Walter Cronkite dead at 92

[Spicoli]

When I saw Lyle was the last post, I KNEW Lyle was going to talk about Dan Rather at some point. Dan Rather did some great reporting in his time and went on location to the some of the craziest places in the world like Afghanistan when the Russians were slaughtering them and they were still fighting all the way to when he interviewed Sadaam after the whole Axis of Evil deal. He fucked up bigtime at the end but he was an important figure in his own right.

Anyways, I came along almost a full 10 years after Kronkite left the desk so I obviously have never watched a Kronkite broadcast before going to bed but I have heard his more historical calls. Kind of like Johnny Carson where I knew they were icons and I knew what they were thought of but I never grew up and got to know Kronkite and Carson like my parents and grandparents did.

I did see him in the fantastic Jim McKay documentary that's OnDemand for HBO.

.....When news channels started to fight for ratings, that's when REPORTING and JOURNALISM ended. They are all paparazzi now, they give you teases like "This common house hold cleaner can kill you.....tonight at 11" or they focus on complete crap like John and Kate plus 8, why the fuck is that news Or in Dan Rather's case, he just made shit up and blabbed on about it like it was the truth. I have very little respect for most Reporters or Journalists these days because they don't report on anything other than their own God damned opinions and with the advent of the 24/7 news cycle they have to make everything sound like the end of the World!

For example...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q64qvkVtXd0


Cronkite just gave the news, no spin, no exaggeration, as Sgt. Joe Friday always said "Just the facts"....that's all I want, I don't want fluff, I don't want spin, and I don't want exaggeration.

....I remember that.Dumb twit thought hoped she had another mass flooding on her hands.Too many "reporters" make themselves the story with sensationalized crap.The ones that stand out there as a Hurricane is coming in kill me.Where's a flying trash can when you need one

Cronkite was class and a true professional.......Man was there when a Nation changed course numerous times.Full context here.Saw the human side come out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8Q3cqGs7I

[amat]

I think Rather's strongsuit was investigative and onsite reporting which is why he was better on 60 Minutes then he was delivering the news from his desk. The work he did for 60 minutes can't be overlooked though and he was as instrumental in world affairs then any journalist of his time. He was the reason we got guns into Afghanistan to help them drive the Russians out. That's a huge world event that was told from a point of view the western world had never seen before, going up in the mountains and talking with the guys fighting up there. Same when he interviewed Sadaam for his news show.

[El Kabong]

I think Rather's strongsuit was investigative and onsite reporting.

Agreed, because instead of Rather being an asshole behind the desk and being untouchable by the American people...he did onsite stuff much better because people could punch him.


For example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrlYRWD_tnA


.......I could watch that all day....DOWN GOES RATHER! DOWN GOES RATHER!