The Tet Offensive

[railfancwb]

5 hours ago, tous said:

The Tet offensive, was by all measurable accounts, a huge strategic and tactical  loss for the North Vietnamese regulars and the Viet Cong.

Except in the national media in the United States.

This is when Walter Cronkite declared that the war was unwinnable.

 

I was in high school at the time, but I knew many that were there.

Outstanding job, lads.

 

 

 

Was Walter Cronkite, in spite of his reputation with the general viewing public, more typical of today’s MSM?

[tous]

No.

The primary news anchors of the time, Walter Cronkite (CBS,) David Brinkley, Chet Huntley (NBC,) and Frank Reynolds (ABC)  just reported the news and there was little, if any, political messaging.

Keep in mind that the networks only aired a 30 minute news program (plus commercials) each weekday, so there was little time for editorials.

Political news was covered on the Sunday morning programs such as Meet The Press.

Only in the age of the 24-hour cable news operations did the television news go from headlines to all editorials.

 

So, I can clearly recall the news anchors from television programs 52 years ago, but I can't remember last week.

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by tous

[tous]

More information.

If you think that we were all news ignorant because of only a 30-minute daily broadcast, you would be wrong.

Nearly every household subscribed to a daily newspaper and that was the primary source of news: national, international and local.

Where I lived in St. Louis at the time, there was the Globe Democrat, the more conservative paper, and the Post Dispatch, the more liberal paper.

Keep in mind, liberal as in John Kennedy, not Elizabeth Warren.

Both papers basically presented the sames news as news: who, what, when where, why and how -- you know, journalism,  and saved the editorials for the editorial pages.

 

This may be hard for young'uns to understand, but as far as which news broadcast you watched or paper you read, it was whatever one dad decided he wanted to watch and read.

One television, three channels and the kids were the remote control.

 

[Eric]

 

[Ramjet38]

14 hours ago, tous said:

The Vietnam War, or police action, as it was called because the US never declared war, was doomed from the beginning; the first politically-correct war.

One cannot hope to win when you allow the opposing force a King's X (Cambodia, Laos,) declare his good stuff off limits to destruction (no bombing the North, that would be mean,) and being forbidden to molest their supply lines (no shooting at Russian ships full of shooty and explody goodies in Haiphong Harbor.)

 

Add to that a fully corrupt government in the host nation, they shipped our money out of the country faster than their army sold their weapons to the other guys, and you have set the table for disaster.

I never saw our police.

[Historian]

12 hours ago, tous said:

No.

The primary news anchors of the time, Walter Cronkite (CBS,) David Brinkley, Chet Huntley (NBC,) and Frank Reynolds (ABC)  just reported the news and there was little, if any, political messaging.

Keep in mind that the networks only aired a 30 minute news program (plus commercials) each weekday, so there was little time for editorials.

 

That was a different time and place.  Journalists were different.  In fact, in the 50s and early 60s a lot of people complained about the conservative press.

Brinkley turned the lights off at the press when he departed.   He was an exceptional craftsman of his trade.  I greatly miss his voice from his television program.

But this is an industry that changes much like any industry.

In WWII no less than five men joined the Marines in order to be Combat Journalists...they wrote from the Washington Times and The Post and NYT...when not shooting a rifle.  I have two of their books in my collection.  They were true men of the press and fine Marines.  And if memory serves me, the Marines have a treasured rating for it's Marines called Combat Correspondent, MOS 4341.

The twenty four hour news cycle has totally destroyed the concept of reporting.  But at the same time we have had those sweet spots with men like Huntly, Reynolds and Brinkley, the business of journalism (and that's what it truly is) has never been a clean one.

Today's journalist (on TV) is filling most of his space with color comments and conversation rather than hard news.  They are almost actors rather than professional journalists.

Historian
B.S.J and member SPJ

[Historian]

1 hour ago, Ramjet38 said:

I never saw our police.

And as a cop, i never saw the NVA.

[Fnfalman]

14 hours ago, railfancwb said:

Which also killed United States participation. 

It definitely didn’t help. 

[tous]

3 hours ago, Historian said:

Today's journalist (on TV) is filling most of his space with color comments and conversation rather than hard news.  They are almost actors rather than professional journalists.

In Britian and France, they call the on-air people at the news desk, 'news readers.'

A most honest label.

Those manning the sets on television news programs likely don't investigate the story and don't write the copy.

They read from a TelePrompter

As you said, they are not journalists; they are actors.