One of CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell’s favorite things is to praise journalists (like her) as instrumental in making this country work. One year ago this week, on July 19, 2019, O’Donnell told Late Show host Stephen Colbert she had been reading a Walter Cronkite biography: “One of the things he said is, ‘Journalism is what we need to make democracy work.’ And I so firmly believe that in my bones about having an informed electorate and also having a trusted news source.”
On the July 15, 2019 CBS Evening News — the first since she took over as anchor — she lectured Americans with another self-important quote, this one from from Edward R. Murrow: “There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance, and indifference.”
On the July 13, 2020 edition of The Late Show, O’Donnell returned to again cheer her own work. She again quoted Cronkite:
Well, look, I've always believed journalism is a public service. Walter Cronkite, who sat in this chair said, “Journalism is what we need to make democracy work.” We need an informed electorate. I didn't ever think I would be a public health official in some regard.
When O'Donnell says journalists make America work, you can assume which journalists she means.
For more examples from our flashback series, which we call the NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.
