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7 Memorable Walter Cronkite Broadcasts
Walter Cronkite, whose gentle, authoritative demeanor helped guide America through breaking news events from the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. to the lunar landing, died today at age 92. Revisit some of the moments that helped make him one of the most trusted men in America.
Plus: Journalists, Politicians, and Actors Remember Cronkite
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Forty-six years later, Cronkite’s announcement that President Kennedy had died is still chilling. Though it’s eerie to watch the news be confirmed live on air, Cronkite's calm, reassuring demeanor helped Americans through the tumultuous period.
Vietnam
“It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate,” the previously hawkish Cronkite reported after visiting the country in 1968. Upon hearing Cronkite’s broadcast, President Johnson reportedly said, “If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America.”
The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Mission
“That’s one small step for man…” The race to space was breathlessly covered by the media, but it was Cronkite who brought America the first images of man landing on the moon.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
What's Joe's Problem?
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Geithner's Stock Plummeting
Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
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RIP Mr. Cronkite
We should have listened to you in that last clip about 9/11
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Did you actually listen to the clip? Not only was Walter not specifically hawkish (and exactly what "old hawkishness" are you referring to? Cronkite is perhaps best known for his anti-Vietnam stance) but he was actually advocating the consideration of options other than war. In retrospect, his comments were perhaps the most tempered and logical of any public figure anywhere. This clip shows just how much we have missed Cronkite and people like him over the past 20 years. Brilliant clip. Wonderful man.
RIP Mr. Cronkite. Waving to the Helicopter taking you away from us, not to do the news tonight, but instead for the last time. You led an extraordinary and exemplary life. It was a pleasure to have known you.
Thank you.
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