RIP Uncle Walter. You Were The Best.

I got into journalism because of Walter Cronkite. I left when I realized the industry no longer seemed to value the ideals and ethics on which he based his career.

In Cronkite's day, journalism was straight and narrow. It was the business of bringing the news to the people as facts. We rushed to the scene. We checked our information. We double checked it. We tried to verify everything before we put it on the air and we didn't add our opinions. I was taught to, "Get there first, get the story fast, get it right and get it out!"

The true professionals of the business still embrace that philosophy. But, more and more frequently, cost, offhand ethics and basic laziness dictate how stories are covered. Some local stations don't send reporters to an event at all, arguing that a phone call will suffice and is far cheaper than having personnel on the ground. Sometimes the reason for not going to the scene is more dubious. News bosses know if they miss a story, they can always snatch a fact or two from newspaper websites or even from the competition. One of my former bosses called that "reporting with smoke and mirrors." I call it dishonesty. But I would guess it's condoned in every news market in the country every single day.

Here's a fact you may not know. TV stations in Chicago (except Channel 7), Washington D.C., Atlanta and other cities now pool their coverage of "routine" and even some breaking news. It's not used for every story every day but it works like this: stations supply crews to the pool. One crew shoots a news event and shares the video, presumably the facts as well, with all of the stations in the pool. There's no longer a race to be first to the scene of a burning building or a crime story because, hey, no competition! If the crew doesn't make it until the fire is out, so what? Many editors believe pictures of hoses being rolled up tell the story just as well as flames shooting out windows and rescues being made. For them, the necessity of seeing news happening rates a big shrug. After all, it's more cost effective to use aftermath footage. Unfortunately, if the pool crew gets the story wrong, everyone using that version of the story gets it wrong. If the pool crew doesn't interview eyewitnesses and relies only on official sources, only the official spin gets aired. Great for the officials. Maybe not so good for for the truth.

What is pool coverage but a slightly more respectable form of smoke and mirrors? Does it give us the coverage we expect? Do the stations even admit each time they use pooled video? Watch awhile and answer those questions for yourselves. And then ask another: what happened to "get there first, get the story fast, get it right, and get it out?"

Broadcast news no longer advises: it homogenizes. That's a tragedy.

Cronkite was appalled by it.

If we really want to honor his memory, we should be, too.