[2 artocles]
FBI files discuss Cronkite aiding Vietnam protesters
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2067
May 14, 2010
by John Cook
Legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite allegedly collaborated with
anti-Vietnam War activists in the 1960s, going so far as to offer
advice on how to raise the public profile of protests and even
pledging CBS News resources to help pull off events, according to FBI
documents obtained by Yahoo! News.
The documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request,
say that in November 1969, Cronkite encouraged students at Rollins
College in Winter Park, Fla., to invite Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie to
address a protest they were planning near Cape Kennedy (now known as
Cape Canaveral). Cronkite told the group's leader that Muskie would
be nearby for a fundraiser on the day of the protest, and said that
"CBS would rent [a] helicopter to take Muskie to and from site of
rally," according to the documents.
The claims are contained in an FBI memo recounting a confidential
informant's report on a November 1969 meeting of a Rollins College
protest group called Youth for New America. The group was planning
rallies near Cape Kennedy on Nov. 13 and 14 the latter being day of
the Apollo 12 launch from Cape Kennedy, which President Nixon would
be attending as part of a nationwide Moratorium to End the War in
Vietnam. That protest action culminated in a huge march on Washington
on Nov. 15.
According to the informant, the group's leader (whose name is
redacted in the documents) told the attendees that during a visit to
a local CBS News station to drum up publicity for the protests, he
ended up in a 45-minute phone conversation with Cronkite.
--
"[Redacted] told group he had been to CBS Channel Six in Orlando
prior to meeting to speak to newsmen about Vietnam moratorium
activities. [Redacted] related that while at TV station, Walter
Cronkite, nationally known radio and television commentator, spoke to
him by telephone for approximately forty five minutes and that
Cronkite reportedly told [redacted] that CBS would have thirty six
hours of coverage on Vietnam moratorium with 'open mike' to give
demonstrators a chance to be heard. Cronkite noted, according to
[redacted], that Senator Edmund Muskie would be in Orlando, Fla.,
November 13 instant for Democratic fund raising dinner. According to
[redacted], Cronkite suggested that [redacted] attempt to Muskie to
come [sic] to Cape Kennedy to speak at Kelly Park rally to be held
November thirteen instant. Cronkite allegedly told [redacted] that
CBS would rent helicopter to take Muskie to and from site of rally at
Kelly Park."
--
Just nine months before, Cronkite had delivered his famous on-air
judgment that the "bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a
stalemate." Even so, such tight collaboration between a news
organization and the anti-war movement particularly the offer of
CBS News resources to help ferry a sitting senator and future
presidential candidate around in opposition to the war was highly
unusual and would presumably have been explosive if known widely at
the time. It's unclear whether Muskie ever actually attended the event.
Chip Cronkite, Walter Cronkite's son, told Yahoo! News it's highly
unlikely that his father would ever have made such an offer. "It
doesn't have the ring of a reliable story to me," he said.
"Particularly at a time when FBI informants often told the FBI what
they wanted to hear. I think it would be outside of what we know
about Walter Cronkite and CBS News' practices."
A CBS News spokesman declined to comment.
The memo is included in 72 pages of FBI files pertaining to Cronkite
that were recently released by the bureau. The FBI claimed late last
year, two months after Cronkite's death in July 2009, that all its
records on the newsman had been destroyed in 2007 which raised
suspicions that the FBI may have deliberately shredded embarrassing
files on its surveillance of journalists during the Cold War. The new
records appear to be from files that didn't focus specifically on
Cronkite's activities but that included mentions of the newsman.
Among the other incidents in the newly released documents are a 1966
criminal investigation into CBS News for allegedly airing obscene
language during coverage of civil-rights unrest in Mississippi;
applications for Cronkite and others to travel to Cuba and China; and
surveillance files on subjects who met with or were interviewed by Cronkite.
Here's a screen grab of the document in question: [See URL above.]
--------
Cronkite 'aided' protests
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/cronkite_aided_protests_9KPEbnCpMj1EwSfTQyc7wM
By JENNIFER FERMINO
May 15, 2010
Walter Cronkite secretly helped antiwar protesters in the 1960s and
even offered to have CBS foot the bill for a helicopter to bring Sen.
Edmund Muskie to a peace rally, according to new FBI documents.
The news anchor offered advice to the leader of a Florida antiwar
group, according to the FBI documents obtained by Yahoo News.
The claim was filtered up to the FBI from a confidential informant,
who said he was told about Cronkite's collusion at a November 1969
meeting of a Rollins College protest group called Youth for New America.
At that meeting, the leader, whose name is redacted from the file,
tells the group that he talked on the phone to the CBS newsman for 45
minutes, according to the source's account in the FBI memo.
Cronkite's son, Chip, told Yahoo, "It doesn't have the ring of a
reliable story to me."
.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Sixties-L" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
