CRONKITE VS. O'REILLY: MAY THE MOST TRUSTED MAN WIN

When Walter Cronkite spoke out against current drug war policies,
Bill O'Reilly -- predictably enough -- launched an attack.

Walter Cronkite, the legendary CBS news anchor widely dubbed "the
most trusted man in America," has joined the legions of those who
have earned the scorn of Fox News television host and commentator
Bill O'Reilly -- and it's all about drugs. Or is it? While Cronkite's
views on drug policy were what set O'Reilly off, the talk show host
strayed far from the issue, touching on everything from Cronkite's
age and mental condition to the evils of secular humanism.

Cronkite came up on O'Reilly's radar when he penned a fundraising
letter for the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonpartisan group seeking a
more humane approach to drug issues. "Today, our nation is fighting
two wars: one abroad and one at home," Cronkite wrote. "While the war
in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on
our own streets. Its causalities are the wasted lives of our own
citizens. I am speaking of the war on drugs."

In the letter, Cronkite explained his reasons for opposing the
current drug war policies.

"And what is the impact of this policy? It surely hasn't made our
streets safer. Instead, we have locked up literally millions of
people disproportionately people of color who have caused little or
no harm to others -- wasting resources that could be used for
counter-terrorism, reducing violent crime or catching white-collar criminals.

"With police wielding unprecedented powers to invade privacy, tap
phones and conduct searches seemingly at random, our civil liberties
are in a very precarious condition," he added. "Hundreds of billions
of dollars have been spent on this effort -- with no one held
accountable for its failure."

For O'Reilly, attacking drug reform is a favorite pasttime, and he
was on Cronkite like a hungry dog on a juicy bone. On the Feb. 24
edition of "The Factor," O'Reilly began by portraying Cronkite as "a
very far-left guy" who lives "in the same left-wing precinct" as Bill
Moyers and Tom Brokaw. Not to put too fine a point on it, said
O'Reilly, Cronkite is "more far-left; he's always been that way, but
he masked it."

It sounds like O'Reilly is still sore at Cronkite for telling
national TV audiences the Vietnam War was a failure back in the late
'60s. The fact that Cronkite is trying to help a group that has also
received funds from current conservative bete noire George Soros
probably doesn't help either. In addition to funding drug reform, the
Hungarian-born currency speculator and financier worked hard to
defeat President Bush in 2004, infuriating O'Reilly and his
conservative colleagues, some of whom refer to him as that rarest of
all creatures, the "left-wing billionaire."

"Anyway," O'Reilly continued, "he wants to legalize drugs." Actually,
Cronkite didn't say that, but for the talk show host it's
"truthiness" rather than truth that counts. Worse, said O'Reilly,
Cronkite "lied" by saying the war on drugs had not made our streets
safer. "That's not true; the war on drugs broke the back of the crack
that was out of control in major cities all across the country,"
O'Reilly claimed.

What really happened to the "crack wars" is a matter of serious
debate, with the role of law enforcement being only one of many
factors. Researchers also point to learning curves -- a crackhead is
not a very enticing role model -- and the consolidation of markets as
key factors and, of course, the crack trade is still going strong.

O'Reilly also attacked Cronkite for suggesting law enforcement has
locked up millions who have done no harm to others. "Listen, violent
crime is induced by hard drug use, Walter," O'Reilly lectured before
adding, "I don't want to be too tough on you, you're 90."

But then it was back to full O'Reilly attack mode for the grand
finale: "Now Walter Cronkite, the most trusted news broadcaster in
American history [is] embracing every left-wing, crazy theory there
is and now says drug dealers cause little or no harm to others. I
mean, it's staggering. It is staggering!"

Actually, drug-related violent crime is much more likely to be
related to drug prohibition than the psychopharmacology of illicit
substances. Police arrested more than 1.5 million people on drug
charges last year, half of them for marijuana. According to the
Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were about half a million people
behind bars on drug charges on any given day last year. O'Reilly
would have us believe they're all machine-gun toting Pablo Escobars,
but for every drug kingpin, there are thousands of low-level drug
offenders doing years in prison for nonviolent crimes.

Ask the kid from Washington, D.C., doing a mandatory minimum
five-year sentence for a few dollars worth of rock. Ask the poor
white guys in the Midwest serving three-or five-or 10-year sentences
for a few flecks of methamphetamine. Ask the college student doing 30
days for a joint because he got caught in the wrong county.

It's not that O'Reilly hasn't had the opportunity to know better. In
fact, dope is one of his hot-button issues, sure to get his fans all
riled up as they ponder the decline of Western, Christian
civilization. He has even had Drug Policy Alliance members on his
show on several occasions.

In February 2003 he invited drug education specialist Marsha
Rosenbaum onto the show, but used her mainly as a foil for his
outrage over parents who had allowed teens to drink at a party while
under adult supervision.

A year earlier, in a bizarre segment with Drug Policy Alliance
executive director Ethan Nadelmann, following the drug czar's cue,
O'Reilly tried to paint marijuana and ecstasy users as supporting
terrorism. When Nadelmann explained that neither drug had much to do
with Afghanistan or Al Qaida, and that ecstasy was being manufactured
in Holland, O'Reilly objected.

"No, but it's not run by the Dutch, it's run by Middle Eastern guys,"
O'Reilly exclaimed, and challenged Nadelmann to a $100 bet. The next
night, he gloated he had won the bet. "OK, here's what the Office of
the National Drug Control Policy says, and we quote, 'Drug
Enforcement Agency reporting demonstrates the involvement of Israeli
criminal organizations in ecstasy smuggling. Some of these
individuals are of Russian and Georgian descent and have Middle Eastern ties.'"

So, the presence of Israeli mobsters in the ecstasy trade constitutes
"Middle Eastern ties" that link ravers to Al Qaida. Only in Bill
O'Reilly's world. You know, the one where respected American newsmen
and left-wing billionaires team up to wage "crazy" wars on the drug
war, and undoubtedly, on Christmas, as well.

Phillip Smith is an editor at DRCNet.