"Be not afraid of greatness; some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them," William Shakespeare.We have thrice witnessed greatness in broadcast journalism commentary over the past two weeks. The three recent moments of greatness are remarkable because they happed on cable TV, where the past two decades of cable news ennui would lead one to speculate that greatness in that medium might happen about once a millennium.
Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and now Keith Olbermann (with his triple shot) are the men who have produced the Five Greatest Moments. None of the men were born great (I do not believe that possible in a democracy), but Murrow and Cronkite had achieved greatness by the time their broadcast moments came.
What produced the greatest moments is below the fold: