A TALE OF TWO NEWSMEN: PAUL HARVEY VERSUS WALTER CRONKITE

TWO FAMOUS NEWSMEN DIED THIS YEAR - HARVEY AND CRONKITE.

YOU HEARD ALL ABOUT CRONKITE FOR THE LAST COUPLA WEEKS.

NOW HERE ARE A FEW REMINDERS ABOUT HARVEY:


PAUL HARVEY:

Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009^[1]), better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcast News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience was estimated at 22 million people a week.

MORE:

The radio show Paul Harvey News and Comment was first broadcast nationally in 1951 and continued into the 21st century, making Harvey one of the longest-lasting and best-known voices on American radio. Harvey's program -- an idiosyncratic mix of headlines, comments, quips and advertisements, all voiced by Harvey -- was syndicated at its peak to more than 1200 radio stations around the country each day. Harvey was famous for his work ethic: he wrote and recorded his shows six days a week from studios in Chicago.

• HARVEY WROTE THE NEWS AND DELIVERED THE NEWS FROM 1944-2009 - THAT'S 65 YEARS IN THE NEWS BUSINESS.

• THAT'S MUCH MUCH MORE THAN WALTER CRONKITE.

• MORE YEARS. MORE STORIES. MORE WRITING.

• MORE AND BETTER, TOO.

• YOU SEE, UNLIKE CRONKITE, HARVEY ACTUALLY WROTE THE NEWS AND DELIVERED THE NEWS HIMSELF; CRONKITE MERELY INTRODUCED PACKAGES WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY OTHERS.

• AND HARVEY REACHED 22 MILLION A WEEK. THAT'S 1BILLION A YEAR. THAT'S 65 BILLION LISTENERS.

• THAT'S WAY MORE THAN CRONKITE EVER HAD.

• SO... WHY DIDN'T THE ENTIRE NEWS/ENTERTAINMENT WORLD MOURN HARVEY THE WAY THEY MOURNED CRONKITE?

• SIMPLE: CRONKITE WAS A LEADING LIBERAL OF THE MSM, AND HARVEY WAS A TRUE BLUE CONSERVATIVE - AN UNABASHED PATRIOT. CRONKITE WAS AN ANTI-WAR LIB WHO PRETENDED TO BE UNBIASED.

• CRONKITE GOT THE BIGGEST STORY OF HIS CAREER WRONG: HE SAID WE LOST THE TET OFFENSIVE, BUT WE REALLY WON. (MORE HERE. AND HERE. EARLIER TAB POST ON CRONKITE'S INCORRECT TET ASSESSMENT HERE.)
  

• BY PROPAGANDIZING FOR THE VIETCONG, CRONKITE IS PARTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MILLIONS WHO DIED THERE AFTER SAIGON FELL AND AFTER POL POT TOOK OVER CAMBODIA.

• I AM NOT BEING BIASED BY TELLING YOU HARVEY WAS GREAT AND CRONKITE WAS NOT, THE MSM IS BEING BIASED BY SELLING YOU THEIR HAGIOGRAPHIC ADORATION OF CRONKITE.

SORRY IF YOU THINK I'M BEING TOO TOUGH ON THE LATE CRONKITE... BUT...

THAT'S THE WAY IT IS.

HEH.

AND NOW... NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY.