The Press: The Cronkite Retort

The elder statesman of television newsmen, Walter Cronkite, dropped his usual restraint last week to make a heated public attack on the Nixon Administration. Speaking in New York City to the International Radio & Television Society, Cronkite said:

"Many of us see a clear indication on the part of this Administration of a grand conspiracy to destroy the credibility of the press . . . Short of uncovering documents which probably do not exist, it is impossible to know precisely the motives of this conspiracy. But is it too much to suggest that the grand design is to lower the press's credibility in an attempt to raise their own and thus even—or perhaps tilt in their favor—the odds in future electoral battles? . . . Nor is there any way that President Nixon can escape responsibility for this campaign . . . He could reverse the antipress policy of his Administration . . . It attacks on many fronts: often reiterated but unsubstantiated charges of bias and prejudice from the stump, the claim of distortion or even fakery planted with friendly columnists, the attempts to divide the networks and their affiliates, harassment by subpoena."

In accusing the Administration of a sinister-sounding conspiracy against the press and TV, Cronkite chose his words poorly. He cited, in an area where precision of language is crucial, no specific examples to justify the idea of a clandestine plot. However, many newsmen would probably agree that the Administration has made a concerted effort to defend its policies by regularly attacking the media that questions them. At almost the same hour Cronkite was speaking, Vice President Spiro Agnew was in Jackson, Miss., consoling his audience for residing outside the "seaboard media impact zone," beyond "the first-strike capability of the Washington Post and the New York Times." He also coined an Agnewism to describe what he claims is the distorting editorial process by which violent protest is written about as if it were peaceful petition. The new term: mediamorphosis.