When Fox settled its lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems and then ousted Tucker Carlson, my former colleagues in journalism recalled the “glory days” of Walter Cronkite at CBS News.
But were those days so good?
In a recent biography of Cronkite, Douglas Brinkley investigates some of the anchor’s antics on and off the television screen.
Following are some of the revelations in the biography:
–Cronkite cut a deal with Pan Am to fly his family to worldwide vacation spots. Together with a handful of friends, they traveled across the globe with Cronkite snorkeling, swimming, and drinking, thanks to a friend at the airline. CBS News President Richard Salant was upset at what he deemed a blatant conflict of interest but took no action against his star anchor.
–Cronkite secretly bugged a committee room at the 1952 GOP convention.
–Cronkite misled viewers about 1964 GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater. On the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Cronkite nodded in thinly veiled contempt when handed a note on air that the Arizona senator had said “no comment.” Goldwater was attending his mother-in-law’s funeral that day.
“Whether or not Senator Goldwater wins the nomination,” Cronkite told viewers another day, “he is going places, the first place being Germany.” Although Goldwater had merely accepted an invitation to visit a U.S. Army facility there, correspondent Daniel Schorr said he was launching his campaign in “the center of Germany’s right wing.”
–Although Cronkite and his fans maintained that the anchor kept his liberal views off the air, he met privately with Robert Kennedy in 1968 to urge him to run for president.
–After covering Nixon’s historic visit to China, Cronkite let loose with a night of partying in San Francisco. Cronkite and a colleague went to an infamous topless bar, and he was later spotted dining with a go-go dancer in a miniskirt and plunging neckline.
In reviewing the book, Howard Kurtz wrote: “Brinkley’s book will undoubtedly tarnish the Cronkite legacy. But my admiration for the man is only partly diminished. Perhaps it is too easy to judge him by today’s standards, any more than we should condemn Thomas Jefferson for owning slaves. Perhaps he simply reflected his times, when some journalists and politicians quietly collaborated, when conflicts of interest were routinely tolerated when a powerful media establishment could sweep its embarrassments under the rug.”
Late in 2021, the father of Chicago Tribune City Hall reporter Gregory Pratt, died. Father and son shared the same name, but the younger Pratt hadn’t seen his dad since he was five. That is, until shortly before the passing of the older Pratt, which the reporter, in a behind-the-pay-wall column, movingly wrote about in the Tribune.
Last week, the Chicago City Wire, a newspaper often dismissed as “fake” and “pink slime” by liberals, noticed something in Pratt’s column, a link to a GoFundMe page organized by a cousin for the reporter, to defray the senior Pratt’s medical bills, That GoFundMe link should have immediately raised eyebrows. But it was the “fake” source that got the scoop.
The Chicago Tribune’s lead City Hall reporter Gregory Pratt solicited and received at least $1,790 in donations in a GoFundMe.com fundraiser benefiting his family from sources he covers– including elected officials, political consultants and lobbyists.
The donors included Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who gave him $150, along with Evelyn Chinea-García, the wife of recent mayoral candidate, U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia ($500) and former Illinois Deputy Governor and State Attorney General candidate Jesse Ruiz ($100).
Three members of the Chicago City Council Pratt covers – Ald. Gil Villegas (36th), Ald. Samantha Nugent (39th) and Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th)– also contributed to Pratt, along with Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner and lobbyist Michael Alvarez ($250) and Chicago political operatives Rebecca Carroll, Eli Stone, Carolyn Grisko and Joanna Klonsky, who recently worked for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Chicago City Wire, and several other papers, are published by Local Government Information Services, which was founded by conservative activist and WIND-AM radio personality Dan Proft in 2016.
A Twitter fight between Proft and Pratt ensued, which led former Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass to respond in the comments thread, “When a news organization gives editorial control to billionaire Bolshevik like George Soros, that news organization has no credibility. Any comment @chicagotribune @CTGuild @royalpratt???
When a news organization gives editorial control to billionaire Bolshevik like George Soros, that news organization has no credibility. Any comment @chicagotribune@CTGuild@royalpratt ???
Kass’ referral to @CTGuild is in regard to the Chicago Tribune Guild, the union representing Trib reporters. It is the organization that fought with the longtime conservative columnist at the Tribune over a 2020 column highly critical of Kim Foxx–you know, Jussie Smollett’s protector–where Kass brings up how Foxx and other big city Democratic catch-and-release prosecutors are funded by leftist billionaire George Soros. The Guild, of which Kass was not a member, in a biased manner deemed that column as anti-Semitic. The Guild’s protest led to a de facto demotion for Kass.
Pratt, whose Twitter handle is @royalpratt, displays the Chicago Tribune Guild logo on his Twitter page.
As legendary baseball announcer Mel Allen used to say, “How about that?”
To be fair, for all I know, Kass and Pratt are best pals. Then again, probably not.
Proft and Kass’ objections to the GoFundMe linkage are fair. Could those donors who work in politics, and who Pratt is expected to cover without bias, expect more sympathetic coverage if he knows they contributed to his dad’s GoFundMe page?
I don’t know.
Here’s what the New York Times, on its ethics page, says about possible improprieties.
Personal relations with sources: Relationships with sources require the utmost in sound judgment and self discipline to prevent the fact or appearance of partiality. Cultivating sources is an essential skill, often practiced most effectively in informal settings outside of normal business hours. Yet staff members, especially those assigned to beats, must be sensitive that personal relationships with news sources can erode into favoritism, in fact or appearance. And conversely staff members must be aware that sources are eager to win our good will for reasons of their own.
Which brings me to beat reporting. Years ago, the Trib used to move around reporters in a seemingly bizarre fashion. For instance, Bruce Buursma went from the religion beat to covering the Chicago White Sox. Such transfers create more-rounded journalists –and since Chicago’s two baseball teams went nearly a century for one–and over a century for the other–between World Series titles, a faith reporter might have been just what baseball fans reading the Tribune needed at that time.
Sadly, for reporters coving elected officials, mostly but not exclusively on the left, politics is their religion. They are not journalists, they’re activists playing on the same team.
Here’s one more old story. Jay McMullen, who later married Chicago mayor Jane Byrne, was for over twenty years was the City Hall reporter for the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times. Eventually his bosses viewed McMullen as being too cozy with the pols he covered–so he was exiled to the real estate page. McMullen later worked for his wife during her single term in office.
Note: Two days ago, I emailed Gregory Pratt about my intention to write a blog post about the GoFundMe page controversy. I received an out-of-office reply that suggested I contact another person. As of the evening of April 30, I have not received a non-automated response from either of them.
I’ve noted in the past that the biggest problem for Anheuser Busch is that it’s very very easy to boycott Bud Light so if they want to stop the bleeding in the US they will have to take actual pro-active action to do so.
Everyone knows this but nobody knows this more than the folks at the LGBTQ community so called “human rights campaign” who realize that their ability to push their agenda through cooperate intimidation can come to a screeching halt if companies decide that the potential cost of keeping the professional protester class appeased is outweighed by the cost to the bottom line, particularly for companies where there are easy alternatives to their product available.
So they are keeping the pressure on Anheuser Bush not only to just stay silent on the matter but to double down:
The Human Rights Campaign is calling on Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Bud Light, to publicly reaffirm its support for the transgender community following weeks of right-wing pushback over the brewing company’s recent partnership with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
In a letter sent this week to Anheuser-Busch’s head of human resources, Jay Brown, a senior vice president at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, slammed the company’s response to the controversy as insufficient and cowardly.
“In this moment, it is absolutely critical for Anheuser-Busch to stand in solidarity with Dylan and the trans community,” reads the April 26 letter obtained by The Hill.
So far Anheuser Busch has declined to meet with these folks as they understand how it would be received by a customer base already walking away. The real danger for the Bud folks is that one people start getting used to buying another brand it becomes easier for them to continue to do so, that’s marketing 101.
It all comes down to this: Is the potential permanent damage the Mulvaney business has caused greater than the damage the HRC folks can do, or to put it another way. Are the HRC crowd Anheuser Bush drinkers in general and/or Bud Light drinkers in particular?
If the answer is “yes” then Anheuser Bush will likely at best wait this out and take the hit they’ve gotten or at worse cave and risk a 2nd drop.
If the answer is “no” and I suspect it is, then our best move is to keep the pressure on because many other companies are watching to see how this plays out.
Those companies are the real target of the HRC letter and those companies are the reason why we need to dramatically demonstrate that caving has a price and until they are more scared of us then they are of them, nothing will change.
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