Today's "journalists" arent worthy enough to carry Cronkite's jockstrap

[Hawkeye-X]

I like a man with integrity, and Walter Cronkites is the embodiment of integrity. There is only one other person with the same philosophy - Helen Thomas.

[stray cat]

1. nor I guess are any of us citizens who listen to the news

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. There are no journalists left -

Helen Thomas is in a class by herself, dedicated, as she is, to Washington, DC.

Cronkite, like Murrow, was all over the world. He really got in there and got the stories.

There is no one now................................

[NightWatcher]

3. it's all Info-tainment now. No news gets reported these days

Cronkite has been missed for many many years

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. I watched the Evening News for a while

after Dan Rather took it over, because I'd met him once, and he'd been really nice and very helpful to me, so I felt like I owed it to him. But, that loyalty didn't last long for me, because he was no Walter Cronkite.

And tonight, I realized, having met both Cronkite and Rather - at different times - I'd met both CBS anchors from that time in my life. I never thought of that before tonight.

I grew up with Huntley and Brinkley, and Walter Cronkite - they came on at staggered times, so in my house, we watched both. Back then, THAT was where the news came from because those men were journalists who got the stories, and the people who worked for them did the same kind of digging, triangulating, verifying, and writing that no one does today.

Today, I read the news online. I count on DU for a lot of it - the Daily Show and Colbert Report - and KO and Rachel. There is nothing else.......................................

[Spazito]

4. There are NO journalists left, only propaganda infotainers, imo

I am listening to them eulogize Mr. Cronkite and can't help but think they should be so ashamed of themselves having sold out to the highest bidder, spitting on the principles Mr. Cronkite held dear.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

9. And I wonder how many of those airheads

even knew who Walter Cronkite was - without running to wikipedia?

They're not there, that's all - worthless.........................

[Spazito]

13. I agree, integrity is shunned these days, facts without opinions attached..

a foreign and negative concept. All that is needed today is just a face the camera loves and the facility to at least half-assedly
pronounce the words being fed to them.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

15. What really kills it for me is the latter-day

concept of "opposing views," which means that every asshole who thinks the Earth is flat gets his or her fifteen minutes, and people actually behave as if what these clods are saying has value!

I don't want to know what people with a phone think of a news report. I don't give a rat's ass what some blogger thinks. I did care what Walter Cronkite had to say, how he framed it, the historical context in which it was relayed, and how it fit into my perspective on the world for that day, that decade, that lifetime.

Today, it's now news, it's not informative - it's cheap, shoddy entertainment, and the airheads are without any redeeming virtues or any intellectual depth or curiosity.

I am so glad I'm old enough to have experienced the great newscasters, and to have had parents who knew what had value, and who invited Murrow and Cronkite, and Huntley and Brinkley, and Alistair Cooke into our home on a regular - sometimes daily - basis.

It'll never be like that again, and we are all the poorer for it..........................................

[Spazito]

19. I just hope that one of the cartoonists like Mike Luckovich...

is drawing a toon with Mr. Cronkite and Mr. Murrow looking down at the current crop of "journalists" while they sigh and shake their heads in disappointment if not disgust.

You were, indeed, very fortunate to have experienced meeting such distinguished, well respected persons of integrity.

[Birthmark]

5. Let's be fair

Truth isn't exactly wildly popular these days. Evidence?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashleigh_Banfield

She told the truth about Iraq. You can now find her on Court TV.

[kenny blankenship]

6. Cronkite would never get on air today, if he were just starting out - not pretty enough.

He had a face for radio, which like everyone else in his generation of reporters is where he started. So you could turn it around and say he wouldn't be worthy to carry a journalist's make up kit today.

What a country we live in. Print media is dead thanks to illiterate image obsessed meat puppets who will only watch news on tv, or what passes for news, and then only if they can subconsciously fantasize about fucking the reporters.

[XOKCowboy]

8. Bill Moyers?

Gotta give him some props. He's the only newsman willing to take on the big issues.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. Do you see Moyers as a journalist?

Or as a commentator?

I see him as a bit of both.

But, see, Cronkite never let anyone know where his sympathies lay. He kept his own personal beliefs out of the news, and that was part of what made him trusted and priceless - and now, irreplaceable........................

[Samantha]

14. Yes, I thought of him immediately

I think he is trustworthy, and yes, he takes on the big issues.

[Deja Q]

10. It's just business.

[Autumn]

12. They are not worthy enough to clean

the sweat off his balls.

[sarah553807]

16. I feel bad for this and the next generation

There's absolutely no journalists anymore,there's just news "entertainers" now.

It's such a shame generations ahead will look at the media with cynicism then trust as I did

[kgnu_fan]

17. Amy Goodman !!!!

Wake up, people! Don't just wait to be spoonfed by hardwork of true journalists in our own time. We need to really support the work of many great journalists who are actually doing their job. Don't be lazy. We should not be just consumers.

[Hawkeye-X]

20. Hey - I was wondering when you were going to show up.

I remember meeting you almost a year ago at Racine's. You were a very nice person.

I was sitting next to Ava. You were interviewing her :)

Hawkeye-X

[kgnu_fan]

24. Yes, I remember you well!

It was fun at Recine. What a year since then! I hope we do meet-up in Denver more often.

I come to DU everyday, at least several times a day and lurk around..... so I say I am here all the time! And I read your comments too.

:)

[Wednesdays]

18. K&R

:kick:

[GeorgeGist]

21. Kinda reminds me of what Tim Russert is purported to say of journalists.

"Integrity is for paupers!"

[sendero]

22. I don't blame JUST the journalists..

.... it is the environment they work in. A journalist is just a hired hand like most of us. And like most of us they don't get to do whatever they want, they do what the man that pays their salary says.

We don't have a journalist problem, our entire social structure, the relationship between government and business, the people and business, the government and people - is broken.

The only good thing about the depression that is almost here is that we might actually get impetus for real change. Might.

[Orsino]

23. A news show starring Conkite's jockstrap...

...would probably be more informative and balanced than even Rachel's or Keith's.

[callous taoboy]

25. The Newshour with Jim Lehrer is excellent journalism. n/t