cradleandshoot wrote: ↑Tue Feb 09, 2021 6:28 am
Your portrayal of Cronkite as some sort of network media puppet is frankly non-sense IMO.
It's not just me that's making this claim.
YOU are making this claim. To wit:
cradleandshoot wrote: ↑Tue Feb 09, 2021 6:28 am
American people were
finally told the truth about the futility of the ongoing conflict in Vietnam
cradleandshoot wrote: ↑Tue Feb 09, 2021 6:28 am
In most instances during that era of the 1960s the government was lying to the media.
Yes. So what happens when you "just read the news" as you, OS, Kram, and Tech are championing?
You're (Cronkite) perpetuating the lies the government tells you. You guys are upset that, among other things, the media went after Trump and his lies. Or, if you prefer, Obama and his lies.
You're all saying: shut up and read the news, and don't comment. What I'm trying, in vain, to tell you all is that there is a SERIOUS downside to "just reading the news". And that downside is: if you just "read the news", those in power skate from the ACTUAL point to a free media, because instead of probing to see if the President is lying? They show up at 530 and "just read the news".
So I'm sorry, but that means that before Cronkite got off his duff, and headed to Vietnam? He was simply parroting the lies for Kennedy and LBJ surrounding, to stick to our example, Vietnam.
As I said, when I was in my 20's and was really, really active in anti-war efforts before the Iraq War? I was LIVID at the American press, because they weren't doing their jobs, and digging into the story. Result? They enabled the Bush administrations idiotic choice to invade the ME.
So personally? As much as I hate FoxNation, and the sad direction that MSNBC headed during Trump's years? I'd take what we have now over the Cronkite era 7 days a week, and twice on Sundays. The Cronkite media simply fell in line, and reported what the government told them, with very few notable exceptions.
cradleandshoot wrote: ↑Tue Feb 09, 2021 6:28 am
I don't think media had the resources to do the type of investigative research and reporting they do today
Sure they did. Again: this was an editorial CHOICE. They CHOSE not to dig deeper into Vietnam. And America paid a heavy price for that.
Imagine if Cronkite had run his famous report in 1960, before Kennedy escalated things further..... instead of all the way into 1968? Could that have stopped the choice to escalate? Perhaps.
We''ll never know.