On this day in history, March 6th, 1981, Walter Cronkite, known as the “the most trusted man in America,” anchored his last news program.
Before the 24/7 news cycle, social media, and cable television, Cronkite delivered the news on one of three (!) television stations.
He started his journalistic career in 1935 and reported from the field in WWII. From 1962-1981, he hosted the CBS Evening News and was a leading reporter on the pivotal events of Kennedy’s assistantion, the landing on the moon, Vietnam War and Nixon’s resignation.[1]
Many consider Cronkite’s era in which he reported as the “golden age of television news” because of his sound, researched, and ethical journalism which is sorely lacking in our current era of fake news. [2]
It turns out that fake news is not a feature of cable news or social media. Fake news began, in fact, millennia ago.
The first “fake news” came from the enemy to Eve was that, “‘You will surely not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’” (Gen. 3:4-5). The enemy’s deceptive narrative, that Adam and Eve believed and acted upon, led to the ‘Fall of Man’ as God punished humanity for sin. As it is well-documented in the Bible, men and women continue to struggle to know, believe, and act upon truth— with dire consequences.
Another “fake news” report was documented in Numbers 13. In this passage, men returned from a forty day expedition to spy God’s promised land of Canaan.
At first the men collectively reported, “‘We came into the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is the fruit. However, the people in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large’” (v 27-28).
After their initial collective report, two divergent subsequent reports emerged: Caleb’s and the other spies. Caleb encouraged the whole congregation listening to “go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it” (v. 30). The other spies discouraged the people to go by producing a “bad report” stating, “‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are,’” in which the ‘“land . . devours its inhabitants”’ where “‘we seemed to our ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them’” (v. 31-33).
God blessed Caleb who reported the accurate and faith-filled report and the Lord blessed Caleb and Joshua to enter the promised land.
However, the Lord punished all who believed in the fake news of “bad report.” To the spies who produced an exaggerated report doubting God’s faithfulness, the Lord sent a deadly plague that killed them (Num. 15:37).
And the Lord also held His people to an account of what they believed. Upon hearing and believing the “bad report”, the “whole congregation,” quaked in doubt and fear and declared, ‘“Would that we died in the land of Egypt! . . .Would it not be better for us to go back [there]?” (Num. 14:2-3). Because the Israelites chose to doubt God versus placing their faith in Him, the Lord forbade them to enter the promised land and they lived the rest of their days in the wilderness.
As seen in these scriptures, believing in “bad reports” is deadly. Choosing to not believe in God’s faithfulness, and thus believing in false narratives, has dire consequences. However, believing and acting on the truth, found in the perfect ‘report’ of the Bible, brings life.
The world needs more journalists like Cronkite. However, there is a far greater need for more Bible readers and teachers. For only the perfect report of God’s word is, “alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
As Cronkite would say, “And that’s the way it is.”[3]