Show Originally Aired: 10/18/2002 CALL 1 800-423-TALK
Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite and Dick Gordon in the Connection studio Email to friend
To view the full size image of Dick Gordon and Walter Cronkite in the Connection studio, click on the image left. (large file size)
Walter Cronkite considered the most trusted man in America, one day decided to put that reputation to the test. It was February 1968, and in a three minute editorial essay on the CBS Evening news Cronkite quite simply changed the course of history.
On that night, the anchor told Americans that the war in Vietnam was unwinnable; that the generals and pundits were wrong; that it was time to rethink Vietnam. It was a bold move for Cronkite, and it was an seminal moment for journalism, to go beyond the reporting of events, to tell a conflicted people a higher truth, something beyond the cataloguing of casualties or shifting front lines.
Objectivity and obligation, Walter Cronkite on the role of the media in times of great uncertainty.
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