Editing Walter Cronkite (section)

=== Political activism ===
[[File:Cronkite Columbia tribute.JPG|thumb|200px|Cronkite speaking at a NASA ceremony in February 2004]]
Cronkite wrote a [[Print syndication|syndicated]] opinion column for [[King Features Syndicate]]. In 2005 and 2006, he contributed to ''[[The Huffington Post]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Walter Cronkite |work=Huffington Post |date=July 20, 2009 |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/walter-cronkite |access-date=July 20, 2009}}</ref> Cronkite was the honorary chairman of [[The Interfaith Alliance]].<ref>[http://www.interfaithalliance.org/join/message-from-walter-cronkite/ Message From Walter Cronkite], The Interfaith Alliance. Retrieved August 3, 2012.</ref> In 2006, he presented the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award to actor and activist [[George Clooney]] on behalf of his organization at its annual dinner in New York.<ref>{{cite web |title=9th Annual Walter Cronkite Faith & Freedom Award Gala |publisher=The Interfaith Alliance |date=November 1, 2006 |url=http://www.interfaithalliance.org/site/pp.asp?c=8dJIIWMCE&b=937809 |access-date=July 20, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070415042752/http://www.interfaithalliance.org/site/pp.asp?c=8dJIIWMCE&b=937809 |archive-date=April 15, 2007}}</ref>

Cronkite was a vocal advocate for free airtime for political candidates.<ref name="Philly" /> He worked with the Alliance for Better Campaigns<ref name="Philly">{{cite news |title=Walter Cronkite dies |newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=July 17, 2009 |url=http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20090717_Walter_Cronkite_dies.html?viewAll=y |access-date=July 18, 2009 |first1=Lee|last1=Winfrey|first2=Michael D.|last2=Schaffer}}</ref> and [[Common Cause]],<ref name="KTVN Channel 2">{{cite web |title=Former CBS News Anchor Walter Cronkite Dies |work=WorldNow and Sarkes Tarzian, Inc. |publisher=KTVN Channel 2 |date=July 17, 2009 |url=http://www.ktvn.com/Global/story.asp?S=10747545&nav=menu549_2_8 |access-date=July 18, 2009 |archive-date=July 26, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090726020135/http://www.ktvn.com/Global/story.asp?S=10747545&nav=menu549_2_8 |url-status=dead }}</ref> for instance, on an unsuccessful lobbying effort to have an amendment added to the [[Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act|McCain-Feingold-Shays-Meehan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2001]] that would have required TV broadcast companies to provide free airtime to candidates. Cronkite criticized the present system of campaign finance which allows elections to "be purchased" by special interests, and he noted that all the European democracies "provide their candidates with extensive free airtime."<ref name="FreeAirWaves" /> "In fact," Cronkite pointed out, "of all the major nations worldwide that profess to have democracies, only seven – just seven – do not offer free airtime"<ref name="FreeAirWaves" /> This put the United States on a list with Ecuador, Honduras, Malaysia, Taiwan, Tanzania, and Trinidad and Tobago. Cronkite concluded that "The failure to give free airtime for our political campaigns endangers our democracy."<ref name="FreeAirWaves">{{cite web |last=Cronkite |first=Walter |title=Free the Air Waves! |work=Citizens Union Foundation. |publisher=Gotham Gazette |date=November 4, 2002 |url=http://www.gothamgazette.com/iotw/campaign2002/}}</ref> During the elections held in 2000, the amount spent by candidates in the major TV markets approached $1 billion. "What our campaign asks is that the television industry yield just a tiny percentage of that windfall, less than 1 percent, to fund free airtime."<ref name="FreeAirWaves" />

He was a member of the [[Constitution Project]]'s bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Constitution Project: Bipartisan Committee Denounces Illegal Spying Program |publisher=Common Dreams.org |date=1997–2009 |url=http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0725-01.htm |access-date=July 20, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090725224139/http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0725-01.htm |archive-date=July 25, 2009 }}</ref> He also supported the nonprofit world hunger organization [[Heifer International]].

In 1998, he supported President [[Bill Clinton]] during Clinton's [[Impeachment of Bill Clinton|impeachment trial]]. He was also a proponent of limited [[world government]] on the American federalist model, writing fundraising letters for the World Federalist Association (now [[Citizens for Global Solutions]]). In accepting the 1999 Norman Cousins Global Governance Award at the ceremony at the United Nations, Cronkite said:

<blockquote>It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. To do that, of course, we Americans will have to yield up some of our sovereignty. That would be a bitter pill. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith in the new order. But the American colonies did it once and brought forth one of the most nearly perfect unions the world has ever seen.<ref name=cousins /><ref name=speechvideo /><ref>{{cite book |last=Cabrera |first=Luis |title=Political theory of global justice |publisher=Routledge Taylor and Francis Group |format=digitised online by Google Books online |page=166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8BFPFuta9jUC&q=%22that+if+we+are+to+avoid+the+eventual+catastrophic+world+%22&pg=PA166|isbn=9780203335192 |date=2004 }} Originally quoted for this book in Walter Cronkite. "The Case for Democratic World Government." ''Earth Island Journal''. Vol. 15, no. 2. Summer 2000. p. 45.</ref></blockquote>

Cronkite contrasted his support for accountable global government with the opposition to it by politically active Christian fundamentalists in the United States:

<blockquote>Even as with the American rejection of the League of Nations, our failure to live up to our obligations to the United Nations is led by a handful of willful senators who choose to pursue their narrow, selfish political objectives at the cost of our nation's conscience. They pander to and are supported by the Christian Coalition and the rest of the religious right wing. Their leader, [[Pat Robertson]], has written that we should have a world government but only when the messiah arrives. Any attempt to achieve world order before that time must be the work of the Devil! Well join me... I'm glad to sit here at the right hand of Satan.<ref name=cousins>{{cite web |title=A speech by Walter Cronkite – United Nations, national sovereignty and the future of the world |work=Upon receiving the Norman Cousins Global Governance Award, on October 19, 1999, at the UN Delegates Dining Room in New York City |publisher=Renew America |year=1999 |url=http://www.renewamerica.com/article/050525 |access-date=July 18, 2009 }}</ref><ref name=speechvideo>{{cite web|title=ASI presents: Hillary, Walter Cronkite and World Government |last=Cronkite |first=Walter |website=[[YouTube]] |year=1999 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Jfa95PLSI | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211102/95Jfa95PLSI| archive-date=2021-11-02 | url-status=live|access-date=August 3, 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref></blockquote>

In 2003, Cronkite, who owned property on [[Martha's Vineyard]], became involved in a long-running debate over his opposition to the construction of a [[wind farm]] in that area. In his column, he repeatedly condemned President [[George W. Bush]] and the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]]. Cronkite appeared in the 2004 [[Robert Greenwald]] film ''[[Outfoxed]]'', where he offered commentary on what he said were unethical and overtly political practices at the [[Fox News Channel]]. Cronkite remarked that when Fox News was founded by [[Rupert Murdoch]], "it was intended to be a conservative organization – beyond that; a [[Far right|far-right-wing]] organization". In January 2006, during a press conference to promote the PBS documentary about his career, Cronkite said that he felt the same way about America's presence in Iraq as he had about their presence in Vietnam in 1968 and that he felt America should recall its troops.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/15/entertainment/e154744S99.DTL&feed=rss.news|title=Cronkite: Time for U.S. to Leave Iraq|access-date=April 26, 2006|work=San Francisco Chronicle|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002142916/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fn%2Fa%2F2006%2F01%2F15%2Fentertainment%2Fe154744S99.DTL&feed=rss.news|archive-date=October 2, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Cronkite spoke out against the [[War on Drugs]] in support of the [[Drug Policy Alliance]], writing a fundraising letter and appearing in advertisements on behalf of the DPA.<ref name="dpa cronkite letter">{{cite web |last=Cronkite |first=Walter |title=Why I Support DPA, and So Should You |publisher=Drug Policy Alliance |year=2006 |url=http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/cronkite022306.cfm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060304102521/http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/cronkite022306.cfm |archive-date=March 4, 2006 |access-date=July 17, 2009}}</ref> In the letter, Cronkite wrote: "Today, our nation is fighting two wars: one abroad and one at home. While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on our own streets. Its casualties are the wasted lives of our own citizens. I am speaking of the war on drugs. And I cannot help but wonder how many more lives, and how much more money, will be wasted before another [[Robert McNamara]] admits what is plain for all to see: the war on drugs is a failure."<ref name="dpa cronkite letter" />