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It is a seldom proffered argument as to the advantages of a free press that it has a major function in keeping the government itself informed as to what the government is doing.

Walter Cronkite

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Walter Cronkite
Age: 92 †
Born: 1916
Born: November 4
Died: 2009
Died: July 17
Journalist
News Presenter
Saint Joseph
Missouri
Walter Leland Cronkite
Jr.
Walter Leland Cronkite
Jr
Government
Presses
Press
Majors
Major
Proffered
Argument
Advantages
Function
Informed
Advantage
Seldom
Free
Keeping

More quotes by Walter Cronkite

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I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that.
Walter Cronkite
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The debates are part of the unconscionable fraud that our political campaigns have become a format that defies meaningful discourse. They should be charged with sabotaging the electoral process.
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I guess I showed certain signs of being a workaholic in early years I had a magazine route very early on - I must have been about seven or eight years old or something like that - when I was carrying Liberty magazine, trying to win green and brown coupons I eventually [won] a pony.
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We know that no one should tell a woman she has to bear an unwanted child. We know that religious beliefs cannot define patriotism.
Walter Cronkite
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Reagan was an exceedingly likeable guy, just a heck of a nice fellow, despite his politics. He was funny and loved a good joke, the dirtier, I'm afraid the more ethnic, the better. I don't think he brought very much to the presidency, except charisma and success.
Walter Cronkite
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The ethic of the journalist is to recognize one's prejudices, biases, and avoid getting them into print.
Walter Cronkite
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I asked [my doctors] if I'd be able to play singles tennis and they said I could. That made me very happy since I haven't played in five years.
Walter Cronkite
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The perils of duck hunting are great- especially for the duck.
Walter Cronkite
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Putting it as strongly as I can, the failure to give free airtime for our political campaigns endangers our democracy.
Walter Cronkite
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When you're bringing in a fairly unknown candidate challenging a sitting president, the population needs a lot more information than reduced coverage provides.
Walter Cronkite
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Television... is not a substitute for print.
Walter Cronkite
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Leaving San Francisco is like saying goodbye to an old sweetheart. You want to linger as long as possible.
Walter Cronkite
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A handful of us determine what will be on the evening news broadcasts, or, for that matter, in the New York Times or Washington Post or Wall Street Journal. Indeed it is a handful of us with this awesome power.And those [news stories] available to us already have been culled and re-culled by persons far outside our control.
Walter Cronkite
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I sort of think in a way that many of us young reporters who had the opportunity to go overseas for our organizations were kind of, in a sense, war profiteers. We were enhancing our careers while covering that terrible conflict.
Walter Cronkite
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The daily coverage of the Vietnamese battlefield helped convince the American public that the carnage was not worth the candle.
Walter Cronkite
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America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.
Walter Cronkite
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Pat Robertson has written in a book a few years ago that we should have a world government, but only when the Messiah arrives. He wrote, literally, any attempt to achieve world order before that time must be the work of the Devil. Well join me - I’m glad to sit here at the right hand of Satan.
Walter Cronkite
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We are the lucky generation. We first broke our earthly bonds and ventured into space. From our descendants- perches on other planets or distant space cities, they will look back at our achievement with wonder at our courage and audacity and with appreciation at our accomplishments, which assured the future in which they live.
Walter Cronkite
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I am dumbfounded that there hasn't been a crackdown with the libel and slander laws on some of these would-be writers and reporters on the Internet.
Walter Cronkite
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I think somebody ought to do a survey as to how many great, important men have quit to spend time with their families who spent any more time with their family. Probably less.
Walter Cronkite