Cronkite has the skinny on the bearded wonder

Walter Cronkite detects new, "clean-shaven" bin Laden beneath the full beard in taped message delivered via Al-Jazeera Friday "directly to the American people."

"He was clean shaven, nearly clean shaven as those folks get," pronounced the aging former CBS news anchor -- "the most trusted man in America" -- Walter Cronkite in a Larry King Live interview originally aired Friday night. It was all over the blogosphere yesterday, and we saw it for ourselves in a rerun last night, including five words later expurgated in CNN's online transcript:*

KING: Now, bin Laden, of course, could help Bush in that it reminds people of a terror issue in which he runs strong. It also could hurt Bush in that reminds people he's still alive. So this could be a double edged sword, right?

CRONKITE: Indeed. Indeed. And the thing that in bringing this threat to us, there is almost, in the fact that he dressed well, that he looked well . . . It seemed almost, to me, that he wanted to enter into negotiations, that he was really up -- he wants to move into a leadership role in international affairs instead of the role of a brigand. And he spoke calmly about this thing. The threat was there, no question about it. He's delivering a warning to us, no question about that. And certainly, I don't think there's any reason to feel that we can take him to our bosom just because this speech at [sic] all. He's perfectly capable of blowing us up.

Then there was the reality-challenged Cronkite's paranoid assertion -- now making the rounds of the blososphere to humorous effect (Aussie blogger Tim Blair has the false-but-accurate Rove-bin-Laden email exchange) -- that the old news reader is "inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing." Most telling, perhaps, is this little-noted (in fact, the critical five words were expunged from the CNN transcript) exchange that suggests it may be long past time for "the most trusted man in America" to get off the stage:

KING: Will Ralph Nader be a factor?

CRONKITE: He certainly could be. He was very serious factor with 3 percent of the vote, not quite 3 percent of the vote in 19 . . .
*[sixty? What was the year? -- CNN's transcript delicately deleted those last five words, perhaps in deference to the advancing age of the blustering blowhard].

KING: 2000.

Walter Cronkite, poster child for the MSM that was.

Comments

[David]

I saw this on Friday night, and just couldn't believe what I was hearing. King gave this doddering old fool two segments with the usual lame softball questions.

Why am I surprised? I'm not but the Karl Rove thing went totally unchallenged, even by the panel. Come on Laura Ingraham! Where were you?!

[Terry Gain]

Karl Rove. This time the evil genius has surpassed even himself. The Osama stand-in was so realistic that even the most trusted man in America was so unnerved that he didn't notice the beard. And how many of us would have thought of getting the stand-in for the world's second biggest mass murderer to mouth the talking points of the spiritual leader of the Democratic party. Brilliant!