Interesting watching the tributes to Cronkite today - entirely justified, in my view. But with all the fawning, it’s easy to forget that Cronkite was at the height of his prominence/influence at the very time moment conservatives were developing their “liberal media” strategy - bashing the media as somehow unrepresentative of middle America, endorsing and enabling bad behavior.

The sneers at the “liberal media” were sneers at Cronkite.

Consider this, one of the most famous Cronkite moments:

This famously prompted LBJ to say that if he’d lost Cronkite, he’d lost Middle America.

But consider, just consider, the reaction had someone like Brian Williams said anything remotely like this about Iraq. The right would have been in full-throated howl at the “bias”; and imagine if the contemporary right existed back in 1968.

Why does Walter Cronkite hate the troops? Why does Walter Cronkite hate America?

So this bit about how the country loved Cronkite - well, some did. But I’m pretty sure some hated him and hated what he stood for. And, in fact, still do.