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Open Thread: Walter Cronkite Has Died

By Bronwyn's Harbor on July 17, 2009 at 9:00 PM in Current Affairs

cronkite-395-sAmong the most influential journalists to affect how news became an integral and once noble part of television program, Walter Cronkite led generations of Americans through the most important stories as anchor of the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981, and thereafter with his frequent commentaries, interviews and speeches.

Share your memories of this icon of the once respectable, literate television news programming.

Where I grew up, we only got NBC programming but I still knew who Walter Cronkite was. Like the NBC news anchor team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, Cronkite delivered a sober, dignified news program that doesn’t exist any longer.

In the days of Huntley/Brinkley and Conkrite, there never would have been the hours of “news” programming devoted to Anna Nicole Smith or Michael Jackson. Instead, the television networks felt compelled to deliver the most learned and informative news about the most critical subjects of the day.

In those days, TV networks competed to have as many foreign correspondents as possible and to report news stories from every corner of the globe. Local TV news departments felt similarly compelled to investigate and report on serious news that truly affected citizens’ lives.

This was all done without a fixation on money. Back then, TV networks found pride in the quality of news programming, not in the ads that they sold. Once news became a commercial product, the quality of programming suffered and has degenerated into a mad scramble for ratings, no matter how shoddy the subjects that are featured on the news. I cringe when I see longtime reporters like Lou Dobbs reporting the latest on Michael Jackson at the top of his daily CNN show. For those of us who’ve lived long enough to recall what TV news once was, it is astonishing.

Here is a New York Times report on Walter Conkrite’s death: “Walter Cronkite, Iconic Anchorman, Dies.”

  • Tricia Spiegel

    I missed him the day he retired. I have never liked any other newscaster better. He had grit (strength and integrity). RIP Walter. Good, long life.

  • Rah-Rah

    sigh.

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  • politicalidentitycrisis

    I hope this opens up a dialogue about what real journalism is!

    Rest in Peace, Walter. I was not alive to see it at the time, but the news clip where he announces JFK’s death tells much about the man Walter was. I have never forgotten what a moving moment that was.

    • TeakWoodKite

      I was outside playing on my favorite red tricycle and mom was crying and marched me into the TV to watch in black and white. That Zenith was something else. We to don’t make them like that anymore.

    • Diana L. C.

      I hope this opens up a dialogue about what real journalism is!

      I’m with you there. The story in the Denver Post today ends by making the remark that Cronkite’s warning against mixing news and entertainment seems “quaint” nowadays. Quaint indeed! It should be posted on newsroom walls everywhere.

    • Diana L. C.

      I hope this opens up a dialogue about what real journalism is!

      Today’s Denver Post story about Cronkite remarked that his admonition to keep news and entertainment separate seems “quaint” nowadays. Quaint indeed! That warning should be posted on newsrooms everywhere.

  • lilytoo

    Sorry to hear this…Walter Cronkrite is from a time where anchors were news reporters, not just copy readers. They spent years in the field before going behind a desk. It’s like another planet from what we have today.

  • http://www.sonicninjakitty.wordpress.com Sonic Ninja Kitty

    Mr. and Mrs. Cronkite (who passed away a few years ago) were also personally gracious people. I was in their NYC home once. She allowed my (then) toddler to ‘play’ their piano, laughing about how her grandkids did the same and egging him on. Their home was filled with family photos–family was obviously the most important thing in their lives. They were both lovely people.

  • jbjd

    Most people have seen the film clip of Walter Cronkite shedding a tear as he read the news that President Kennedy had died, dabbing his eye and clearing the lump from his throat as he continued reading the news. That was his only ‘editorial’ comment. The year was 1963. Now it seems, newscasters tell us what they think and then, occasionally, back up their opinion, with the news. Condolences to the Cronkite family, including CBS News.

  • TeakWoodKite

    During the Vietnam War, I would watch as he reported the KIA and MIA at the end of his program. He would often end by showing the flowers on the white house lawn with no audio.

    Don’t know why that has stuck with me all these years but it was a silent tribute that was very personal.

    I wish his family condolenses for their loss.

  • Katherine B.

    I remember during the media frenzy surrounding President Clinton’s impeachment, Walter Cronkite invited both the President and Hillary to go sailing aboard his boat. They were filmed and I remember one commentator saying that Walter Cronkite was making a non-verbal statement supporting the President by doing this. I will always remember that, as I thought it was incredibly gracious of a man who was even then an American icon.

  • sister of ye

    Odd that this happened just before the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. I remember staying up all night with “Uncle Walter,” riveted on those fuzzy shots of the Eagle touching down and Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon.

    I also remember the coverage of Vietnam, a war brought right into our living rooms. That was before the public was judged too delicate to see the results of the policies our leaders formulate.

    RIP, Walter Cronkite. I’m afraid it will be a long time before your kind of TV journalist is allowed to come to the fore again.

  • HARP

    R.I.P

    And that`s the way it was.

    • Docelder

      And that`s the way it was

      Even that statement in itself stands out… Cronkite reported the news and had no interest whatsoever to participate in it.

      • HARP

        Yep……What a concept.

    • Karma

      Reading that phrase almost got me teary….whew.

      The first time we saw the JFK coverage in school I could barely keep it together . Seeing Cronkite struggle with the news…did me in.

      When my Grandma lived with us the only thing she insisted on watching was the CBS Evening News and the World Series and playoff games.

      I miss that type of news….sigh. And like others have suggested, as these icons pass it just gets worse.

      Katie Couric’s first week taking over CBS Evening news. She would end the broadcast sitting on top of the anchor desk with her legs crossed. What a contrast. Katie showing off her gym membership and tanned legs as a news ending with some fluff story. While Cronkite could deliver more information with silence then Katie had managed throughout the show.

  • J.J. (The PUMA)

    I watched Walter Cronkite every night and never had an idea where he stood politically until I read his autobiography after he retired.

    The only thing Sean Hannity ever got right is that journalism died in 2008.

  • MartineinKY

    In the next few days, it will be doubly painful to hear Mr. Cronkite being eulogized by the entertainment commentators who now pass for journalists. Not only must we mourn the loss of a great man, but we will be reminded—once again—that we no longer have access to the news. We just get spin, fluff and blatant bias. If I were Charlie Gibson, Diane Sawyer or Matt Lauer, I would just stay home on Monday—rather than demonstrate the obvious. If I were Anderson Cooper, Chris Matthews or Rachel Maddox I would simply hang my head in shame. Well done, Walter. I doubt that we shall ever look upon your like again.

    RIP, You were missed long before you passed on.

  • Ashy1

    I hope videos of Cronkite and others of his day are being safely stored for posterity should latter day journalists ever want to know how reporting should be done. True journalism in our mainstream media is as lifeless as his corpse and as meaningless as the “Walter Cronkite Award” recently given to Katie Couric for the garbage she foists on an unsuspecting public.

  • Steve_in_KC

    Uncle Walter has been the most enduring icon of television journalism I’ve ever known. I still miss his comforting delivery of real news, sprinkled with dignified humanity. He set a standard nobody has matched.

  • jwrjr

    I remember Cronkite giving instructions on how to photograph Neil Armstrong from the TV screen as he (Armstrong) set foot on the Moon’s surface. Cronkite aqdmitted to being a Liberal, but would be damned if he would let that affect his news reporting. We will miss him.

  • hmk_me

    I was lucky enough to grow up listening to Walter Cronkite. He made us aware of the happenings in the world.
    Now we have entertainers and not even good ones instead of newscasters.
    On Monday these entertainers should take a good look in the mirror and ask themselves ” where is my honor, how did I sell myself so cheaply, Can I ever change enough to try to do the job like an honorable person and bring integrity back to the news business?”

    RIP Mr Cronkite and thank you for always making me aware of the world

    WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

    PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

  • http://deleted BuzzisbackLatte

    I remember my parents would wait to believe any news that happened during the day until they heard Walter Cronkite report it. If he reported it then was true.

    We have no one like that in the media today. We have no one with true integrity only entertainers.

    Sad day for America

    RIP Mr. Cronkite

    • http://in Elizabeth

      I think Cronkite definitely tried to honestly report the news in a way that was non-partisan, objective and fair without communciating to the audience his own strong opinions, especially pre-1967. OTOH, the admission that his proudest moments came at the end of a 1968 documentary made following a visit to Vietnam during the Tet offensive saying the war was unwinnable and the US should get out sort of puts all those good intentions in doubt for a lot of us. It was an editorial moment urged by CBS, but uncharacteristic or one courageous, one that no doubt did bias the war reportage.

  • Jay L

    Back in college when you work at the school radio stations you usually work in more than one department. For me I wore the DJ hat, the sports hat and the news hat. When I was DJ’ing playing music that was fun as was the sports reporting but when it came to doing the news it was all business, no fun just the facts. I’d like to think I had a little “Walter” in me. G-d’s speed Mr C. And that’s the way it is, July 18, 2009.

  • tead off

    I liked Walter Cronkite but Fox — for the second time in the last couple of weeks pre-empted Hannity so they could drone on for hours about Cronkite. Ironically, the one who would have liked this least is Cronkite himself. He hated what happened to the media. Cronkite said these 24 hour news stations do very little news–we had 21 minutes and we broadcast news from all over the world.

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  • standard

    A newsman with integrity. What a unique idea.

    • FLDemFem

      It’s not a unique idea, it’s the old standard of journalism. It is not in force today since what passes for “journalism” is little more than celebrity gossip and sensationalized stories about human tragedies. There is no news source today that commands the respect that Walter Cronkite and his fellow journalists did. That is because when they said something was the truth, you knew it was because they had researched it and done their homework, they hadn’t just gotten a press release or rumor and reported it as “truth”. You could believe Walter Cronkite because he never lied to the American people. Ever. No journalist working today can say that. Sad to say. Even the President knew that, when Cronkite came back from Viet Nam and said that the war could only end in a stalemate, Lyndon Johnson said, “If I have lost Cronkite, I have lost Middle America.” And he was right. Shortly after Cronkite made his statement about Nam, Johnson announced that he would not run again. We called him “Uncle Walter” for a reason, he was a trusted family member who would always tell you how it really was. And he always did.

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  • Carlyinnj

    Walter Cronkite was a great man and a devoted journalist. Not many, if any of his stature left.

  • hokma

    I don’t know how many are old enough to remember Cronkite hosting a dramatic show called “You Are There.” As a little kid that is how I got fascinated with history. It was a great show and wonder if they will ever replay them.

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  • Judy L. NC

    My mom had a crush on David Brinkley so we didn’t watch CBS….except for the JFK assassination. Nevertheless, I always respected him…and compared to Katie Couric, well. . .he was a giant.

    Some Viet Nam vets lost no love on Walter because of his Tet offensive editorials. I can’t imagine the party they’ll have when Jane Fonda dies.

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