Mood:
not sureTopic: "End of the Line"
Once upon a time Frodo was having lunch with a man from a distant land, and they were talking business. Frodo noticed a very distinguished man, accompanied by several acquaintances, enter the restaurant and seat themselves at a nearby booth. Frodo identified the gentleman immediately, and could not resist pointing him out to his own luncheon guest. "That is Walter Cronkite," said Frodo in his best impression of a cavalier star-gazer. His guest turned to observe, and said to Frodo, "Who is Walter Cronkite?"
He might as well have asked Frodo to explain the rules of baseball. Where would one start to define the role of the "most trusted man in America," "Uncle Walter," the man who told us what time JFK died, or who gave us the weekly number of North Vietnamese killed by Westmoreland's warriors? Frodo's guest had never watched the CBS Evening News, so he had no clue and Frodo found himself adrift in metaphor.
Brian Williams is no Tom Brokaw, and that speaks volumes about the nature of Network TV News. These days Frodo watches Bob Schieffer long enough to see the face and hear the story of the daily "Fallen Heroes." Frodo has no stomach for what follows, that which Ted Turner referred to as "the pervert of the day." Frodo misses having somebody report the news, for simply reading fails to conjure any imagination in the mind's eye.
Dan Rather never got it right. There is no need for the Network Anchor to be confrontational. Peter Jennings could wordlessly stare back into the camera at a poignant moment, and the whole world seemed locked together for one silent moment. Frodo will miss those moments with Peter Jennings.
Posted by loveysdaddyga
at 9:21 PM EDT
