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A web log based on the principle that a civilized society deserves democratic government based on integrity. The premise here is the U.S. democracy has effectively been subverted by oligarchical forces which must be opposed with facts and rational thought. (An RSS feed is recommended.)

Friday, July 17, 2009

How Quickly We Forget

Today, veteran CBS News reporter and anchor Walter Cronkite died at the age of 92.

While looking for YouTube videos featuring Walter Cronkite I came across an NBC News "Special Report" announcing the death of Tim Russert about one year ago. Speaking about the general American public and not about the news profession, how many Americans spend much or any time at all grieving for Tim Russert? Tom Brokaw in the special report called Russert one of the premiere newsmen and analysts of our time. Yet, how many people would agree with that today, only 13 months after his death? If it were true, wouldn't more people have him in mind on a regular basis?

There are certain reasons having to do with news Walter Cronkite did not report which keep me from being able to lionize him. And what will be our memory of him one year from now? Will any of these news figures, formerly familiar to us, command any great love and affection five, ten or twenty years from now?

As an example, here is a name no longer heard in conversation: Peter Lisagor. Yet Peter Lisagor, Washington bureau chief of the Chicago Daily News, was also one of the most-respected journalists of his day, appearing each week on PBS's "Washington Week in Review."

It is worth thinking about the fact that in spite of being in our homes weekly or even nightly, newsmen of the past seem to have a rather anonymous place in history.
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