DEATH OF FAMOUS JOURNALISTS PROMPTS SHODDY INVESTIGATION

August 20 2009

Washington, D.C. – For every era of journalism there is a great lament for what is lost. The gumshoe reporters of the 1930’s and 40’s derided the advent of television. The early television newsmen eschewed the 24 hour news philosophy. Those
journalists have railed against the modern rise of web journalism. Though all eras claim to be the golden age of news and journalism the facts are far from sound and as the world moves towards real time news gathering with outlets such as Twitter the debate over the nature and value of quality journalism will likely continue for many years to come.

Cited as the true benchmark of television journalism, the 1960’s produced some of the most legendary newsmen of all time. As time passed it became more and more likely that those names would pass into eternity but now that that eventuality has come to pass, many are still a little taken aback. The death of the giant, Walter Cronkite, last month sent shudders down the spines of many of that era’s reporters. Now with the one-two punch of Robert Novak and Don Hewitt passing has prompted many to wonder if journalism itself may be dying, and who might be next on the chopping block.

“There is an inevitability that with age people will pass on. Hewitt was 86, Novak 78. Inevitably age and life was going to catch up to them but they do represent an era that has now long since passed. They are all borne of the Edward R. Murrow mould which has long since passed time by and leaves only a handful of people. Of course they are elderly as well and it’s really just a matter of time to see who will go next,” said Scrape TV Media analyst Sarah Piper. “Mike Wallace is 91 and Helen Thomas is 89 so it’s likely both of them will be departing relatively soon. At this point it’s really just a matter of who goes first and when they are gone so too will an era that likely will never return.”

Early bets revolve around Wallace who boasts not only two years on Thomas but has had significant health problems including heart problems which may have been related to his years of smoking. Wallace is also an occasional contributor to Sixty Minutes (which was created by Hewitt) while Thomas is still a member of the White House Press Corps.

“No matter who dies first both will eventually go and that will more or less be an end to that style of reporting. True there are still the kind of talking head broadcasters like
Barbara Walters and Tom Brokaw but repeating what someone else has written isn’t really the same thing that they did. Now the question remains as to who has an interest in seeing these people gone and why,” continued Piper. “The most prominent journalist of the modern age is of course Matt Drudge but even he is becoming an endangered species. What we saw in the Iranian riots is that the old days of people observing events and reporting them is starting to disappear. Drudge though is still young and has many years so knocking off people who might threaten him in some way could be helpful.”

Other notable web journalists such as Perez Hilton are seen as less likely candidates for such assassinations, largely because of the limited news merit of their content.

“Where the most likely candidates might lie are in the era that directly followed. People like Brokaw, who is retired and thus has a lot of time on his hands, suffered a great deal of criticism from the previous generation and that could have resulted in a great deal of bitterness, the kind which doesn’t necessarily resolve itself,” continued Piper. “I’d think Barbara Walters is an unlikely candidate due to her nature but someone like Dan Rather, who has quite temper and has become quite bitter towards a number of people in hid old age. He was also on the cusp of those types of journalists and I’m sure suffered a bit of an identity crisis which could have led to murder. It’s more than a possibility I would think.”

Officially Novak died of complications from Brain Cancer, Hewitt of Pancreatic Cancer, and Cronkite of cerebral vascular disease, none of which are considered common forms of murder.   

Mike Michaels, American Correspondent

NEWS > U.S.A. > DEATH OF FAMOUS JOURNALISTS PROMPTS SHODDY INVESTIGATION