Former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, whose 1968 conclusion that the Vietnam War was unwinnable keenly influenced public opinion then, said Sunday he'd say the same thing today about Iraq.
"It's my belief that we should get out now," Cronkite said in a meeting with reporters.
Now 89, the television journalist once known as "the most trusted man in America" has been off the "CBS Evening News" for nearly a quarter-century. He's still a CBS News employee, although he does little for them.
Cronkite said one of his proudest moments came at the end of a 1968 documentary he made following a visit to Vietnam during the Tet offensive. Urged by his boss to briefly set aside his objectivity to give his view of the situation, Cronkite said the war was unwinnable and that the U.S. should exit.
Then-President Lyndon Johnson reportedly told a White House aide after that, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."
In those days there were only three network anchors and none of them were blowing the president.
Today there are maybe fifty and not one of them is "the most trusted man in America". Instead, we have a bunch of corporate shills who are scared pissless of offending Bush and losing their cushy jobs.
24/7 "news" might sell a lot of Preparation H, but it doesn't seem to do much about the human hemorrhoids that run this country.
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