Why does Chris Matthews continue to tout Satan-lovers?

Nick Gellespie at Reason presents some compelling evidence that explains how Walter Cronkite erroneously got the "most trusted man in America" moniker. He also shows how the story of Lyndon Johnson saying, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost America" after watching Cronkite refer to the Vietnam war as a 'stalemate', is a myth. Nonetheless, the glowing urban legend that IS Walter Cronkite continues to give Chris Matthews a leg tingle.

That leg tingle appears to be misplaced.

Via Reason TV:

...as American University professor and Getting It Wrong author Joseph Campbell notes on his great Media Myth Alert blog, the Cronkite story is totally bushwah. Campbell notes that Johnson did not watch the original broadcast and there's no indication he ever watched a taped version of the program either. Cronkite's invocation of "stalemate" was not original or memorable - that phrase had been used for a long time by then. And for all the talk of a "Cronkite moment," asks Campbell, why did U.S. troops stick around in Vietnam for another five years?

As further evidence that Cronkite should not go down as "the most trusted man in America," I give you exhibit A. It's video from a 1999 Award Ceremony at which Cronkite received the Norman Cousins Global Governance Award. Note how Cronkite refers to "Satan" by name and proudly proclaims he sits at the Devil's "right hand." To Gillespie's point, I think it's safe to say that anyone who shows reverence for "Satan" is far from being "the most trusted man in America."



This is not Matthews' first foray into showing reverence for someone who has expressed reverence for Satan. Let's not forget that Saul Alinsky dedicated his book to the prince of darkness:

“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history... the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”

Here is a clip of Chris Matthews touting none other than Saul Alinsky during a 2009 interview with Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT):