How The Legend of CRONKITE Continues For Me, and will always live on during my career

[newswatch 1]

I am a college student studying journalism (Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, CO). I have some paid and some unpaid off-campus journalism jobs, which I am gaining paid experience as a finish college. As I'm going through my college years and gaining experience, I'm finding myself in the shoes of WALTER CRONKITE

 

 

 

JOURNALISM EXPERIENCE

 

Radio Stations - Cronkite worked as a news and sports announcer for KCMO in Kansas City and WKY in Oklahoma City; I was a volunteer announcer for the internet radio station at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, where I had my own weekly news program.

 

Newspapers - He worked for newspapers. I worked for an off-campus monthly publication called Newspeak, where I had my on-editorial reporting column; I also was a reporter/writer/editor for the PPCC newspaper.

 

Miscellaneous Media - He worked for UPI (United Press International) as a correspondent in Moscow. I want to enlist in the Army next year, and after enlistment, I'd like to work for Armed Forces Network.

 

Newspapers, radio stations, and miscellaneous media - the same experience Cronkite had (to take with to be hired by CBS News) I am currently gaining.

 

 

 

ANCHOR KICKING ASS, COUNTERACTING THE ANCHOR STEREOTYPE

 

This prime example of Anchors counteracting the stereotypes is when Cronkite did a joint interview with Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Mechamin Begin of Israel in 1977, hoping to bring peace to the two conflicting countries, with the triple handshake by Jimmy Carter to seal the deal.

 

I would do something like that in a domestic (at home) sense: stories that help bring two conflicting sides together to reach a goal, no matter what that might be. Democrats fighting with Republicans - come up with a unified solution to end the bitch sessions, shake hands, and work together.

 

For conflicting sides, do what Cronkite did, join both sides together and have them work together to reach a goal - Cronkite joined together Israel and Egypt for peace and love, I would join together the Democrats and Republicans. Talk about never giving into political bias in today's media!!!

 

 

 

If you are a journalism student in college, and you are gaining some on and off-campus journalism experience, how are you helping to continue the legend of Cronkite in today's fucked-up news business?

[Ntropolis 593]

...how are you helping to continue the legend of Cronkite in today's fucked-up news business?

 

There's a difference... the news business wasn't fucked up when Cronkite started.

[newswatch 1]

I know. When Cronkite started, it was all hard news, objectivity and journalism.

 

After Cronkite retired from broadcast news, news is all about opinionated bullshit, flash and tabloid bullshit, and celebrity and pop-culture bullshit.

 

There is no hard news whatsoever, nor seeing what we can learn from the story, how we can think positive of the negative, and what we can do to take action.

 

In today's news business, it is not like how Cronkite remembered and worked in.

[Ntropolis 593]

It would be awesome if the business today could go back to what it was during Uncle Walter's day, but unfortunately it's the audience that's grown accustomed to the sensationalized stuff that's on TV today. If some network aired a newscast like in the 1960s or 70s, nobody would watch it. People find it more worth their while to watch Olbermann and a Republican strategist duke it out on live TV.

 

Enough with my pessimism though... we have the power to change how news is reported and how the audience takes it.

[newsguy22 59]

It's great to see this kind of discussion on here. What a welcome departure from the usual "Can you believe Channel XX doesn't have animated lower 3rd CG graphics yet?!? Of course, I do enjoy those threads too.

 

Never give up the fight for quality journalism. Never. Also, never fail to realize the world we live in today is not what it was like during Cronkite's era. Journalism will never be the same. The audience will never be the same. There's enough blame to go around for that one to write a book.

 

Our challenge is to figure out how to meet the standards of quality journalism, while meeting the needs of an ever changing audience. Sadly, sometimes those two roads do not intersect. What are the right answers? Hard work, dedication and, most importantly, simply listening to our audience can go a long way to leading us in the right direction.

 

The one thing that troubles me is the pessimism I see, not only here, but in many other budding young journalists. Skepticism is great, even essential to become a good journalist. Pessimism, however, will get us nowhere. It's tough, believe me. But the profession will survive, thanks to folks like you.

 

I will say this. If my 15 years in the business have taught me anything, it's this: There's only one absolute, in this business and in life. That is this... don't deal in absolutes. Choose your words carefully. News is not "ALL about opinionated bull****..." etc. Yes, the cable channels may be full of that, mainly in analysis programs. But there is quality work out there. Look at the big 3 nightly newscasts. Look at some of your favorite local stations. Read the newspaper. There is good work out there. Find reporters, producers, anyone who you think you can learn from. Be a sponge. Emulate them. Carry on the tradition of excellence that is still out there. It may be hard to find at times, but it's out there.

 

Ours is a constitutionally protected profession. It comes with great responsibility. Don't take it lightly. At the same time, and many of us are guilty of this, don't take yourselves too seriously. Our mission is a simple one: report the truth. Simply serve your viewers, readers, etc., with passion and nothing but the best you can do. Do that, and we'll all be fine.

 

Cheers!

[takingaction4you 4]

I know. When Cronkite started, it was all hard news, objectivity and journalism.

 

No, not quite. I read Cronkite's autobiography, A Reporter's Life, and in it he described one of his first jobs in radio in a small midwest city where there was supposedly a huge fire according to the station manager's wife. The station manager wanted Cronkite to yell and shout about all of the flames coming from this building, but Cronkite said no. It turned out that later on there actually was no huge fire; it was nothing special. That was one part of the book that stood out in my mind - he was the definition of an ethical journalist from the beginning.

 

The problem with today's journalism is that if people want to watch "news" that agrees with their political opinions it's out there and easy to find. Whether you're a Republican or Democrat, you can sit and watch news all day with your political slant. Back in Cronkite's day, you had three networks for news and that was it and you had a more unbiased source of news.

[JacksonTV 0]

The one thing that troubles me is the pessimism I see, not only here, but in many other budding young journalists.

 

I agree. I have been feeling pretty pessimistic about broadcast journalism lately. With all the crap I see on cable news and local news, I wonder why I even want to go into this field, considering that there's so much of it that I hate. I guess because I still think I can somehow make a difference, and hopefully I can.

[alaskanews 108]

I agree. I have been feeling pretty pessimistic about broadcast journalism lately. With all the crap I see on cable news and local news, I wonder why I even want to go into this field, considering that there's so much of it that I hate. I guess because I still think I can somehow make a difference, and hopefully I can.

 

The pessimism is not just about the cable/tabloid nature that much of it is becoming, but how this business is rapidly going the way of the newspaper. Layoffs have become the norm, everyone is becoming a OMB and the resources aren't there to do quality reporting.

[Ntropolis 593]

The problem with today's journalism is that if people want to watch "news" that agrees with their political opinions it's out there and easy to find. Whether you're a Republican or Democrat, you can sit and watch news all day with your political slant. Back in Cronkite's day, you had three networks for news and that was it and you had a more unbiased source of news.

 

I agree there too... there's an oversaturation of broadcast and new media journalism outlets; another reason why local news is struggling. In the 70s we didn't have 5 news departments in one market.

[TrfRptr 3]

There's a difference... the news business wasn't fucked up when Cronkite started.

 

Cronkite STARTED the TV news business.