Dan Rather was asked to reminisce about Walter Cronkite on “Hardball” with Chris Matthews. Dan Rather remembered the liberal media icon fondly and described Cronkite as a “straight news reporter.” Rather also recalled how Cronkite had advised him to: “Tell it straight without fear or favoritism. Pull no punches. Say it like it is, insofar as is humanly possible. Keep your own prejudices and biases and feelings and emotions out of it.”

Both Rather and Cronkite were unable to take this advice it seems. Of course, being called a “straight news reporter” doesn’t mean much coming from Dan Rather, who let his bias get the best of him with the fake Bush memos. This is the “fake but accurate” mainstream media crowd after all.

Cronkite once said, “I suppose, in all honesty, I’m a liberal.” Even without admitting his politics, it was probably obvious from watching him over time. The Media Research Center has documented some of Cronkite’s biases, and breaks it down into major categories including:

Promoting Liberalism
Denouncing Conservatives
Get Out of Iraq “Now”
Believing in Conspiracies
Wishing for “One World Government”
Terrorism Caused by Economic Disparity
Pushing for More Gun Control
Proud of News Media’s Liberal Persuasion

Some of the examples:

“We Ought to Be Increasing the Taxes”

“It seems to me that instead of cutting taxes, we ought to be increasing the taxes to pay off the deficit.”
- Cronkite on CNN NewsNight with Aaron Brown, June 18, 2003.

Torquemada’s “Spirit Comfortably at Home” in Ashcroft

“Attorney General John Ashcroft has earned himself a remarkable distinction as the Torquemada of American law. Tomás de Torquemada…was largely responsible for…[the] torture and the burning of heretics - Muslims in particular. Now, of course, I am not accusing the Attorney General of pulling out anyone’s fingernails or burning people at the stake (at least I don’t know of any such cases). But one does get the sense these days that the old Spaniard’s spirit is comfortably at home in Ashcroft’s Department of Justice.”
- Cronkite in his syndicated column published in the September 22, 2003 Philadelphia Inquirer.

Walter Waves White Flag, Again
“We should get out now….We had an opportunity to say to the world and Iraqis after the hurricane disaster that Mother Nature has not treated us well and we find ourselves missing the amount of money it takes to help these poor people out of their homeless situation and rebuild some of our most important cities in the United States. Therefore, we are going to have to bring our troops home…I think we could have been able to retire with honor. In fact, I think we can retire with honor, anyway.”
- Cronkite, who in 1968 editorialized in favor of withdrawing from Vietnam, in a January 15, 2006 meeting with reporters later quoted by Associated Press reporter David Bauder.

Karl Rove “Probably Set Up bin Laden” Video
Walter Cronkite charged that Karl Rove “probably” arranged for a videotaped message from Osama bin Laden to show up just before the 2004 election: “I have a feeling that it [bin Laden's new videotape] could tilt the election a bit. In fact, I’m a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, that he probably set up bin Laden to this thing. The advantage to the Republican side is to get rid of, as a principal subject of the campaign right now, get rid of the whole problem of the al Qaqaa dump, explosive dump. Right now that, the last couple of days, has, I think, upset the Republican campaign.”
- Cronkite on CNN’s Larry King Live, October 29, 2004.

U.S. Must “Give Up Some of Our Sovereignty” to the UN
“It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. To do that, of course, we Americans will have to give up some of our sovereignty….
“Time will not wait. Democracy, civilization itself, is at stake. Within the next few years we must change the basic structure of our global community from the present anarchic system of war and ever more destructive weaponry to a new system governed by a democratic U.N. federation…..
“Our failure to live up to our obligations to the U.N. is led by a handful of willful senators who choose to pursue their narrow, selfish political objectives at the cost of our nation’s conscience. They pander to and are supported by the Christian Coalition and the rest of the religious right wing.”
- Excerpts from a speech by Cronkite to the World Federalist Association on October 19, 1999. Published the December 3, 1999 Washington Times.

Terrorism Fueled by Poor Against the Rich
“I think very definitely that foreign policy could have caused what has happened [last September 11]….It certainly should be apparent now - it should be, for goodness sakes understood now, but it is not - that the problem is this great division between the rich and the poor in the world. We represent the rich….Most of these other nations of Africa, Asia and South America and Central America are very, very poor….This is a revolution in effect around the world. A revolution is in place today. We are suffering from a revolution of the poor and have-nots against the rich and haves and that’s us.”
- Walter Cronkite on CNN’s Larry King Live, September 9, 2002.

Lends His Name to Handgun Control Inc.
Dozens of celebrities, as well as Walter Cronkite, endorsed a Handgun Control ad advocating more gun control. The cultural and media elite all favor more gun control as demonstrated by a who’s who list of celebrities and media stars who signed a June 9, 1999 full page ad in USA Today from Handgun Control, Inc. Cronkite was amongst the signers of the “Open Letter to the National Rifle Association.”