Commentary
As expected, over the past few days we have seen little honest coverage of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) meeting in Orlando, Florida. But hold on to your MAGA caps, you are about to be hit with a barrage of anti-Trump stories interpreting what the former president had to say as CPAC’s premier closer on Sunday
“You can see the headlines,” writes John Daniel Davidson in his piece, “Prepare for a Deluge of Dishonest CPAC Coverage,” in The Federalist, suggesting, “The Ten Craziest Things Said at CPAC.”
TODAY’S MYTHS – There will be those stories about the split in the Republican Party, even though the majority still support Trump and believe he will play a major role in the party moving forward.
They will be taking the opportunity to sneer at conservatives and surface the presence of white supremacists and refer to the cult of Trumpism.
“What our media elites don’t understand about the Trump era is that it wasn’t about Trump,” notes Davidson, “He was an effect, not a cause. The cause was the decades-long failure of the GOP establishment – the same establishment that didn’t want Trump to speak at CPAC and doesn’t want him to have a role in the party moving forward.”
We know that the Democrats are concerned that Trump has transformed the Republican Party into a working class, blue collar party
THE MYTH OF THE PAST – Coincidentally, after reading The Federalist’s headline predicting “dishonest” coverage of CPAC, I came across a blog piece about a myth from the past that has become known as the “Cronkite Moment.”
In 1968, we were led to believe that CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite’s declaration in Vietnam that the U.S. military effort was “mired in stalemate” persuaded President Lyndon Johnson to say, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” After all, Cronkite had become known as the most trusted man in America.
Writing about the myth, W. Joseph Campbell tells of how the Johnson quote has been often repeated as the truth. The story that Johnson, after watching Cronkite report, angrily switched off the TV, and made the remark to an aide, simply wasn’t true.
WHILE WE ENVISIONED LBJ angrily watching the news in the Oval Office, at the time of Cronkite’s broadcast, Johnson was at a black-tie birthday party in Texas, and it isn’t known when he might have seen a videotape of the broadcast.
In fact, in the days and weeks after Cronkite’s declaration, Johnson was conspicuously hawkish, seeking to rally popular support for the war effort, even calling for “a total national effort” to win the war, according to Campbell.
“UNTIL LATE IN HIS LIFE, Cronkite dismissed the notion that his pronouncement had much effect on Johnson,” wrote Campbell, but today’s lazy media continues to credit Cronkite’s declaration with bringing about our engagement in Vietnam.
I confess, in 1968, I was not the news wonk that I became later in my public affairs career. I preferred to watch Chet Huntley and David Brinkley’s reporting on NBC News.
It was a different time. There were just three television networks, and no social media platforms. Many Americans looked at anchors like Cronkite as the guy next door. Who will forget his “oh boy” after Neal Armstrong stepped on the Moon, or the way he removed his black-framed glasses to wipe a tear as he reported the death of President Kennedy.
In the mid-sixties, however, I did have the experience of providing technical advice to Walter Cronkite on a feature he was doing for his “20th Century” series on the Air Force’s aircraft boneyard at David-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
