Where Have You Gone, Walter Cronkite?

In 1987 President Reagan ordered his FCC chairman to cancel the Fairness Doctrine, a 38 year old doctrine that required news related mass media to broadcast both sides of any issue of controversy in order to be licensed. This was created in 1949 (and later validated by the Supreme Court) from a post-WWII understanding how truth and knowledge became manipulated and twisted in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. A Democratic Congress passed a law to make the Fairness Doctrine permanent, but Reagan vetoed it.

            Less than a year later in 1988, Rush Limbaugh, a college drop-out and failed radio deejay (now one of the richest men in the world), began his Conservative political radio program, as did others. They had free reign to say or present whatever they wanted, fact or fiction-no matter. It was all about getting listeners and selling advertising.

            Since then there has been a relentless 30 year attack and demonizing of Liberalism and Liberals (Mark Levin prefers to call them “statists”) and then turning around and placing anyone or any organization that questions post-Reagan Conservative policy as being entrenched in that demonic category. It has become the mythical "Deep State" that hangs like a dark cloud in minds of their listeners.

            “Liberals hate America, Liberals hate Christianity, Liberals hate their neighbors, Liberals want to take away all your money and give it to people who refuse to work, Liberals have no morals, and they have no values. Liberals will take away your guns (and cut off your index fingers), and Liberals kill babies. Liberals love Government, as close to Communism as it can get. Everything a Liberal says is a lie”.

            Picked up by Rupert Murdoch (the Emperor of Sensationalism) and Fox News, there is now possibly a 35% segment of our Nation that watches and listens to nothing but fear mongering tirades, then listens to Republican politicians (who secretly love Government) echo back the same rhetoric to keep their support. Now they have a President who personifies the opposite of knowledge and decency and they can see nothing wrong in it.

            What happened to the strong counter-balance the Republican Party and Conservatism brought to this Nation? Where is the call for fiscal responsibility? They mock dollars for social planning while running trillion dollar deficits. Where is the call for strength in foreign affairs? They yawn while foreign adversaries attack our institutions and we tragically abandon our allies. Where is the call for family values and decency? They cheer their leaders who traffic in foul language and personal denigration.

            Now it’s all about who you’re not. Rush Limbaugh makes nearly a hundred million dollars a year selling hate and fear and President Trump wants every one of his listeners to ignore the “fake” news that says otherwise. That fake news which just happens to be all the news there was before 1987. Where have you gone, Walter Cronkite? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.