New Media Prof Blog

Cronkite: A legend to remember (1916 – 2009)

Posted on 19. Jul, 2009 by admin in For Students, New Media

Many of us remember  watching him on the CBS Evening News and the oh-so-many historic news events that we recall with his presence indelibly tethered.  With the 40th anniversary of the first walk on the moon with Apollo 11, we will certainly see those clips of his news reporting the moment with such joy that Americans shared.  Watch it here.  And hear him talk about it in this CBS video. We also remember sad news he delivered announcing President Kennedy’s death as well as other events that changed this country. It was Cronkite’s real time reactions and his journalistic responsibility that touched the hearts of many and inspired generations of young journalists.  He took it seriously. Besides the anchorman we all knew so well, he was the managing editor for the CBS Evening News. It has even been said that  President Lyndon Johnson was influenced by Cronkite and his reporting during the Vietnam War. And just think, Cronkite’s first boss at a radio station in Austin, Texas told him: ‘Walter, you’ll never make a radio announcer.’  We’re certainly lucky he did that and much more.  I met Cronkite once at CBS/Boston where I was working as Executive Producer. He didn’t mince words about CBS then. He didn’t like what was happening to TV News in the late ’80’s and 90’s.  If you want to know more, read this article from 1994 in the American Journalism Review. In a world now when rock stars are idolized at death with wall-to-wall coverage by all the news organizations, I’d rather watch those old news clips of Walter Cronkite and remember him as a legend. “And that’s the way it is.”

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