Glenn Melancon/Contributing writer
On Feb. 27, 1968, Walter Cronkite changed history. He was a household name by that time. During the 40s, 50s and 60s, he covered everything from World War II to the Olympics. Cronkite gained the trust of the American people by telling the truth.
As the host of CBS Evening News, Cronkite told Americans the war in Vietnam had no military solution. This assessment did not please political and military leaders in the U.S. The Founding Fathers crafted the First Amendment for just such a moment. Voters needed the truth.
In 1968 they heard competing versions of reality. President Lyndon Johnson had promised that victory was within sight. Privately, the Pentagon reached the opposite conclusion. The generals knew Cronkite reported the reality in Vietnam.
Cronkite’s editorial put LBJ between a rock and a hard place. Democrats wanted a quick exit from Vietnam, while Republicans demanded a more violent war. Secretly, the President opened negotiations with Hanoi and reached a peace deal.
Ricard Nixon caught wind of the peace plan and reached out to communists in North Vietnam. He promised a better deal if they prolonged the war until after the election. They accepted his offer.
Nixon won and reopened peace talks. Unfortunately, he accomplished nothing. North Vietnam held the better hand and the American public was tired of troops dying. The press continued to dig for the truth and stumbled onto a new can of worms.
On Oct. 10, 1972, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward published an explosive article in the Washington Post: “FBI Finds Nixon Aides Sabotaged Democrats.” Like Cronkite, they told voters the truth.
At first, Nixon successfully lied to the public and won reelection. But investigation after investigation revealed more crimes. On Aug. 7, 1974, Republican senators told Nixon he needed to resign to avoid removal from office. The next day, he stepped aside.
Cronkite, Bernstein and Woodward proved our Founding Fathers got it right. An independent press is essential to a democracy. Conservative politicians, however, walked away with a different lesson.
Conservative politicians needed a dishonest press to win elections and weld power. In 1996 Rupert Murdoch hired a Republican political operative, Roger Ailes, to run Fox News. Fox News attacks the truth.