Walter Cronkite told us what they wanted told.

As one old enough to remember those days, I can say that it was more than that. TV was really new when Cronkite was on. They lacked sophistication in understanding how the technology affects the human brain from the perspective of propaganda. You could see it in the advertising of the time... usually just simple black and white messages like "eat at Joe's" or "Mikey likes it".

Then advertisers got more devious with attempts at subliminal imagery (this was in the 1970's). Since the internet, they've really pulled out all the stops on the lessons of Edward Bernays. They've had to because the internet has been contradicting the mainstream narrative.