a great journalist pays respects

Some friends of mine are mourning the passing of Walter Cronkite. I respect these friends greatly, so I know they have good reason to mourn even though I do not know very much about Cronkite. I do know more about Glenn Greenwald, who seems to be doing the job that journalists should be doing, and who held Cronkite in regard for that reason. Seeing as the mass media's role nowadays is to drench us in sensationalism and dancing gals, or sparkly stars and their spangly underwear, I appreciate his comments such as this one:

So, too, with the death of Walter Cronkite. Tellingly, his most celebrated and significant moment -- Greg Mitchell says "this broadcast would help save many thousands of lives, U.S. and Vietnamese, perhaps even a million" -- was when he stood up and announced that Americans shouldn't trust the statements being made about the war by the U.S. Government and military, and that the specific claims they were making were almost certainly false. In other words, Cronkite's best moment was when he did exactly that which the modern journalist today insists they must not ever do -- directly contradict claims from government and military officials and suggest that such claims should not be believed. These days, our leading media outlets won't even use words that are disapproved of by the Government. Read more.

Of course, those mass media outlets are also those which have traditionally brought a more balanced type of news, such as the New York Times and NPR; in Australia, the Australian before Murdoch bought it.