Cronkite Compares Falwell to the Terrorists

The Rev. Jerry Falwell is in the same league as the terrorists who downed the World Trade Center and devastated the Pentagon, according to Walter Cronkite.

The one-time CBS News anchorman says the Rev. Falwell's controversial remarks about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were "the most abominable thing I've ever heard."

Cronkite attacked Falwell for his Sept. 13 statements on Pat Robertson's 700 Club alleging that the terrorist attacks were divine retribution on America for tolerating "pagans, abortionists, feminists, homosexuals, the American Civil Liberties Union and the People for the American Way."

Although Falwell later apologized for the remarks, Cronkite ripped into him, telling TV Guide columnist Max Robins, "It makes you wonder if [Falwell and his host Pat Robertson are] worshipping the same God as the people who bombed the Trade Center and the Pentagon."

Nowadays remarks like that could get you busted on hate crime charges, but it appears that the "most trusted man in America" is immune to that sort of thing.

So far, Cronkite has offered no criticism of press attacks on President Bush in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, or how some media outlets have banned their news employees from wearing the flag. No surprise here -- Cronkite has long advocated the dissolution of the U.S. government and the creation of a one world government.