Comments on: Online journalists can learn from Walter Cronkite

The Internet and cable TV have had a big impact on journalism, but just because we live in a 24/7 news cycle doesn't mean we don't have a responsibility to be honest and accurate.

[cube3]

The issue isnt "expressing" an opinion or being "demeaning", its WHY one does. Is it to limit death and a countries reputation in a war? or is it to entertain?.

"online" and now most "on air" jounalists first need to learn if they are "entertainers" or "journalists"...many believe Jon Stewart is "both", but he keeps telling us hes an "entertainer" and Cronkite "was" the Journalist.:)

What is the Cnet blogged News.com? what is Current.TV..? What is the Huffington Report? or DMV.?

Time = Money--- money =Time.. The question "new journalism" has to answer is what is the VALUE of "bad news" .... news that doesnt make one feel like they have been entertained to a smile and rewarded with a cookie;)

[lfreel]

Arthur Kent, aka the "Scud Stud" bailed from NBC in the early 90's for differences claiming they were no longer a news agency and "entertainment" had replaced news... he was right.
Fox News should read this.

[cube3]

"Fox News should read this. "

not entertaining enough;)

[mikestatic1]

"journalists" today don't see the line between reporting the news and presenting their opinion on the news. Just check the kiss marks on Obama's butt from the campaign.

[pjk0]

Yes, Walter was my hero too. A towering example of a straight-talking, compassionate and ethical humanist.

But be careful how you admonish people to follow in his footsteps. Human beings have an almost unlimited capacity to rationalize almost anything. When one person says the "truth" is "X", another person will passionately claim the "truth" is "Y". The devil is in the details. For example, most of today's "embedded" reporters surely will like to claim that "they were there" - while neatly ignoring the fact that what they saw was a carefully-crafted slice that is designed to weight their impressions.

I think Larry touched upon it when he pointed out that a reporter needs to have respect for all people, even those one disagrees with. But it's much more than that. One needs to be guided by critical thinking, by rationality and calm reflection - rather than ideology. If a person is incapable of ever admitting that they were wrong about something, then they are probably incapable of critical thinking. Because a true gentle(wo)man and scholar will live by the maxim: "The more I know, the more I know how little I know".

Only when you can reach that state of grace, are you even able to talk about "objectivity".

[cvaldes1831]

Godspeed, Walter.

You were the last decent journalist, the last one I really respected. That was a long time ago, sadly.

[ewelch]

Walter Cronkite was the best. When I was a kid I used to watch him report on and from Vietnam. He did offer his opinion of the war after his visit during Tet in '68. He admitted as much in later interviews that there are times when such action is necessary.

The problem with many of the current digerati is they have no idea what journalistic ethics are. This was the state of journalism in the 1920s. As a result, there was such a backlash that journalists in the 1950s were obsessed with "objectivity." What that lead to was that they never interpreted (explained) anything. Something Cronkite was a master at in a (truly) fair and balanced way.

So what was the result of this backlash? Sen. McCarthy was able to take papers from his trash can and put them in his briefcase and wave them at his HUAC committee meetings saying he had proof of communists in the administration. Journalists were so afraid to be thought of as not objective that they would not call him a liar by challenging his nonsense. That was until Edward R. Murrow had had enough, took McCarthy on and beat him.

Murrow recruited Cronkite from the United Press (I worked for them while was in in journalism school) to work at CBS. That was the way it was.

[groink_hi]

People have to remember that TV-based news back in "the day" wasn't making any money. The TV networks didn't even have a news division. Murrow, along with Cronkite later on, created the concept of a 30-minute news program - at a time when everyone was getting their news either in print, or going to the nearby movie theater and watching the news there.

I wish I was still getting only 30 minutes of news per day. You must get all of your main points out there in a confined amount of time. A typical Cronkite show would have focused on Michael Jackson for three to five minutes - and that's all! Today's news is treated much like Microsoft and its programmers treat cheap RAM and hard disk space - nothing but bloated, poorly written content, and their focus on entirely the wrong things. I liked it when Headline News (HLN) had its 30-minute shows. And now even that's gone. I truly believe that not only are we swamped with too much information.

What cable TV is doing today is not only filling us up with too much crap, but the crap is delivered in a strategic matter where it is designed to actually further divide all of us. For example, a 16-year old girl wasn't the 2nd youngest to cross the U.S. in an airplane solo - she was the youngest black girl to pull it off. See what I mean? Today's TV news just takes something that is clear cut, and re-word it and re-package it so that it fits a demographic. The major network TV news programs didn't do this until CNN came along in 1979. And now even the likes of CBS, ABC and NBC each have their own slant on everything. Blogging hides behind the fact that they're opinions and not news. And, even Twitter makes this 100-times worse because now people are only following other people and news sources that fit their own ideologies.

The people are only getting divided even more. The Internet and its contributions to news is only making matters worse.

[evilbughead]

Nothing to learn from this Mocking Bird Asset. Walter may he rot in hell Cronkite was a Government Shill who embraced Eugenics and Global Governance ( read: World Slavery).