Walter Cronkite, the man most important after my Father

I grew up with Walter Cronkite. For a young man in 1950's Oklahoma City, I had no idea what was going on if I had to rely on local media. We had the worst newspaper you could possibly imagine if you wanted to get any idea about what the world was about. Can you imagine a time where one person was a man who words were taken as absolute truth? I remember sitting in the cafeteria in my high school and hearing about President Kennedy's death. I went home to find out about it from Walter Cronkite. When my girl friend was freaked out about the ghostly pictures of Man on the Moon and wondered if it was real, I told her that Walter did not lie. Has there been an icon since George Washington who had this power of integrity? When Walter declared the Viet Nam war was not winnable, America took notice. He was not some wild leftie, he was down the center, and all Mothers of draft age boys took notice. He was a wise mentor to so many, not just a newsman.

Now we are in a world that is totally wiki. We want immediate news, not a delay to 5:30 pm to find out the news. We are in an era of corporate news, totally corrupted to money, neither really left or right, just to a directive of greed, and what they can do to incite us to riot. Certainly, as a blogger I am grateful for the change from this. Politics and gossip lead the way into the new journalism of which I participate in. Trent Lott and Dan Rather can tell you that they lost their jobs because of bloggers daring enough to expose their racist statements and lies and I think Walter would approve. There are excesses to be sure, but that is the price of a free press. It is just that today I mourn the death of a great American, and I mourn the death of a simpler time when public figures could be trusted inplicitly. Rest In Peace, Walter, you help this young boy grow up into a man. I hope that when I die people will say that I had at least a slice of what you were completely about, honesty and integrity. Tonight I am very sad, a large piece of my youth has been lost.

Orginally posted on www.joepryor.com.