With the death of Walter Cronkite I can’t help but think that this is just another blow to the already crippled body of American Journalism. I know that Mr Cronkite hasn’t been an active anchor for some time – and my earliest (and fondest) memory of him was as a narrator of Dinosaur! The Complete Dinosaur Story – that doesn’t change the fact that we’ve lost a titan.
What does it mean to be America’s most trusted man? I would imagine it was a title that Mr Cronkite took very seriously – a burden, even. Most importantly, it was a position of incredible power that he earned over a very long career. That being said I would like to expand on some things.
When I think about the 24 news cycle and how it’s altered the manner in which we not only receive news – but process it – I cringe. MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News all have “media personalities” who all have their own agenda. If you’re like me and can’t get enough news and current affairs, then cable news is like crack. But do I ever feel reassured about the quality and reliability of the information I’m getting? Most often I’m not. I’m always double checking and fact finding, ever vigilent of being duped.
So I wonder… why do we have the Bill O’Reilly’s and the Sheppard Smith’s and the Lou Dobb’s and the Keith Olbermann’s of the media world? Because information is so easily accessible these people have to put on a show for us. Their job is be the court jester while chewing over the same story 100 times with 12 different talking heads! Even the evening network news anchors are plagued by stories that act as fillers because they know we’ve probably heard about their story already.
We become detached from these anchors, or, news-regurgitators. That detachment, I believe, is fatal.
Imagine being Walter Cronkite on the day that John F. Kennedy was shot and killed. There was no mass tweet under the topic #JFK. Our imaginary BB’s and iPhone’s didn’t buzz with breaking news. Their was just you and Walter. You’ve come to trust him and accept him into your family and you looked to him for reassurance. This certainly sounds cliche but it was that kind of influence that made Walter Cronkite appreciate news the same way Judges appreciate the law – as something that should be pure and honest. Back then we kept “them” honest because they knew they had to be.
Now to be fair, I must also admit that the freedom I have to access limitless numbers of articles by zipping around the web frees my own mind from potential bias and lies. This kind of individual intellectual exercise should be applauded and repeated. But at this moment, when I see Larry King running endless specials on Michael Jackson’s nose and Keith Olbermann telling me who he believes in his omnipotent wisdom who the worst person in the world is …
… I long for someone in a smooth baritone to tell me, “and that’s the way it is.”
So just about a year into Obama’s presidency, I can honestly tell you that I’m just exhausted. Not the same kind of exhausted you get from the campaign trail (like I know what that feels like?), but rather exhaustion from the news.
Musings from Mike 