Back in the day, Michael Rosenblum toiled as a producer at CBS News, before leaving the network and making a name for himself as a pioneer in transforming news operations. He helped launch Current TV and New York’s local NY1, and has trained journalists to shoot their own video at The New York Times, the BBC, and networks in Germany, Holland and elsewhere. But he wonders why the recently-revamped CBS Evening News still looks so, you know, unchanged. Comparing the newscast now anchored by Scott Pelley, which included a freshened up set and the return of a world map made famous as part of the set used by CBS legend Walter Cronkite, Rosenblum argues on his blog today that Pelley’s newscast looks nearly identical to the newscast put on by NBC’s John Cameron Swayze–in 1949. “Does it look pretty much the same after 62 years? Isn’t this astonishing? Isn’t this astonishing for a medium that supposedly is on the cutting edge of technology?”

Man, Keith Olbermann is gonna be so jealous. In an incredibly complimentary article in The New York Times, Bill Carter and Brian Stelter compare Jon Stewart to Edward R. Murrow over his passionate work in getting the 9/11 First Responders Bill passed. The piece doesn’t soft-sell it either. It’s entitled “In ‘Daily Show’ Role on 9/11 Bill, Echoes of Murrow.”

Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann do not care for each other. Not only do they appear to vehemently disagree over the role of government, and the intersection of media and politics, neither appears to be able to mention the other without disparagement – or in O’Reilly’s case, even mention Olbermann’s name at all. However, there appears to be one significant issue on which they agree, and that is that Ted Koppel‘s recent critique on the state of television news — which indicted the methodology and mien of both Olbermann and O’Reilly — was way off base.

Keith Olbermann may have just inadvertently won himself the praise of the American right. In a twelve-minute Special Comment refuting Ted Koppel‘s obituary to “real news” this week, Olbermann attempted to unmask the true nature of so-called objective journalism legends like Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow. They weren’t objective, he argues– they were liberals, just like him.

Walter Cronkite is widely regarded as an icon — and, to many aspiring journalists, a role model. He and his coverage of the Vietnam War are often referred to as a highpoint in journalism even today. Jonah Goldberg of the Los Angeles Times has a vastly different opinion. In today’s column, he writes that Cronkite is “truly one of the most overrated national icons of the 20th century” who misreported aspects of the Vietnam War.

MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow recently visited Afghanistan — and anchored her show from the country — to find out what was really going on and to see for herself whether we’re fighting a losing battle. Fair enough. But Tom Hayden, in The Nation, argues that Maddow did not make the best of her time there, and, indeed, missed a potential Walter Cronkite moment.

Yahoo News has just reported on some previously-unreleased FBI documents which contain fairly shocking allegations against the late Walter Cronkite, host of the CBS Evening News for 19 years and one of the most respected journalists of all time. The documents include the claims of a confidential informant who once told the FBI that Cronkite aided a group of student Vietnam War protesters by giving them advice and even going as far as to promise them CBS resources for their cause.

Who: Brian Williams, interviewed by Jeff Greenfield
What: “In the News with Jeff Greenfield – Brian Williams”
Where: 92^nd St. Y
When: April 18, 2010
Thumbs: Up

Danny.

I just don’t get it.

In your piece “A Retrospective: 28 Media Leaders Who Died This Decade,” you acknowledge the contributions of several well-known media figures who have died since 2000. Nice names. Good people. But they are all WHITE!

You couldn’t think of ANYONE who wasn’t white? Really?

As the face of media evolves, it’s important to honor the figures who helped define, shape and set the standards in their industries. These are some of the most prominent members of the media who passed away over the past 10 years. Take a look back with some snippets from their respective New York Times obituaries.

Twitter has been declared the most popular word of 2009 meaning, I presume, that in less than 12 months the act of Twittering has gone so mainstream that even your parents know what you’re talking about. It also means that this is how a whole lot of people are getting their breaking news these days — from the collective voice of God, as it were.

When Walter Cronkite passed away in June his FBI records became available to the public. Who knows what juicy tidbits those files might have uncovered! Actually we will never know because some enterprising soul at the FBI opted to destroy the files two years ago under some policy the FBI has, that only calls for them to keep records of historically important persons.

Former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw spoke at the memorial service for Walter Cronkite this morning, praising Cronkite and how he shared the news with the country. He also had words of praise for Cronkite’s longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, “who could teach Rahm Emanuel about being chief of staff” — a remark [...]

Video of Bill Clinton speaking at the Walter Cronkite memorial this afternoon: “He was an astonishing man. I liked his inquiring mind and his caring heart.”

The Walter Cronkite memorial this morning was a moving, wide-ranging event which saw speakers like Pres. Barack Obama and Katie Couric.

There were so many speeches, with so much information and stories in each, that it’s tough to narrow it down to just a few choice quotes. But here’s a glance at 10 of the key moments from the memorial today:

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Well the Summer of Death is officially coming to a close, and it looks like we’ve made it! There is an old saying that celebrity deaths come in groups of three, but this summer they’ve been coming in pairs with one person’s passing being overshadowed by a more famous counterpart.

Who else has famously lost out in celebrity death coverage over the years? We’ve put together a gallery.

Legendary CBS newsman Don Hewitt passed away today at the age of 86.

Hewitt will forever be tied to three huge cornerstones of the broadcast journalism world – creating 60 Minutes, launching televised presidential debates and Walter Cronkite.

Alessandra Stanley just can’t catch a break. First Katie Couric hung her out to dry last week on the Evening News for her error riddled Walter Cronkite piece, which ran on the homepage of the NYT.com shortly after his death. And now, two weeks later, not only is the New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt having a go at her — and her editors — the paper is re-assigning a single copy editor to Stanley to check all her facts.

Andy Rooney who broke down during his eulogy to close friend Walter Cronkite the other day, had a second go at saying goodbye last night during his regular segment on 60 Minutes. This time round he keeps it short and very sweet.

A week after the fact, Katie Couric took New York Times writer Alessandra Stanley to task at the end of last night’s broadcast over an error-filled article Stanley had penned in the NYT following Walter Cronkite‘s death. And while she doesn’t bother to call Stanley out by name, it’s hard not to conclude this may be belated retribution for a unflattering and much-read piece Stanley wrote about Couric back in 2005. Revenge is a dish best served cold!

Just a few days ago CBS welcomed Dan Rather back to participate in Sunday night’s Walter Cronkite special. But it looks to be a short-lived detente. Yesterday Rather’s drawn-out $70 million court case against his former employer won what the New York Times is calling “significant victories”:

One of the ancillary stories springing from celebrity deaths lately is “how were they covered on Twitter?” What was the reaction? Did it crack Twitter’s “trending topics“? Did it break the Internet?

Well, in the case of Walter Cronkite’s death this past Friday, there was another question: You spelled it how?

Why was there so much comprehensive Cronkite coverage just after his reported death? Because everyone in MSM had their obits in the can. But one outlet outdid everyone else. Here’s a screenshot of Hardball with Chris Matthews from the first minute of the 5pmET MSNBC show today:

While the death of Walter Cronkite may have initiated a lot of chatter bemoaning the changes that have occurred in TV news coverage since his heyday, his death also provided a great platform for the main stream media to show off its strengths, as well as its ultimate weaknesses.