Walter Cronkite: Whose Way Is It Anyway?

Walter Cronkite. Even saying his name is reassuring. To me it seems he was a man who was sure of himself, and of his role. There is a scene in the film The Insider where Mike Wallace turns to Lowell Bergman and voices his approval for the corporate executives' decision to not air a major story about a Big Tobacco corporation. He later confessed that to Bergman that he made a mistake and buckled under pressure. He was human. But Cronkite is different, or at least that's my impression of him after reading all the things about him. I don't think he would have buckled under pressure that easily. He was firm in his roots, I guess that's why they called him the anchor. When he left, the message at corporate offices was to drop the anchor and simply put in his position a man, a newsman. A man who can bend more easily and not given any power to wield. And they accomplished that task brilliantly. What truth has been spoken on the news since Cronkite's departure to Saigon? His words weighed something. Today, every single truth falls through our hands because no one has been given that authoritative role anymore, and that has been done entirely on purpose by the ruling powers of America. Nobody will attain his height in the future, but that also may entirely be a good thing. Who knows.

John Nichols wrote about Cronkite's legacy, before and after the anchor position, on the news of his death:

The reporter, editor and anchorman from 1962 to 1981, whose name remained synonymous with American journalism to the day he died, fretted in particular about a 2003 move by the Federal Communications Commission to relax media ownership rules. After the commission approved proposals that would permit a single media company to own television stations that reach up to 45 percent of American households, and that would permit a single media company to own the daily newspaper, several television stations and up to eight radio stations in the same community, Cronkite said, "I think they made a mistake, I do indeed. It seems to me that the rule change was negotiated and promulgated with the goal of creating even larger monopolies in the news-gathering business."

The veteran television journalist was especially concerned about monopolies developing at the local level.

"We are coming closer to that (monopoly situations) today, even without the relaxation of the rules," Cronkite said. "In many communities, we have seen a lot of mergers already and that is disturbing. We have more and more one-newspaper towns, and that troubles me. I think that the failure of newspaper competition in a community is a very serious handicap to the dissemination of the knowledge that the citizens need to participate in a democracy."

Below are passages and brief sentences taken from Cronkite's writing, and interviews, gathered on the web.

War on Drugs:

I remember. I covered the Vietnam War. I remember the lies that were told, the lives that were lost - and the shock when, twenty years after the war ended, former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara admitted he knew it was a mistake all along.

Today, our nation is fighting two wars: one abroad and one at home. While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on our own streets. Its casualties are the wasted lives of our own citizens.

I am speaking of the war on drugs.

And I cannot help but wonder how many more lives, and how much more money, will be wasted before another Robert McNamara admits what is plain for all to see: the war on drugs is a failure.

While the politicians stutter and stall - while they chase their losses by claiming we could win this war if only we committed more resources, jailed more people and knocked down more doors - the Drug Policy Alliance continues to tell the American people the truth - "the way it is."

I'm sure that's why you support DPA's mission to end the drug war. And why I strongly urge you to support their work by giving a generous donation today.

You see, I've learned first hand that the stakes just couldn't be higher.

When I wanted to understand the truth about the war on drugs, I took the same approach I did to the war in Vietnam: I hit the streets and reported the story myself. I sought out the people whose lives this war has affected.

The Iraq War:

“We are going to be in such a fix when this war is over, or before this war is over … our grandchildren’s grandchildren are going to be paying for this war."

“I look at our future as, I’m sorry, being very, very dark. Let’s see our cards as we rise to meet the difficulties that lie ahead."

He was obviously a man of integrity. But I am not a complete convert. I respect his forthrightness, and the fact that he always fell back on his conscience, which is the safest place to land, tells me that he was not governed by fear of persecution, at least not all the time, which says a great deal about any human being but especially a human being ordained to report the stories of the day truthfully. I do not, however, agree with his view that we must put in a place a democratic world government, and a uniform world law, in order to insure that our civilization survives and prospers in peace.

On the occasion of accepting the Norman Cousins Global Governance Award from the World Federalist Association, Cronkite said:

Today we must develop federal structures on a global level. We need a system of enforceable world law --a democratic federal world government-- to deal with world problems. What Alexander Hamilton wrote about the need for law among the 13 states applies today to the approximately 200 sovereignties in our global village: "To look for a continuation of harmony between a number of independent unconnected sovereignties in the same neighborhood, would be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at defiance the accumulated experience of ages." Today the notion of unlimited national sovereignty means international anarchy. We must replace the anarchic law of force with a civilized force of law.

World federalism is not the way it is, sir. And it will never be. Besides, not if the Hamiltonian ethic is your anchor. America will always remain Jefferson's land. He declared independence, and we will manifest it. It is predestiny.

I see the men who call for world government, and most of them are not of Cronkite's caliber. Rather, they are corrupt and power hungry individuals who believe that they alone should direct the form this world government must take. World federalism is not necessary, what is necessary is more conscience and independent leaders of nations who will not be persuaded by banks and the military establishment.The fact that Cronkite avoided to face is that human beings are born sovereign and rational, which runs counter to popular opinion among elites that the masses of humanity need to be directed and led, even by tanks if it is necessary. Ceding our sovereignty means ceding our humanity.

But Cronkite was a man of peace, his anti-war stance shows that he wanted a world government that does not tolerate any nation who seeks to solve problems by way of war. Unfortunately, I believe he put too much faith in those who are working to institute world government behind the scenes, and not enough faith in the American people. Not being upfront to Americans and all world citizens about their intentions is the new world order cabal's gravest mistake. They desire peace so much that they will blow up whole nations to achieve it. So ask yourself what good is peace if it is beaten into the minds of men, and prepared not in the kitchen but ordered in? The future can not be made under wraps. It must be cooked hot and steamy, or else the people will not take a bite out of it.

Moreover, although these extremists are very influential and heavily funded, bringing in a new world is a tall order. Man is not infallible, and neither is their design for such a massive project. I believe in the end they will fail and continue to be despised throughout history as this story will be told and retold to all future generations of men. They will fail because their revolution is a false revolution. They seek to snatch the world from under us, kind of like giving birth in a lab overseen by doctors who snatch the baby from the mother as soon as she is born. And finally they will fail because they are not for the law and justice, nor do they represent the civilized codes of decency and righteousness. Inducting wars for resources, failing in the process, and then bringing into being a global government is not the way of honorable men.

I believe we have it in us as free human beings to achieve global justice without creating a global government. But I can forgive Mr. Cronkite for his Star-Trekian dreams of world federalism because he told the truth about war:

"Preventive war is a theory, a policy, that was put forth by the president in his policy address," Cronkite observed. "It upsets all of our previous concepts about the use of power. It is particularly worrying when our power is almost unchallenged around the world. It seems to me that this preventive action is a terrible policy to put forth to other nations. If we are viewed as a pacesetter by other nations, this is a policy that could lead to eternal war around the world. If every small nation with a border dispute believes they can go ahead and launch a pre-emptive war and that it will be approved by the greatest power, that is a very dangerous thing."