How American Journalism Changed in 1968
Walter Cronkite and his statement on the Tet Offensive
Walter Cronkite was a journalist and CBS news anchor in 1968. He originally adhered to the journalistic standards of the time, which were characterized by an unbiased voice and middle-of-the-road reporting. Due to the Fairness Doctrine, objectivity was the voice of the newscaster, and therefore of the dominant culture. Editorializing just wasn’t something that was done.
This changed when the news of the Tet Offensive broke. Cronkite chose to do what other networks were afraid to do: He decided to go to Vietnam himself and report on the war, without government interference.
This represented a major change in American journalism. The public was shocked when Cronkite returned from Vietnam and broadcast the truth of what he saw. He turned to the camera, looked directly at the American public, and addressed them as equals. He was “the most trusted man in America” informing the public that the government they were taught to believe in was lying to them.
When Cronkite announced that the war was a stalemate, he helped clarify what to many people was a murky image of what was happening overseas. The public didn’t know who to believe — the media or the government — which was the beginning of the “credibility gap” that we still see today. This moment symbolized the first crack in the previously-objective journalistic structure.
The idea that anyone could have an opinion about the war started to spread among other newscaster and into other facets of entertainment. Almost anyone, regardless of journalistic experience, started to report on the war. We see this today through the plethora of late-night talk shows that focus solely on politics and on reporting about politics in a humorous, understandable way.
Today, each news network tackles a story from a different perspective, and with a different story to tell. This began with Cronkite. He was not only one of the first authoritative public figures to denounce the Vietnam war, but the first to challenge the role of the reporter and to test the boundaries of journalistic integrity.
