CBS News Kisses Itself With Special on Cronkite, The 'Steel of Integrity' (Unlike Rather?)

For a news division that prides itself on being hard-hitting, there's nothing less hard-hitting than a special where CBS News touts itself as the Historic Oasis of Truth and Fairness. That's coming again tonight with a special remembering Walter Cronkite on his 90th birthday. Most companies don't put their slobbery internal tributes up for a nation to watch, but CBS News keeps trying to live down Memogate and other embarrassments in partisan excess by playing up Cronkite. (To see a more critical look at Cronkite and his excesses, check out our Walter Cronkite Profile in Bias page.)

MRC's Justin McCarthy noticed a big promo segment on Friday's Early Show. The only honorees were Bill Clinton, George Clooney, Robin Williams and a slew of TV news buddies -- like Diane Sawyer cooing "I think he is the most wonderful combination of a certain steel of integrity but absolute humanity," and Katie Couric having a diva moment: "If I knew the answer to what made Walter Cronkite Walter Cronkite, I'd be running all three networks and every cable channel, too." The morning clip read like this: 

WALTER CRONKITE: I was assigned to take over the "CBS Evening News" in the spring of 1962. Good evening from the "Evening News" control center in New York. This is Walter Cronkite reporting.

MIKE WALLACE: You walk into that studio. You were walking into his office. And he was the managing editor. And he was the managing editor.

CRONKITE: I think it's too far down for that, you know what I mean? The United States told the communists --

GEORGE CLOONEY: I'm the son of a news man. And it's a huge part of my life. I grew up in a newsroom. I know Walter very well. It's fun to be around somebody who's actually been part of real historical events.

CRONKITE: Looks like a good sight.

CRONKITE: A witness to that violence said it seemed to be unprovoked on the part of the demonstrators.

CLOONEY: You know, the guy who held our hands through some of the biggest changes in our country's history.

CRONKITE: In Dallas, Texas --

BARBARA WALTERS: We didn't know whether John F. Kennedy who died. Walter was the one who told us.

CRONKITE: President Kennedy died at 1:00 P.M. Central Standard Time, 2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.

DIANE SAWYER: I think he is the most wonderful combination of a certain steel of integrity but absolute humanity.

FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: To me, represents the best of the First Amendment, the best of the freedom of the press.

CRONKITE: At first it was called the Watergate caper --

KATIE COURIC: If I knew the answer to what made Walter Cronkite Walter Cronkite, I'd be running all three networks and every cable channel, too.

CHARLIE GIBSON: He understood how to translate things to the television medium.

CRONKITE: This is Walter Cronkite on the Greenland ice cap.

ROBIN WILLIAMS: Beyond the horizon lies the North pole. Nice to meet you. I hope we'll have a good day. Would you like a piece of fish? I didn't watch much television at all. But something I did watch was "20th Century with Walter Cronkite."

CRONKITE: This is our story. As the Prudential Insurance Company of America presents "The 20th Century."

WILLIAMS: It's a great voice coming from a great man. That's a great thing.

CRONKITE: And that's the way it is.

WILLIAMS: And that's the way it is.

CRONKITE: That's the way it is.

CRONKITE: And that's the way it is.

SMITH: In my house growing up, south of Chicago, we watched the local CBS News on WBBM and then we watched Walter Cronkite and then we could eat. And Mother use to have to back-time dinner in order, in order for us to have a meal. You talk about important --

HANNAH STORM: Did that have an impact on you?

SMITH: Huge. And I think also, talk about an important legacy, his obligation to tell the truth. Unimpeachable in that way.

STORM: I like what Don Hewitt said about him. He was the anchor, in such frightening times, he was the anchor, he was the man that calmed America down.

Dan Rather actually shows up to praise Cronkite in this schmooze-a-thon, but as you can see here, and as Tom Shales pointed out in The Washington Post, he's left out of the promotional materials. CBS won't show a gooey promotional film for a presidential nominee during a political party convention, but they'll put this gunk on for an hour. Think of this as a convention movie -- and skip it.