The Chris Moeller Archives

Let's bury the "anchor" tag with him

Let's mourn the passing of the man, Walter Cronkite, a seemingly-all-around good egg who often criticized power when criticism was required. But let's not make the mistake of mourning, at the same time, the loss of the Cronkite era of journalism or the Cronkite-style presentation of our political news and commentary.

Simply because a corporate media outlet has anointed a solitary man (or woman) to a position of artificial authority before the camera does not and should not relegate the rest of us to the role of subordinate citizens. This is a perverted idea and an undemocratic one. The golden age of political reporting is actually now thanks to the diversity of voices found at a million cul-de-sacs on the World Wide Web. What Cronkite accomplished or didn't accomplish during his tenure as America's "most-trusted" news anchor is completely beside the point. He was just one disproportionately powerful voice. It's little wonder that such a collective dissatisfaction and cynicism grew out of the hearts and minds of the American people during this era of journalistic dominance by the medium of television. "That's the way it is" proved to be a popular catch-phrase, but in the big picture of a thriving and ambitious democracy, Cronkite's nightly declarations of "truth" were worth all of about two cents.

posted by CM @ 8:26 PM