Yes, I know God. His name is Walter Cronkite and he anchored the CBS-TV evening news for 20 years. He was one of the most influential men in America. He calmly cheered our space triumphs and, just as calmly, mourned the assassinations of our leaders.
The closest I ever got to Cronkite was in an elevator at my hotel at the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco. However, a few years previous, I was invited to sit at his family's table by CBS correspondent Phil Jones during a Cronkite retirement "roast."
People respected Cronkite so much, they could not joke about him. The only speaker that night to actually "roast" Cronkite was the ever-irascible Andy Rooney.
Whether the elevator, or sitting next to Mrs. Cronkite and looking at her husband on the dais, I was in awe. I don't become awed. The only other time I was in awe was over a horse, Secretariat, a truly remarkable animal.
I wouldn't go across the street to see Madonna, though don't ask me about Cameron Diaz. As a reporter, I interviewed a lot of famous people. As a PR guy, I worked for famous people. I have seen them at their worst and most embarrassing moments.
But Cronkite was a former United Press reporter, precursor to United Press International, the place I worked. It was important to get the news first, but even more important to get it right. If you did neither, you were sent back to the minor leagues.
In Eastern Europe, there are not these standards. The most important rule is to stay on message, and that message is what the authorities want it to be. Journalism has taken a giant leap backward in this regard within the last several years.
I bring up this extended discussion of the news business because Cronkite was followed at CBS by a man named Dan Rather. Rather first burst on the scene covering a Texas hurricane. That's the way news broadcasters were discovered then - on an important job.
Today, they are discovered more like the late actress Lana Turner was discovered - at a drugstore in Hollywood where a director saw her looking pert and pretty in a sweater. Today's anchors are, generally speaking, also pretty. They are chatty.
Particularly with local news, today's news anchors in the United States are more presenters than they are news people. There are, of course notable exceptions, and Rather is one of them, as is Tom Brokaw of rival NBC news.
In a rush to get what, in my view, was non-news on CBS's second version of its flagship "60 Minutes" program, Rather and his producer accepted dubious documents that claimed President George W. Bush, in essence, disobeyed orders as a National Guardsman.
The material fact of whether Bush dodged his National Guard duties can be debated. What cannot be debated is whether Rather was right or wrong in airing the story. He was wrong. The documents were fraudulent.
This was a relatively easy story to check. Document examiners point out that the material was written on a personal computer - which had not been invented when the questioned documents was written. Rather should have smelled a big, stinking rat early on.
In the news business, we all make mistakes. His, and his producer's, was a doozy. It made CBS look partisan, when, in fact, Rather would have done the same thing if the story had been about Bush's opponent, Sen. John F. Kerry.
However, things are not always as they seem.
The famous Melnychenko tapes in Ukraine had been certified by supposed experts. This is now being challenged.
A candidate for president in Ukraine was certain he had been poisoned by the opposition. However, the hospital in Vienna where Victor Yushchenko was treated says unequivocally that it is not true.
Then there is the whole question of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The Bush Administration went to war with the certainty that they would be found. They have not been, and by now it is unlikely that they will be found.
In the firestorm over the National Guard story, Rather came somewhat late to the altar of apology. The first lesson in damage control being to get bad news out early, and move on. Rather stubbornly held on to a slender reed until it broke.
In an interview with CNN's Larry King, Rather said that he had read President Bill Clinton's then yet-to-be-released memoirs. He proclaimed them equal to post-Civil War President Ulysses S. Grant's, which he also claimed to have read.
By being the first to interview Clinton on the book, Rather had what in old-fashioned newspaper parlance is called a scoop. However, when book reviewers of all shades and stripes panned the weighty tome, one wondered if Rather had actually read it, or perhaps simply read the first and last pages.
This time, Rather has been caught up in partisan politics. Because of this, he can't be nearly as effective at what he does. He is 72, though news people, including solid reporters like Mike Wallace, hang around at CBS into their 80s.
It is time for Rather to bid farewell to the anchor desk, and concentrate on performing reconstructive surgery on his reputation, perhaps by interviewing, well, folks like Madonna and Cameron Diaz.
Cronkite, now 88, still does documentaries with the Discovery Channel.
The news business has changed a lot since Cronkite held down the CBS anchor desk. Back then, the nightly national news program was just 30 minutes each evening. Now, it is 24-7. Would Cronkite have made the same type of mistake Rather did, given the increased pressures?
Maybe. But if he did, he would have resigned.
|
