RUSH: President Obama today in New York at Lincoln Center spoke at the Walter Cronkite memorial service. We have two sound bites. Here’s the first one.
OBAMA: Just as the news cycle has shrunk, so has the bottom line. Too often we fill that void with instant commentary and celebrity gossip and the softer stories that Walter disdained, rather than the hard news and investigative journalism he championed.
RUSH: Wahh-haaa! (sobbing)
OBAMA: ‘What happened today?’ is replaced with, ‘Who won today?’ The public debate cheapens. The public trust falters.
RUSH: Wahh-haaa! (sobbing)
OBAMA: We fail to understand our world or one another as well as we should.
RUSH: For crying out loud, he’s got the most compliant, soft media anybody’s ever had! There is zip, zero, nada investigative journalism aimed at him or his administration. Except by us. Imagine! I mean, to go to the Walter Cronkite memorial and whine and cry and complain about the nature of the news business. You know, the next thing he’s going to say? ‘Well, don’t blame me! I inherited low poll numbers from George Bush.’ He ‘inherited’ everything else from Bush. He’ll blame Bush for his low poll numbers. Walter Cronkite’s memorial, crying and moaning and whining about the news media. Here’s the next sound bite.
OBAMA: The simple values Walter Cronkite set out in pursuit of — to seek the truth, to keep us honest, to explore our world the best he could — they’re as vital today as they ever were.
RUSH: Mmm-hmm.
OBAMA: Our American story continues.
RUSH: Not for long.
OBAMA: It needs to be told. And if we choose to live up to Walter’s example — if we realize that the kind of journalism he embodied will not simply rekindle itself as part of a natural cycle but will come alive only if we stand up and demand it and resolve to value it once again — then I’m convinced that the choice between profit and progress is a false one, and that the golden days of journalism still lie ahead.
RUSH: So it’s all the fault of ‘profit.’ The news business pursuing profit, eeeeevil profit and progress! It’s a false choice. ‘The golden days of journalism still lie ahead.’ The golden days of journalism are over. The golden days of journalism where people in it determined and shaped public opinion without any competition whatsoever, are over. And Cronkite? Yeah, you don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but Cronkite was just a raging lib through and through. The reason Walter Cronkite didn’t like the news today is because he couldn’t do what he did even if he went back to the air after he had retired. ‘Explore our world the best we could… as vital today, our American story continues, needs to be told. ‘ Our American story may not continue very long with this guy in charge. ‘If we choose to live up to Walter’s example, the kind of journalism he embodied will not simply rekindle itself as part of a natural cycle, come alive only if we stand up and demand it’?
Who stand up and demand it? It’s the market, Mr. President, and it is what it is.