Walter Cronkite interview: America must give up some sovereignty

[DC]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/wor...000/621329.stm


Q&A: Walter Cronkite - an
icon of American news


BBC Hardtalk's
Tim Sebastian
talks to Walter
Cronkite -
'America's most
trusted man' -
about his career
in journalism,
including the
moment he told a
shocked nation that its president
had been killed.

You don't think much of television
news these days. You think the
viewers are being sold short.

I'm deeply concerned about it. I think
that there's a real problem in the
United States. Polls show that most
people still get most of their news
from television.

I claim that those
who do are
inadequately
informed, too
poorly informed to
intelligently
exercise their
franchise at the
polls. The
democratic system
is challenged by
the failure in
television because
our evening news programmes have
gone for an attempt to entertain as
much as to inform in the desperate
fight for ratings.

Cable has come along; many all-news
24 hour cable outlets in the United
States. They have cut deeply into the
traditional networks' viewing
audience.

The owners of the networks today
are not the old pioneer
broadcasters who founded the
networks, but these great
entertainment conglomerates mostly
dictated by Hollywood standards.
They're going for the lowest common
denominator.

One of the broadcasts that you're
most remembered for was the
assassination of John F Kennedy.
How clearly do you remember your
feelings when the news of the
shooting in Dallas started to come
in?

That is etched on my memory. I was
at my anchor desk. One of our editors
was over at the teletype machines
when the bulletin came from Dallas
that shots had rung out in Dealy
Plaza in the streets of Dallas as the
President's motorcade went by.

A moment later, it appeared that the
President might have been hit. The
motorcade had broken up and was
rushing to the hospital and it got
worse and worse. He appeared to be
in bad shape.

Well you know
there's an
interesting thing
about us
newspeople. Not
until after its over
do we sit down and
really think
emotionally about
what has
happened.

But after an hour or so of reporting
this developing story I had to make
the announcement; 'An
announcement has come from
Parkland Hospital. President Kennedy
died at such and such an hour.'

When I said those words, I realised
the horror of the whole thing. I
choked up a bit. I had difficulty
finding words through welling tears
but managed it somehow or other.

For all of your experience of war,
you're still in favour of bringing the
action of war into people's living
rooms.

Oh very definitely. The military
people don't like it; the government
probably doesn't like it, but the
people should know what they're
sending their young people into when
they permit their governments to
declare war and engage in war.

They should have to share what they
have asked those young people to
share. I believe in that. Perhaps if all
the peoples of the world understand
what war really means, we would
eliminate it.

You did a report in 1968 on the Tet
offensive which was credited with
swaying American public opinion
towards removing US troops from
Vietnam. Did you cross the line? Did
you go too far?

I didn't go too far. I crossed the line!
The difference was that we
enunciated very clearly that this was
an editorial. It came at the end of a
documentary on my experiences going
out to cover Tet - one person's view
of Tet.

I got there within a week of the Tet
offensive. I saw this action and we
reported it. We said 'After this
commercial break, I'm going to come
back and give you my personal
opinion of what I saw out there. This
will be my personal editorial which we
do not do normally do here, but I
think it's important.'

You said that it's increasingly clear
to this reporter that the only
rational way out would be to
negotiate: not as victors but as
honourable people. Apparently
President Lyndon Johnson watched
this in the White House and was
quite affected by it, wasn't he?

Yes. Some of his assistants said later
that his remark was 'If I've lost
Cronkite, I've lost Middle America.' I
was a little offended when I heard
that . I considered that if he lost me
he must have lost all of America!

The fact was he apparently thought
that this was somewhat important. A
couple of weeks later, he announced
he would not run for re-election.
Some people said that the broadcast
had an importance in having him
reach that decision.

I don't think that is so. There were a
lot of other things impressing him at
that moment - that he could not win
again. He was disappointed with the
Pentagon for having misled him into
staying with the war for as long as he
did.

The military still blames the press
over Vietnam, don't they?

Officially, they brought out a report
which claimed it wasn't the press
coverage that did them in. Most of
the military establishment believes
that it was television and its
exposure of their soldiers at their
worst moments of death and mortal
wounds, the horror of war.

And you're happy about that?

Yes I am. It makes it difficult for
democracy. But it's the only fair way.
I believe in total openness of the
press in all things. I'm an absolutist
in the matter of freedom of speech in
the press.

I am convinced that democracy
cannot function unless its people are
fully informed as to what their
government is doing in its name.

Do you believe in presidential
privacy?

Depending on whether their
peccadilloes affect their ability to
govern. I do not think that the
stand-off with President Clinton - the
Monica Lewinsky scandal - was proper
to bring to the public's attention.

He wouldn't have had to lie to the
country if it hadn't have been made a
public issue for political purposes. He
should not have been asked those
questions about his personal life.

I don't think that's the public's
business. Unless that seems to
endanger the job they're doing, the
job they've sworn an oath to - then it
should be exposed.

The case of President Kennedy. He
had several liaisons. He had one with
a woman called Judith Exner. She was
the mistress of a Mafia boss.

Highly dangerous situation. Opened
him to blackmail and all kinds of
dangers. If the press had known
about that - I don't think they did -
they had a responsibility to report
that.

You seem to have had the news
business in your blood right from
the start. You were something of a
town crier from the age of six
growing up in Kansas City.

I was perhaps the only one of my
six-year old colleagues who read the
newspaper and I couldn't wait to tell
my friends the news of the day. We
didn't have radio in those days -
barely.

I remember reading in your memoir
about the Nuremberg war crimes
trial. It was the only time you said
that you had seen a group of
people - the Nazi officials - you
wanted to spit on. How strongly did
you feel?

My flesh crawled just seeing those
people marching near the dock in
Nuremberg and knowing the blood of
millions of people was on their
hands. It was creepy. It was awful.

You hoped that some good would
come out of there, that there would
be a 'Parliament of Nations'. If the
UN is anything to go by, that's not
going to work is it?

I wouldn't give up
on the UN yet. I
think we are
realising that we
are going to have
to have an
international rule
of law.

We need not only
an executive to
make international
law, but we need
the military forces to enforce that law
and the judicial system to bring the
criminals to justice before they have
the opportunity to build military
forces that use these horrid weapons
that rogue nations and movements
can get hold of - germs and atomic
weapons.

Our whole society is in danger - more
than its ever been from limited
numbers of people - terrorism,
national war movements, civil war
type movements.

There's going to be a realisation of
that now. Whereas before, there was
a possibility of each nation being in
its own way insular, particularly the
USA, being protected by two great
oceans.

We are not
protected by two
great oceans any
longer. American
people are going to
begin to realise
that perhaps they
are going to have
to yield some
sovereignty to an
international body
to enforce world
law, and I think
that's going to
come to other
people as well. It's
a fair distance to
get there, but we are not ever going
to get there unless we keep trying to
push ourselves onto the road.

There's still a Walter Cronkite Unit
at CBS, 20 years after you finished
presenting the news programme.
The mail still comes in. Are you
gratified by that?

Well of course I am. I don't
understand it but I'm gratified by it.
Little old ladies come up to me.
Recently, I was doing a film out at
Yellowstone National Park. A woman
came up to me and said 'Did anybody
ever tell you that you look just like
Walter Cronkite looked before he died
- except I think he was thinner!'


The full interview with Walter
Cronkite can be seen on Hardtalk with
Tim Sebastian on BBC News 24 at
2230 and on BBC World at 1530,
1930, 0030 and 0430 gmt




------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!

[Will Beararms]

Isn't it strange how those who advocate the removal of freedom for safety are always in positions of perceived power? Perceived in that there are a few of them and many of us. Never forget that.

------------------
"When guns are outlawed;I will be an outlaw."

[CMOS]

Well, I guess the only phrase that really sums this up is:

"All people are equil. Some are just more equil than others..."

"Give up some soverengity" - over my dead body.

CMOS

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GOA, TSRA, LEAA, NRA, SAF and I vote!

[fal308]

Also notice how he says that Klinton's personal life should stay personal and not public then goes on to apparantly state that Kennedy's "liaisons" should have been made public. I guess Klinton could make the potential blackmailers his friends. And we all know what mysteriuosly "happens" to Klinton's friends. Kronkite also defends Klinton's lying about the sex scandal. America's "most trusted" man is now defending lying?

[alan]

Re Cronkite on "america must give up somne sovereignty" we have heard this before, but I wonder as to whom it would be given.

We have also heard the dictum that "americans must give up some of their cherished constitutional rights", of course, for the accomplishment of some "unspecified, greater good".

The writer wonders as to which of HIS rights Mr. Cronkite is prepared to give up? I believe that such as that would be a most interesting discussion. Mr Cronkite is always welcom to join in the discussion, so far as I'm concerned.

[El Jefe]

CMOS has a point....Having been in the Military for over 19 1/2 years, seeing how well the UN operates, Giving up sovereignty is not an option, and over my dead body as well!

------------------
...“ They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” --Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

Take care and God Bless, El Jefe
The ANTI-HCI Site!

[Mendocino]

I love this part:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>I wouldn't give up
on the UN yet. I
think we are
realising that we
are going to have
to have an
international rule
of law. [/quote]

Compare the UN Declaration of Human Rights to our Bill of Rights. The Un version basically reserves all unenumerated rights for the government, and they are not really rights, but privelages; they come from the government, not the creator.

[Jack 99]

The only thing I agreed with was his answer to the first question about the network news and how pathetic it is.

Are there still those that consider the NWO a "conspiracy?" These people are out of the shadows and they know what they want.

Little point of clarification: you cannot guve up "some sovereignty". If you give up ANY amount of sovereignty, you are no longer sovereign. Sort of like giving up "some" of your virginity.

Either you is, or you ain't.

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"Put a rifle in the hands of a Subject, and he immediately becomes a Citizen." -- Jeff Cooper

"The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty - and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies." -- H.L. Mencken, February 12, 1923, Baltimore Evening Sun

[Libertarian]

I find it more than a little odd that those who shout loudest for complete freedom of the press (1st A.) are usually the ones shouting the loudest to infridge the 2nd Amendment.

[Donny]

Another thing to keep in mind, is that being one of the most trusted men in America, placed Walnut Crankcase in a very desirable position to speak what was to be said, not what was needed to be said.
He was, and still is, a mouthpiece for others'. He is the fella the retired among us listen to, because his voice remembers fond times, when we were young, and prosperous. We were invinceable!!!

Baseball Players have been openly recommended for psychiatric exams, because they've had the tenacity to speak their own mind.
Oh yeah, Walters just a mouthpiece.

Best Regards,
Don

------------------
"The day I turn in my own countrymen, will be the day I put a bullet in my own head".
--George Harris, Patriot Games--

[This message has been edited by Donny (edited January 31, 2000).]

[Monkeyleg]

I wonder how Mr. Cronkite would feel if Algore proposed licensing and fingerprinting all journalists "for the sake of the children." Such a proposal would ensure that nobody would post a site on the internet as hateful and inflammatory as the site put up by Eric Harris and Dylan Kliebold. Hmmm?

Dick

[foxfire]

"...but we are not ever going to get there unless we keep trying to push ourselves onto the road."


I don't think so, Walter...

Besides, we won't push ourselves; so guess who'll wind up trying to shove us?

------------------
...defend the 2nd., it protects us all.
No fate but what we make...

[Dennis]

Walter Krankheit's elitist desire to subjugate our once free America under
the rule of the United Nations infuriates me to the very edge of self-control.

Surpassing vulgarities and profanities, I spit my severest, most degrading
epithet into the face of Mister Krankheit,

“You Clinton lover!”

------------------
Either you believe in the Second Amendment or you don't.
Stick it to 'em! RKBA!

[Mike in VA]

I have done some work at the UN and I can tellyou that those folks aren't just from other countries, many are from other planets.

It's ironic to me that so much of the world wants what we have in the US, but they don't have the discipline, aren't willing to make the sacrifices, or have a value structure/culture that would support it for very long. In otherwords, if we gave in, they'd just **** it away. Just as we were horribly nieve to think we coud inflict a western-style democratic republic on Vietnam, we would be equally foolish to give in to the UN.

Walter has his opinion, I have mine, and as far as I'm concerned, Walter is another one who can go sh*t in his hat.
M2

[BigG]

Ole Walter seems to be suffering from softening of the brain! What do you expect from the "media elite"? Kinda like the "political elite", eh?

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Be mentally deliberate but muscularly fast. Aim for just above the belt buckle Wyatt Earp
If you have to shoot a man, shoot him in the guts, it may not kill him... sometimes they die slow, but it'll paralyze his brain and arm and the fight is all but over Wild Bill Hickok
45 ACP: Give 'em a new navel! BigG

It is error alone that needs government support; truth can stand by itself. Tom Jefferson
Remember: When you attempt to rationalize two inconsistent positions, you risk drowning as your own sewage backs up. BigG

[jimmy]

First Uncle Walter does an anti-handgun TV spot and now this. I used to figure him for a decent man and maybe he really is. However, it sounds to me like his version of reality is as skewed as that of a lot of media personalities. He's forgotten how to think for himself and he can't see beyond the walls of his elite enclave. Pitiful.

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"The eye of television is drawn to violence as the normal eye is drawn to the light in a jewel."--Larry McMurtry.