I see where the New York Times is now equating Jon Stewart with the likes of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. My initial reaction was, “Oh My Gawd! How could they possibly compare this radically leftist comedian with two of America’s most storied reporters?” This must surely diminish the legacy of these news men. I mean come on, comparing Stewart to these two is like comparing sour cream to butter. You find them in the same section of the grocery (they were both on TV) but are decidedly different products (reporters vs comedians).
My next thought was that this was certainly elevating Jon Stewart WAY above his station. Again, he is a radically leftist comedian, and here is the New York Times elevating him to news icon status. Totally unjustified in my opinion. Again, he’s a COMEDIAN people! Yes, he has opinions and yes he has an audience, but come on now, let’s be serious. Iconic news figure? I don’t think so.
Then it hit me, maybe the NYT was absolutely correct in equating Stewart with Murrow and Cronkite. Maybe they actually hit the nail on the head, just a different nail than they intended.
By equating Stewart, Murrow and Cronkite, the NYT is allowing us to correct the focus downward on Murrow and Cronkite, rather than raising Stewart’s stature.
By opening this door, the NYT has given us an opportunity to revisit the careers of Murrow and Cronkite. We get to look back and see that they were NOT the objective reporters they are held up to be, but rather, like Stewart, they were left wing advocates.
I have no personal memories of Mr. Murrow other than vague ones of him on the nightly news when I was a child. I can recall the sound of his voice and the commanding quality it had. I don’t recall anything he said in particular. I do remember people assuming anything he said was fact.
As it turns out, not so much. While Joe McCarthy’s methods were dubious at best, he was correct in his belief that Communists had found their way into the government and Hollywood (much like the socialists of today). Murrow’s leftist positions in bringing McCarthy down may well have prolonged the cold war.
Cronkite, on the other had, is a clear picture in my mind. So much so that when I saw him in the Airport one day, I felt compelled to do the “guess who I saw” thing with friends of my own age. He clearly stood out as the unimpeachable voice of “the NEWS”. If Walter said it, it must be true. Walter’s pronouncements about the Viet Nam war were taken as gospel.
As it turns out, Walter was clearly shaping public opinion, not reporting! We know from Viet Nam’s own reports they felt they were losing the war but knew that if they let folks like Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Jane Fonda convince Americans they were fighting a lost cause, they would prevail in the end.
In any objective look at Murrow and Cronkite, one could easily consider them to be aparatchuks for the left. Helping to shift opinion away from a more traditional conservative American posture to that of a more leftist socialist posture. Who was it, Lenin possibly, who said that one of the first things that needed to be done in the revolution was to control the media? Murrow and Cronkite were a couple of the early shock troops in the left’s drive to do just that. While he is a comedian, Jon Stewart is another cog in the wheel working to control public opinion. A very effective cog, but another cog none the less.
So thank you New York Times for giving us this opportunity to correct our view of both Murrow and Cronkite.
OBTW, I would like to thank Jon Stewart for his advocacy for those who gave their lives on 9/11. I believe the bill was a worthwhile bill, although I do have to ask, how do we pay for it? I believe that’s all the Republicans were really doing also. You know it’s kind of like the old saying goes, when you find your self in a hole you don’t want to be in, the first thing you need to do is stop digging. It seems like we are in a financial hole, maybe we ought to STOP SPENDING!!!!
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