I ask "mature" DUers if today was the "Cronkite moment"

Was John Murtha's declaration today as weighty as Cronkite's turning against the Vietnam war?

Bush just got slapped silly.

He didn't use the word "chicken hawk", but he mocked him for being one.

"I like guys who got five deferments and (have) never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done," Murtha said.




Brilliant. :applause:

The thing with Cronkite as I have been told (not yet to the "mature" age) and understand from history was his being utterly representative of "main street" America.

and knew him as the man who everyon etrusted to tell the truth.

everyday and we listened. He didn't spin, he just reported. His speech about Vietnam was one of the opinion pieces that he rarely did. He had earned Americans trust so when he gave an opinion, we listened. He had already shown us the facts, he just summed it up that night.

I saw that broadcast and was thrilled then. Everytime I see a ray of hope with some news reader actually saying the truth, I am transported back to that day ... with hope.

I wish some channel would do a real interview with him now about today's war. I saw an interview not that long ago with Larry King and he was speaking truth that night. Unfortunately, it was Larry King, so Larry got him on to another subject fast enough.

Give him an hour to speak to the people and all hell would break lose!

Thanks.

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"He didn't spin, he just reported."

weeks now...but this was the icing on the cake...but so much coming now..seems there is no way for the cons to stop it..or slow it down..

but i assure you today i was so proud of dems..my heart is finally warming!!

fly

However, I'm already looking at the pile of manure that the good guys will have to clean up.

...but then I was a boy at the time. Cronkite was possibly the most trusted man in America at the time. Many Americans had never even heard of John Murtha before yesterday.

Hardly anyone knows who Murtha is.. He was great, and people will start to see him more now, but Walter was in our homes every day, and people trusted him..

He showed us the moon landing, sweated with us through Apollo 13, and cried with us when JFK was killed.. He was a well-loved family member to us all

Cronkite didn't just use integrity like it was make-up. He's still very conscious of the responsibility that comes with his position.

It's important, but not that important.
The Professor

there after dinner every night. I think he made more of an impact, but IMO, even more telling than Murtha's heartfelt statement is McClellan's reply. Labeling Murtha as a fringe leftist does nothing than make the Bush administration seem more desperate and makes it apparent how lame their rhetoric is.

Watching the video of Murtha really made me feel that somehow the scales were tipping, and things were being said out loud that no one had dared say. I was very politically aware as a child, so I do remember Cronkite and the end of the Vietnam war. This had that feeling...

all the kudos being given to a friggin' war hawk for finally DOING THE RIGHT THING........what was the cost now? :puke:

When Cronkite started criticizing the Vietnam war, it became a turning point because he was probably the most highly-regarded journalist on TV at the time. There were only 3 major networks, and in those days CBS and Cronkite were on the top of the mountain -- EVERYBODY watched Cronkite. Murtha, on the other hand, has been in Congress for a long time, but like most congresspeople he's not all that well-known outside his state. For that reason his remarks will not hit the same nerves among the general public that Cronkite's did. That said, Murtha's statement was very important because he has brought the debate to Congress in a way very few others could have done -- he's a relatively conservative Democrat and decorated veteran, and even the Republicans will be hard-pressed to credibly put him down, though they are already starting the Swiftboating. (The Black Congressional Caucus has been saying the same things for months, but they've received almost no news coverage because... well...).

In any event, the issue is now before Congress and they can't avoid talking about it. It's out there. The Democrats have at least forced the Republicans to understand that there has to be a plan for troop withdrawal, and soon. We know the Bushites really never had a plan to leave, since they are building 14 permanent bases. The Democrats at last are starting to grow spines, and are forcing them to admit we have to leave Iraq before it turns into another fall of Saigon scenario -- withdrawal in disarray after 10 years and many thousands of dead Americans. Murtha is getting the ball rolling.

and two years later I was drafted, so don't expect any miracles from an unknown congressman. It was great to hear, but my friends say, "Who the hell is Murtha?"

Who?

:)

I'm a pretty aware of all the Senators and most congressmen, but I didn't know who Murtha was until today.

Sadly, the repugs have rather nicely defused the media so as not to have anymore "Cronkite moments".

I can't think of one person in this country that a major holds in the esteem they did for Cronkite. A lot had to do with there were few choices for news in those days and he was the most popular newsman of the time. It wasn't losing Walter as much as it was this was losing the media in general. Before Cronkite came out, there was still that feeling Vietnam was either being won or we would "eventually" win it...Tet is what changed things, Cronkite's visit shortly thereafter just verfied to those of us watching things were as bad as we had seen.

There is no one person in the corporate media who commands either the audience or respect that Cronkite did. Also, in those days News was consider News...it wasn't cut apart in the way it is today. You didn't have the 24/7 news cycle and the war rooms and spin cycles.

What Murtha did today was to give any Congresscritter an out for their votes in favor of the war. Democrats should use this opportunity to finally unite and join the rest of us in declaring this invasion illegal and immoral. It also gives a life saver to moderate Repugnicans to hop off the right wing train to hell before it's too late. Murtha came out cause he saw absolutely no down side...and even the corporate media couldn't touch him.

in the sense that Murtha and Cronkite are different men, playing different roles in a changing culture. But it is potentially going to have a very similar effect, in that someone that the administration can not safely attack, has said what many have been thinking and saying for some time now. And the greatest similarity is that in both cases, it forces the president's hand: the president would have to be able to identify a goal, and outline exact tactics that will allow the US to reach that defined goal, or else the Murtha/Cronkite statement builds in strength.

will the effect be the same? i.e., will it be his opinion that makes the congress consider a hard turn to be a potential reality.

raised the bar.

In both cases, it caught the president's attention. Good comparison, in my book.

No longer is it limited to "commie leftists" or "cut and run pacifists" or "anti-American traitors".

Now, let's see how many other politicians have the courage to join the movement.

idea who John Murtha was. Everyone knew who Cronkite was.

Walter's thing was tectonic. I remember everyone was agog about it.

Murph's thing is probably as close as you'll get to that today