In a news conference at Elon University on Tuesday, former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite said that he remains opposed to the war with Iraq. Details...
“I’ve not changed my mind one iota as to whether we should have been in Iraq without United Nations approval,” he told reporters and students. “This alliance is a myth, and I feel we should have listened to the United Nations.”
Cronkite said that the lack of U.N. involvement has put the United States in the position of having to mend fences. “We have now alienated apparently every Arab in the world,” he said, adding that the money spent on war could be put to better use on peaceful endeavors.
Asked about the news coverage of the conflict, Cronkite praised the U.S. military for setting up the embedded reporting program. “You get a great admiration for our troops if you get the opportunity to be that close to them,” said Cronkite, who served as a war correspondent during WWII. “I do think their reporting has been quite good.”
The former anchor of “The CBS News with Walter Cronkite” was also asked how the cable news industry has affected broadcast television. The major networks used to share 98 percent of the viewing audience, Cronkite said, and today that audience is less than 50 percent. With this increased competition for viewers, the ownership of the major networks has changed dramatically since he retired in 1981.
“We were never interfered with,” he said. “The network never told us what we should put on the air or what we should keep off the air.”
Cronkite made his remarks before being interviewed by former presidential adviser David Gergen on Tuesday in Elon’s Alumni Gym.