Back in 1968, Walter Cronkite was at the time generally considered the most trusted man in America. As managing editor of CBS News and anchor of the flagship news broadcast, "The CBS Evening News," Cronkite held a unique position to guide how the majority of Americans saw their country and her actions on the world stage.
America was deep in a war in southeast Asia, a war that continued to consume American blood and treasure, a war that her leaders regularly assured the citizens that victory was just around the corner, and
Today, the evening news needs to have a "Cronkite in Vietnam" event about how bizarre and dangerous the Trump administration is. If I was the managing editor of a major news organization like CBS News, I would organize the coverage like this, breaking the broadcast into five nights:
Episode 1: introduction/overview.
Episode 2: corruption.
Episode 3: lack of responsibility/blaming others/incompetent but hyper loyal hires.
Episode 4: how did we get here/accomplices, including his cult-like followers and the people who know better but personally profit/benefit from his policies.
Episode 5: justice.
Episode 1 would show his lies, his broken promises. His lack of curiosity and breathtaking stupidity (confusing incursion with excursion, being told an AI image was doctored and thinking they meant he was portrayed as a doctor. His having a "welcome to the US" message put on US passports. His Wharton School of Business prof saying Trump was the dumbest student he ever had, his SecState calling him a dumb SOB.) Point out all the financial failures (he bankrupt a CASINO!?) Trump's moral failures, from porn star spankings to stealing from a child cancer charity, and "grab 'em by the pussy. Include his humiliation at the WH Press dinner. Most importantly, the dangers Trump has put all of us in.
Episode 2 shows how he and his family profited from his office during both terms. Then counter claims of "both sides" by showing past presidents, even liberal interpretation no one has come close to how much he's brought in. Charging SS to stay at his hotels to grift/graft watches. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/30/trump-financial-disclosure-released.html how Trump made $635m in memecoin, $594m in World Liberty coin, another $65m from equity sales of WL, +$80m from "settlements " from media company bribes, and $400m worth of 747 from Qatar.
Episode 3 focus on his, "I take no responsibility," how he is the opposite of "the buck stops here." How his mentor Coen taught him to never admit fault, show him coming up with the idea of voter fraud live, as he announced his loss in 2020, saying, "We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election." Include his latest example of blaming non-existent vandals of the reflecting pool for his own corruption, mismanagement, and even his own motorcade driving on the drained pool. Also here examine his large but fragile ego, how he appoints people based on sycophancy "loyalty" but not competency. His hirings are inevitably comically incompetent but personally dedicated to Trump. From the first news briefing declaring that the inauguration crowd being the largest when it was obviously smaller than his predecessor, to Jeanine Pirro indicting people for throwing a sandwich or vandalizing the pool, leading to bogus arrests but zero convictions.
Episode 4 details how only a third of the country supports himbin any fashion, the bulk of his followers turn on a dime depending on what he tells them to believe, being cult-like followers. Smaller numbers but more influential are the minority who financially benefit but see through him. Lindsey Graham accurately telling voters how bad he is when Graham faced him in R primaries, then turning about face when Trump was the candidate. Paul Ryan confidentiality admitting that Trump was an "authoritarian narcissist" who acts on whatever makes him popular at any given moment, lacks the "character" required for the presidency, and was taking the GOP in a "bad direction." Supreme Court decisions that put more power into Trump's hands. How the GOP has evolved into something that never would have tolerated Trump during Eisenhower's administration. Goldwater's warning of the Evangelicals, Reagan's ignoring the warning and courting them, their increased power by voting as a block despite laws that are supposed to prevent preaching politics. Why concepts that 30 years ago were considered settled and would never be in dispute are now debated (the shape of the world, are Nazis bad) because monied interests benefit from questioning science and lead to political foot-dragging (action on climate change) and unintended consequences (science denialism leading to mask and vaccine avoidance.)
Episode 5 examines where we go from here. In the best circumstances our nation prosecutes Trump and his crime family, and claws back the ill-gotten gains. What political changes need to happen for that to occur (Democrats win both houses of Congress and the WH, overthrow the old guard Dems who will be satisfied with "sternly-worded letters" and avoid prosecutions in the interest of "healing the nation," and add reforms to the SC. We look at other nations who have successfully prosecuted their corrupt chief executives. We also look at other countries who have failed to hold political leaders accountable, and how that hurt those countries (including the USA after Nixon and Trump 1.
Follow this 5-day news special with daily coverage of presidential corruption and incompetence, pointing it out clearly and in context, and not letting the daily flood of BS overwhelm. Ask yourself, how would we cover this if Carter or JFK did this? Treat it with the seriousness and alarm that's appropriate for a person who could destroy the planet with a phone call... because that's the actual situation we are in right this moment.
Somewhere, the report must point out the dangers: how his vindictiveness, his now unrestricted urge to strike against those he sees as his enemy, is being fulfilled. Noncitizens being harassed, imprisoned, sent to alien countries, citizens arrested and thrown into prison for decades as terrorists, both risking murder. Loss of voting, separated from children.
Will we see this? Sadly, no. We no longer have a "fifth estate" with broadcast journalists who will take the time and spend the money to tell vital stories like this. Corporate owners benefit from Trump's policies in the short run, and unlike the independence of old-line broadcasters like William Paley who saw not only the permit to print money that was the ownership of broadcast licenses, they also saw the balancing need to serve the public with respectable and respected broadcast journalists like Ed Murrow. So we will continue to get daily spots of outrage, but no big production that puts it all together with a solution at the end.
In the words of Cheeto Hitler himself, "sad."
