'Reilly calling someone a nut, or a pinhead, or a loon, or a weasel, or a hitler appeaser, etc.

And every single example is of a personal attack on a liberal. On top of that he will deny every one of them ever happened, when it is on tape and in the transcript. He called Boxer a nut a while back and then denied it, first he said he only said her opinion was nutty, then he denied he said it at all, finally someone quoted him on the air calling her a nut and he had to admit it because the guy had proof.

Just like when he said Cronkites view is insane, it's an old trick he uses to smear liberals so that he can later deny he said it. No such tricks are ever used on any conservatives, ever.

[GrumpyGreg]

2. The drug war is a failure. About 20 years ago I announced

in my office that drugs should be legal.

Sell them in the package stores and put high taxes on them like cigarettes and voila !!!! Tons of money saved on law enforcement and incarceration and a revenue stream from the taxes.

Most in my office thought I had lost my mind but I stand by my theory.

People who are going to use drugs will use them but it certainly wouldn't increase the use.

Cigarettes are legal yet usage has gone down because of good education to the public. The same could be done with drugs.

[Mythsaje]

3. If we can't keep 'em out of the prisons,

how the hell are we going to keep them off the streets?

[niallmac]

4. ...could also tie in inducements offering drug treatment

and certainly all the sexiness of a prohibited substance would evaporate. Maybe then GAP et al would not feel compelled to sell children's clothing
that honors the drug culture. I believe thousands of lives that get swallowed up in the drug wars and trillions of dollars that are spent in the drug
culture and drug war would be ours once again. The drug war now is a tool of fascists who like the excuse to invade even further into our private
lives and our constitutional rights.

[spag68]

6. spag68

You forget the huge mostly rightwing prison, police, probation dept. bailbond, and other agencys would be out of work

[Odin2005]

7. LBJ said he was screwed when Cronkite attacked the Vietnam War.

He said "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost America". Bush would be in prison right now if today's reporters had the same spine that Cronkite had.