Who will be Next?
Walter Cronkite passed away last Friday. He was 92. The world has lost many people this summer: people that have shaped the world with their existing. It's hard to judge a man or woman's worth in our age of information. I have lived in an age where everything is known; where everything is questioned.
It's telling, isn't it, that I was born two weeks before Cronkite retired. Known as "the most trusted man in America," Cronkite was in place to break the news that disillusioned our country. He was the voice to reveal Watergate, to sway public opinion about Viet Nam. He cried when JFK was pronounced dead and proclaimed "Wow!" when the first images of man on the Moon were broadcast.
Unfortunately, I wasn't around for him. My news casters are petty and vindictive. Whereas Cronkite thought of himself as merely a conduit of the news, now we get our choice of pundits who hawk their opinions and rants. Current news is like flavored water: just enough of a hint of bias to foul the original, flavorless idea.
As though current broadcasts are an improvement to the newsdesks of old.
My quintessential question becomes this: are we just seeing this Anchorman of Anchormen through the hazy sieve of remembrance? Was he as objective as 60 minutes has pronounced? He seemed universally loved. I wonder what details of this man are lost in his passing. Will there be another Cronkite--can there be in an age where everyone has access to information, correct or not?
My mind says there cannot; that we will never trust another individual as we trusted Cronkite. Maybe that's just the way it is.
It's a shame to see someone as influential as Walter Cronkite pass away. The only thing I can say with certainty is that whatever his goal was in life, he did it with professionalism, dignity, and tenacity. There haven't been many influential news anchors, I can only think of one other one off the top of my head that died recently too - Peter Jennings. Both of them were important to news because they simply reported it - they may have had biases, but it was more important that facts were correct, and that there was something important that we needed to know. I recently canceled my cable TV subscription because I literally haven't watched a single program or movie in more than a year on cable TV. It was useless to keep paying over $100+ for only cable and internet. Amber was upset about not being able to see the news - I asked, what news isn't completely available for free online - even the video feeds are there for streaming.
ReplyDeleteTV news owes almost everything they have to men like Walter Cronkite. It's a shame he's gone, but at 92, if he couldn't say he'd lived a fulfilling and eventful life, I don't know who could.