We Need a Cronkite in the Fight Against COVID-19

If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.

Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson

The global impact of COVID-19 cannot be overstated.

For instance, according to a January 24, 2021 BBC article, the FTSE dropped 14.3% in 2020, its worst performance since 2008.

The human toll is even more painful to comprehend.

According to an AAMC article discussing how COVID-19 deaths are counted, death certificates provide the data for the agency’s daily updates of COVID-19 deaths. In mid-February, the total stood at 462,000.

What role has leadership played in the impact?

One example of speaking truth to power is Dr. Anthony Fauci.  Dr. Fauci has served 6 presidents, representing both political parties.  As I found during my time in the military, true leadership serves the people, not simply individual ideology or power structure. 

Walter Cronkite, the iconic 20th-century journalist and broadcaster, exemplified this type of leadership. Cronkite was considered more honest than sitting U.S. presidents. So, when the Vietnam War was at its apex, Walter Cronkite used his leadership to right the ship, open the American people’s eyes, and declare America’s Vietnam strategy incompetent. That type of bold declaration went against America’s leadership grain, created momentum to end the war and saved the lives of countless Americans and foreign fighters engaged in the struggle.

Who has that courage today? Who has the courage to say getting a vaccine can improve the global situation COVID-19 has caused?  Who has the wisdom to place the health and well being of the world above their personal status and ambitions?  Who has the boldness to plead with the American people on a nonpartisan level and usher in change to save the lives of the American people, sincerely placing America as a whole, the priority and not themselves?

In conclusion, we need men and women with the boldness of Walter Cronkite. Walter Cronkite used his bullhorn not to divide, but to speak truth to power, directly impacting the American people across the board in a monumentally positive way.

Sam Alix is the co-founder of CHAMP. Learn more at www.champ.vet.

Photo credit: Rob Bogaerts / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons