You were lucky to be in his presence. Most of the country trusted him back then. I have no favorites now. All talk out both sides of their mouth and extreme partisanship on both sides. I try to filter out the bullshit, but it’s damn hard. Walter is rolling over in his grave.
Look at the clips where he reported the news about President Kennedy’s assasination, and the real emotion when he reported the President had passed away.
I was only a patron in a restaurant some tables away. That same summer, I saw another New England celebrity sailor in an outdoor restaurant on Long Island. It was Geraldo Rivera decked out in a captain’s jacket with stripes on the sleeves and a goofy looking Hugh Hefner type captain’s cap that looked like it was made out of terrycloth. From the supreme to the ridiculous.
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We’ve come a long way. Now we have vacuous anorexics with pancake makeup and frozen smiles, cheerfully spreading whatever BS they read on a teleprompter.
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Yes. Most of this started just at the end of Nixon’s impeachment and removal from office.
This was when Nixon’s Attorney General, John Mitchell declared “We’re going to move America so far to the right no one will ever recognize it again”…and then Mitchell went to prison.
In this time a group of uber wealthy people, such as the Koch brothers, formed a society with their wealthy cohorts made plans to act on Mitchell’s proclamation. Ronald Reagan was groomed to run for President and was later elected.
Newt Gingrich and others were on the ground working with young Republicans across the land giving speeches such as this one, where in 1978 Gingrich explains to Republican Youth that, “We’ve failed to teach you to be nasty”.
Frontline PBS The long March of Newt Gingrich
Shortly after Reagan’s 1980 election, he revoked “The Fairness Doctrine” in USA Broadcasting. His reasons for doing this were lame at best. (claiming that Equal Time
for opposing views in broadcasting wasn’t necessary…that people could find other opinions in the media if they wanted to seek them…thus entered in the era of one sided journalism…such as Steamer is pointing to) It reached it’s zenith with Fox News Network.
Soon after this “Conservative Talk Media” bloomed and those such as Rush Limbaugh became bigger than life Employers played it thru the PA systems in factories and shops
literally, in some places, forcing it on workers. Anything Limbaugh said was not held to rebuttal as it would have been after Reagan revoked the Fairness Doctrine. People could call into the Limbaugh show to disagree but be shouted down before they could make any point Limbaugh would agree on. Much like Trump does today before the press…
But Limbaugh is only one example.
Many of the Tele-Evangieist in the Big Congregational Churches were used in a similar mission to shepherd voters and were funded to do this. As 15501 C3 non profit entities
there was no accountability for the donations they received… Some became wealthy enough to ;acquire executive jets and allowed politicians to use them when campaigning…justifying it by saying that they were pledged to represent the Church mission and vision once elected. (such as fighting to repress Gay marriage, anti abortion, and other such contentions to serve as a fund raising & funding mechanism ultimately benefiting the party.
L. Ron Hubbard (Founder of Scientology) once said “Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion.”
Conservative Talk Radio and Tele-Evavengelist became the new “group think” in those times and has played a major role in delivering America to where it is today. It prey’s on those who would rather follow than think for themselves. Those of unstable economic times, and who don’t have a well developed ability to Think For Themselves. (much like those of post WW1 Germany)
One last great irony in this. In 1954 a movie “Prisoner of War” had Ronald Reagan as it’s star and showcased the methods of Brain Washing that were used on some American prisoners of war. Should you ever see this movie you will understand how this has been used as a template for what has followed since Reagan became President. The BBC production below uses some out takes and is worth watching. These methods had been developed by the Chinese (who assisted north Korea) over the centuries.
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By the mid 1970’s companies like “Clear Channel” were buying up old relics of AM Radio Station Transmitters that had been sitting idle for years or worked in the most marginal
capacity. FM radio had left it’s obscurity of the 1950’s and became the choice medium
for music programming due to it’s better more clear signal. Even though it didn’t have the longer distance reach of the AM signal, FM and music programming was becoming the media of choice in the USA. In earlier decades AM lent itself well to sports broadcast, and oratory. Music was offered but didn’t reproduce so well on AM as it did FM.
By the mid 1970’s those factions who wanted to give the ultra right wing a voice found a
bonanza in idle AM radio transmitters & towers (antenna’s) that could be purchased dirt cheap and linked together via telephone line to build an ever increasing network throughout the USA. Most people would never question the source of the signal…but just listen to the message. To fool them into believing this was a prosperous new beginning and turning point in the USA a few nice empty office buildings were acquired and treated with modern signage with slick graphic design…proclaiming “Excellence In Broadcasting” Network. This would be the Studio and offices of a political action committee. But the broadcast transmitters were little more than rag tag relics of the 1920’s and 1930’s AM radio heydays. (all connected via telephone line) even though images of satellite dishes were shown in EIB literature.(this from industry magazines friends of mine showed me) In truth the only ones who could afford those big dishes would be the Evangelical Big Box Churches like “The PTL Club” near Charlotte, NC.
In the case of the EIB Network a man named Rush Limbaugh, the son of a conservative Judge and a three time failure in broadcasting was employed to become the Rush Limbaugh radio star we know today. His job, to read the teleprompter which would
show him the message those of the PAC wanted America to hear.
Old radio station transmitter facilities like this (example)
Old radio transmission facilities sit empty for years although they could be made to work
with little effort. They were simply antiques by the standards of the time. But not until an effort to bring conservative talk radio into being did these facilities get a second life.
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I bumped into (literally) Walter Cronkite when I was in Castine for grad school. I was coming out of one of the only two pay phones in town (this was 1987), he was heading into the other right next to the one I used, neither were paying much attention. I recognized who it was in time to keep from blurting out something profane, he seemed more gracious about it.
Geraldo Rivera went to SUNY Maritime for a year, I think his son is either there now, or has recently graduated.
So in other words. The villain from Summer Rental. Got it.
Also,
I do believe Geraldo spent some time at Fort Scupper…
Such a proud alumnus am I 
I worked with a guy who went to Fort Schuyler when Geraldo was there. He said he went by Gerry (Jerry?) Rivera then, that is, until he found his Hispanic roots. “Geraldo” was more marketable than Gerry.
Maybe he didn’t need to find them, but no longer felt he needed to hide them.
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Before Rush Limbaugh there was Father Coughlin.
After the outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939, the Roosevelt administration finally forced the cancellation of his radio program and forbade distribution by mail of his newspaper, Social Justice .
There’s some weird need in the human psyche that causes so many people to follow people like Limbaugh, and it’s been going on for a long time. When I was a kid in the '50s, my father became intrigued by a talk show on TV that everyone was talking about. It was the Joe Pyne Show on Los Angeles television, and became the model for all the rest:
If you think about it, these demagogues work on the basic sales principle of "get your customer to say ‘Yes’ ".
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This is indeed unbelievable that people can be manipulated so easily. But on the other hand we are still wondering how an entire not so stupid German nation was manipulated by a little moustached shouting man.Blockquote
You may already be aware of this but I’ll offer this insight.
During WW1 Alois Schickelgruber, the man we know as Adolph Hitler today, was a gunnery corporal and a messenger. He was wounded in action and awarded a medal for his valor. He would parlay this into a political career.
What isn’t so well known…was his attending meeting of the Tholes Society which was a
wealthy industrialist and politico’s,This was before the end of the war. The Tholes members thought they had found a promotable man to represent their interest and began a heavy investment to groom him. This included tutors who would mentor him with public speaking and what some would see as “elocution”. (which is the skill of clear and expressive speech, especially of distinct pronunciation, articulation, and dramatization)
He was taught the thinking and values of the Tholes such that he could be the idealized leader. He would be able to address the problems the Tholes saw in Germany, scapegoat those the Tholes opposed, pull the heart strings of those who were down and out in the post war period and undermine those of mainstream leadership. He would orchestrate a private military of those who weren’t “well born enough” to be in the standing professional military, the Wehrmacht, of that time. (think Black Uniforms and the SS SD…and there were others in it too)
Hitler inspired the down and out Germans, and the Nazi party began to sanction the feeding and clothing of the people especially during the winter. Eintopf (one pot meals)
fed down and out countrymen and help to shepherd them into a cohesive group who would become loyal to Hitler and the Nazi party. Hitler would have events to inspire and entertain…much like Cicero in Rome who promoted “bread and circuses”.
Remember, Rush Limbaugh bills his broadcast as “entertainment”. (He hides the poison
laughter and frivolity)
Eintopf meal
Oopah band promoting eintopf meals
You may be able to better understand now how intelligent Germans who were in a miserable plight could be seduced & coaxed into the Third Reich with food, clothing (some uniforms) and confidence & pride building measures to build their “faith”, while at the same time a sector of more prosperous people were liquidated and their wealth redistributed.to achieve the ends of the Nazi party.
Again, a template so easy to replicate. In the USA where hatred & resentment smolders
between some minorities while divisions between the north & south (civil war era) still linger 150 years hence. Somewhat different circumstances, but just as easily manipulated by politicians, talk radio stars and unscrupulous clergymen. .
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Only the eintopf meals are missing. But now we have food banks instead. The German people were also impressed by Hitler building a large networks of ‘autobahns’ that still exist and still carry heavy traffic to this date. However, for Hitler it was a means of moving armies quickly from one point to another and it meant work for tens and tens of thousands of jobless Germans for which they adored him. Also the Volkswagen (clever name!) or People’s Car made a big impression on the nation and helped to boost their self confidence. If Trump was clever he would have started building infrastructure like Hitler and maintaining all the other things like high ways, bridges, tunnels etc, thereby creating lots of jobs and win sympathy and voters.
It was part of his platform and it’s still on his agenda as he’s brought it up several times in recent press conferences. I think he was planning on pushing it through on his second term which now is not as sure a bet as it was just 3 months ago.
Agreed. In the USA most of the long distance bulk transport is done by rail or water. If under 500 miles (roughly 800k)is mostly by motor freight on the highways. Most passenger transport is done by air and perhaps 10% of travelers go by rail.
The problem we have is in that these industries are so mature and ensconced with lobbyist and money behind them not to mention investors that new ideas & technologies represent a threat to their very existence.
As one Engineer friend of mine used to ponder, how much better off would we be had we not invented the wheel ? He was joking.
The US post-war highway system is also for military use.
Wasn’t it Eisenhower who was impressed by the Autobahns in Germany and as President started the construction of the freeway system in the 1950’s.
I seem to recall that they were designed to allow a car of that era to be safely driven at 70mph on crossply tires.