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Walter Cronkite 1916 - 2009
AP Photo
Walter Cronkite, the legendary newsman at CBS News, passed away Friday from cerebrovascular disease in New York at the age of 92. Cronkite was originally recruited to CBS in 1950 by Edward R. Murrow, and took over CBS Evening News in 1962. His long career spanned the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of JFK, the Vietnam War, Apollo 11, and Watergate. When Cronkite said that, after the Tet Offensive, the Vietnam War was unwinnable, President Johnson famously announced, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” He retired from the CBS Evening News in 1981, and was succeeded by Dan Rather. WATCH VIDEOS of his most memorable broadcasts, VIEW PHOTOS of his life, and read tributes to the anchor who was dubbed “the most trusted man in America.”
Click Below to View Photos of Cronkite’s Career
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AP Photo
Walter Cronkite: A Generous, Demanding Boss
Longtime CBS News White House correspondent, who started at CBS in 1976, says working under Walter Cronkite yielded lessons in integrity that stay with him to this day.
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CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images
Why the World Trusted Walter
Walter Cronkite was as much a performer as today’s cable news anchors. The difference, writes Lee Siegel, is this era of Olbermann and O’Reilly taught audiences to doubt the news.
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AP Photo
Cronkite, At His Apex
Some 34 years ago, Walter Cronkite gave a wide-ranging interview to The Daily Beast’s Allan Dodds Frank about the burden of being the most trusted man in America. Here’s Uncle Walter, in his own words, at the top of his game.
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STR New / Reuters
Uncle Walter Was Too Old For Primetime
The media may be celebrating Cronkite now, but Adam Hanft says it was they who pushed the veteran anchor out in a futile quest for the new and trendy.
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Getty Images
Journalists, Politicians, and Actors Remember Cronkite
Walter Cronkite's extensive reporting not only endeared him to every household in America, but set the standard by which journalism was judged. Andy Rooney, President Obama, Neil Armstrong, and others share their best memories of the newsman.
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Watch The 7 Most Memorable Cronkite Broadcasts
From the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. to the first lunar landing, watch clips of the broadcasts that defined Walter Cronkite’s career at CBS.
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CBS / Landov
Aaron Brown on Cronkite: We All Followed His Script
Journalism Professor and former CNN anchor Aaron Brown remembers his mentor: “I was inspired to get into broadcast journalism by Walter Cronkite…and now I’m proud to share his lessons and carry his name forward to the next generation.”
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That's the way it was...
I turned 60 this year. Walter has been so much a part of my life, of who I am. And I have been dreading this day for years: Walter Cronkite gone. There is not one major (public) event in my life that Walter didn't lead me through. Not one. From Kennedy's death to the moon landing to the King & Bobby Kennedy assasinations to Vietnam (where my friends were dying), Walter was the one who gave me the news, who led us through the events, who gave permission to the complex emotions we all felt. I am crushed. I cannot stop crying. I feel so badly for all the younger people who are lacking an icon, a family member like Walter. He was there for the evening news (there truly was no other, no choices -- CBS & Walter. Who could choose otherwise?) But I also fondly remember "You Are There" -- which no one has mentioned. This was a major part of my Sunday nights as a kid. The TV was never on during dinner. Except Sunday. Sunday & Walter (we called him "Uncle Walter".) We watched the Civil War, WWII, major American events -- all with the introduction & the sign-off of, "You Are There." And I was. TV tray in front of me, history via Walter on the TV. That remains one of my most wonderful childhood memories. I will never get over missing Walter. I was furious when they made him retire in the '80s. I am furious that he's been taken away from us -- others of us will die, I will die -- but Walter? Never Walter -- I wanted him to be here throughout my life, just as he was at the beginning of my life. Some of us should live forever. My first nominee would be Walter. I guess the best I can do is to continue to carry him with me, just as he'd carried me for every day till now. This is an incredible loss -- even for those younger folks who don't yet realize it, Walter's death makes all of us a little bit less than we were yesterday. Walter -- thank you, from the bottom of my grateful heart, for all you helped me through, for all that you made simpler & more reasonable & more understandable & more compassionate. Till the day I die, I will never forget you, nor will I cease being grateful for your central presence in my life.But "that's the way it is"; goodnight, Uncle Walter.
.....And that's the way it is.
He was the best and all the best knew it.
May be rest in heaven with on the wings of the angels!
God Bless his family.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
He lied about us while I was in Vietnam, got soldiers killed. Similar to today's media
FictitiousDisorder
He lied to the American public about the American soldier while I was in Vietnam & soldiers died. As he lied about the Tet Offensive. He lied to the American people more than Kennedy and LBJ that got us in the war when we had the DRAFT..
Other than that he was a nice man.
There are two blogs about this on HuffPost that should give you a larger view of this issue:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/cronkites-1968-dissent-on_b_ 238788.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/walter-cronkite_b_238809. html
This passing I will mourn.
Not Michael Jackson's.
I was a child but watched him with my parents every night. I'm afraid his passing marks the end of a news era too, you know when real unbiased reporting was the norm. another blog on him is at http:newsy1.wordpress.com
Anyone who thinks Cronkhite was unbiased is ignorant or naive. He was a standard limousine liberal whose comfortable and avuncular manner enabled him to pass as an objective observer. He would be very comfortable today working for MSNBC.
Banjo1: Way off base here. Cronkite was above everything else a reporter. He interviewed JFK and in the course of that interview, JFK said that Vietnam was not our fight. Cronkite withheld any commentary on the war until he got a full accessment of the situation which of course included a trip to Vietnam himself. The same with Watergate. He broke down the entire situation, what it meant for all of us, and reported to the nation. He didn't care about being first with a story, he believed in getting the story right. I believe it's called good responsible reporting. Something that is painfully lacking in news today.
Rest in peace Walter.
When Walter said the Vietnam war was unwinnable, the North Vietnam Army and the Viet Cong had been destroyed by their Tet offensive. It was at that moment that Walter ran up the white flag. General Giap credited U.S. home front defeatism -- call it the "peace movement" if you like -- for handing him victory. The most recent example of this was Harry Reid saying a year ago "the war is lost." Some things never change from that quarter. Walter lived like a plutocrat with a 123-foot yacht and multiple residences. I had breakfast with him once on a rooftop garden adjoining the most expensive hotel suite in S.F. He was a good actor who played the role about as well as possible.
Sadly, we are lacking journalistic reporters of this quality today. I remember the emotional reporting of the assination of President Kennedy...when an entire nation mourned. A sad day then and now with his passing.
Hey Banjo: Exactly how many more years did the war go on AFTER Cronkite made that observation? Do your math. The peace movement merely showed that there was another way to spread the concept of democracy and freedom - not through force but by example. It's something that Bush - and 4,000 of our finest men & women as well as the rest of the country - learned the hard way.
Cronkite wasn't a child of privledge and influence. He was of humble Midwest beginnings who had seen the ravages of the Depression, fought and reported on WW2, Korea, and Vietnam and through honesty and hard work earned the right to indulge in his passions for fine living and the sea.
Again I say, Rest In Peace Walter. We should all follow your fine example.
"The peace movement merely showed that there was another way to spread the concept of democracy and freedom - not through force but by example."
Was it five million people who died in Vietnam and Cambodia after we left, victims of the Khmer Rouge and the North Vietnamese torturers and murderers. Well, forget about them. The price of freedom and democracy is high.
Who said Walter was a child of privilege? He worked his way to the top and earned the right to rub elbows with the upper crust, the people with whom he was most comfortable provided they were liberals.
I will always remember him as the reporter who parachuted with the American troops into Northern Europe during Operation Garden-Market with a trusty typewriter.
I am sorry he is gone.
Banjo clearly missed the Cronkite interview with President Kennedy in which JFK himself said it was the Vietnamese's fight not ours. Perhaps your clearly conservative agenda would have been better served if we had nuked the region and caused more countless deaths.
I love how liberals are constantly blamed for the world's ills but conservative agendas often conflict the most pain. Just look at the one that got us trillions of dollars in debt, wrapped up in two wars with no end in sight, big business greed run amok, but it's all the liberals fault. Ugh...
Everybody's "Uncle Walter", radio and television reporter extraordinaire Walter Cronkite, died at the age of 92. All of America mourns this great loss. President Obama should declare a period of national mourning and Walter should lie in State in the US Capitol.
As I was growing up, my parents would watch the national news on the CBS television, anchored by this now late, great American. He explained Sputnik, the Cuban Revolution, the Space Race, the Nuclear Arms Race, the Vietnam War and Americans landing on the Moon. He was there when President Kennedy died, President Nixon resigned, Martin Luther King died and so many of the important events in the last sixty years. His explanations of the events of the day were always clear, concise and unbiased. Without a doubt, he was the most trusted person in America. When he said something, all of America believed it. Today's reporters and anchors are but a small candle compared to the carbon arc light of his journalistic expertise and presence.
Walter took his experience in radio journalism and as a war reporter, and used it to define what television journalism should be and was during his tenure at the CBS anchor desk, The sad thing is that none of today's television journalists measure up to the mark Walter set. Walter's political leanings were only barely visible when he reported the events of the day. In contrast, the politics of today's reporters smashes you in the face as you watch their broadcasts. Television news is no longer fair, objective and balanced.
I remember the days leading up to the scrubbed launch of the first Space Shuttle, STS-1, on April 10, 1981. I was the driver for a small "background report" news organization and had press credentials for the event at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. All of the big name television, radio and print reporters were there. Of the television reporters, only Walter Cronkite took the time to talk with with us little folk. When the mission scrubbed on Friday, he was the only big name who kept his cool and composure. That first Space Shuttle finally launched on Sunday, April 12.
Who will fill this great man's very large shoes?
And so it goes....Linda Ellerby
Some of us preferred the Huntley/ Brinkley report, even as children.
Walter Cronkite did turn out to be an environmentalist and he had a beautiful, distinctive voice.
Thank you.
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