I was flipping through the channels tonight between commercials and came across a show on PBS. I have no idea what it was about, but the one thing I did see was Walter Cronkite giving his view on Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War. Johnson, I believe, had called off air strikes. I don't remember exactly what Cronkite had said, but LBJ was watching it and he was quoted as saying that there was no use of running for president in '68 because he had "lost the people."
That kind of struck me. Because back in the 60's TV and newspapers were pretty much where you got your news and the news anchors would give you their views on things. TV was really hitting a stride in the 60's too so most everyone did believe everything they saw on TV. What idiots. LOL
We didn't have political experts on during every show. Most of the time people would say that it wasn't news unless it came out of Cronkite's mouth or Dan Rather's mouth, etc.
But that really was a simpler time. Now everyone can give their opinions and seek out another opinion on a subject if they feel like it. Back then, even the president listened to the TV news anchor. That's frightening. I don't even listen to the weather dude. Heck, now you'll only get a politically slanted view depending on what channel you are on. Now we have right wing media and left wing media and then morons like us floating around here in cyberspace. I'm lucky enough to a moron and right wing media at the same time. I think it's right wing, who knows really?
I'm not really sure exactly what my point is, but we get on our little blog here and post news type things and give our opinion as if people really care. We do it thinking that people are just dying to hear it. But in reality we are only a speck in the blogosphere.
How much juice did he have? I mean really. He has one newscast where he criticizes the president and the president says, "We're screwed, I'm pullin' out." All because he knew that Cronkite said it and 3/4's of the country saw it and they by God agreed with it.
I guess my point is, to keep it in the parlance of our time...
Cronkite was a pimp and we, my friends, are no Walter Cronkite.
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3 comments:
We are the Walter Cronkite of RockStar:SuperNova.
I really can't take any news show these days without a bag of salt. Every network has their own slant on things and I think to get to the real truth you have to cut what is being said in half. It is only half as bad or good as someone on TV says it is.
The only "news" show I watch is Countdown with Keith Olberman and that is basically because he has always been one of my favorite old time sportscenter dudes. I don't however get sucked into his and MSNBC's slant on things. Even though I do sometimes agree with them.
I do, however, take his side in the Olberman/O'Reilly feud because I just can't take Bill O'Reilly. Neither of these guys should have as much credibility in the "news" department as some people give them.
I honestly don't have an opinion on Cronkite because I've never heard him deliver the news. Who knows how biased his opinion was? I'm guessing it was probably biased in one way or another, but the overload of information that can expose an anchor's bias before you can say blogger.
But that's not my point right now. My point is the lack of truth in media, in politics, in sports, and in general. Media outlets, like that aforementioned CBS have been known to use false documents and misrepresent facts to make a story. They're not the only ones. ABC's Good Morning America is a frequent target of my ire for spinning stories to fit their liberal perspective.
FoxNews heralds their mantra of "We report, you decide." That's garbage too. Now, FN is my favorite outlet, but I recognize that their biased too. But at least so far, I've not come across them out and out lying.
Now politicians all lie. Campaigning is the biggest sham in history because everyone just says what they need to say to get elected. Once elected, if they stay clean of scandals, they'll be reelected because people don't pay enough attention to know what their elected officials are really doing. They just want them to stay out of the news, in the wrong way.
It's no wonder that some people do not vote. As you said, and I agree, most politicians say anything to get elected. When you have two guys saying basically the same things so not to alienate any certain group of people, how can a person truly know who will do the best job.
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