Walter Cronkite

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (born November 4, 1916) is a retired American journalist, best known for his work as a television news anchorman. During his tenure at CBS Evening News, he was often cited in viewer opinion polls as "the most trusted man in America," because of his experience and professional demeanor.

Early life

Cronkite was born in St. Joseph, Missouri of Dutch-Scottish ancestry and raised in Houston, Texas. He attended college at The University of Texas at Austin, where he became a member of the Nu chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity. Contrary to what is often reported, Cronkite was not an Eagle Scout, though he was apparently indeed a Boy Scout.

Career

After various newspaper reporting jobs covering news and sports, he entered broadcasting as a radio announcer for WKY in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He joined the United Press in 1937, and became one of the top American reporters in World War II, covering battles in North Africa and Europe. After the war, he covered the Nuremburg trials, and served as the United Press main reporter in Moscow for two years.

CBS and popularity

In 1950, he joined CBS News in their growing young television division — recruited by Edward R. Murrow, who had tried to hire Cronkite from UP during the war.

On July 7, 1952, the term "anchor" was coined to describe Cronkite's role at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, which marked the first nationally-televised convention coverage. Cronkite anchored the network's coverage of the 1952 presidential election

Cronkite served as anchorman of the CBS Evening News from April 16, 1962 until March 6, 1981, a job through which he became an American icon. On September 2, 1963, Cronkite launched network television's first half-hour evening newscast when CBS Evening News expanded from 15 to 30 minutes.

During the early part of his time anchoring the CBS Evening News, Cronkite competed against NBC's anchor team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, who anchored the Huntley-Brinkley Report. During the greater part of the 1960s, the Huntley-Brinkley Report had more viewers than Cronkite's broadcast. This began to change in the late 1960s, as RCA made a corporate decision not to fund NBC News at the levels CBS funded CBS News. Consequently, CBS News acquired a reputation for accuracy and depth in broadcast journalism. This reputation meshed nicely with Cronkite's wire service experience, and in 1968 the CBS Evening News began to surpass the Huntley-Brinkley Report in viewership during the summer months. The CBS Evening News achieved total dominance of the American news viewing audience in 1970, when Huntley retired and corporate dithering on RCA's part crippled the selection of a successor anchor and format. During this time, Cronkite's broadcast achieved a dominance it would not lose while he was at the anchor desk. Although NBC finally settled on the skilled and well-respected broadcast journalist John Chancellor, Cronkite proved to be more popular.

For many years, Cronkite was considered one of the most trusted figures in the United States. Affectionately known as "Uncle Walter," he covered many of the important news events of the era so effectively that his image and voice are closely associated with the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the Watergate scandal. He is remembered by many as finishing the CBS Evening News with the phrase, "…and that's the way it is," followed by the date. (Cronkite's succesor, Dan Rather, echoed the phrase by ending his own broadcasts with "…and that's part of our world tonight.")

Cronkite is vividly remembered by some Americans as the first anchor to break the news of the death of President Kennedy:

"From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official (reading AP flash): President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time — 2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago."

At one point during the announcement Cronkite paused briefly and appeared to tear up, a rare loss of composure for the usually unflappable newsman. Footage from this broadcast was featured in the opening scenes of Oliver Stone's film JFK.

"Uncle Walter" has recently hosted a number of TV specials and been featured in interviews about the times and events that occurred during his career as America's "most trusted" man.

Following Cronkite's editorial report during the Tet Offensive that the war in Vietnam was unwinnable, President Lyndon Johnson said, "If I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." Soon after Cronkite's report, Johnson dropped out of the 1968 presidential race. Historian Lewis Sorley has noted that Cronkite continued with his anti-South Vietnam bias by using his influence to keep pro-war effort news programming off the air.

Retirement

The announcement of his retirement plans on February 14, 1980 became a national event. Dan Rather succeeded him as anchor of the CBS Evening News.

Cronkite wrote a syndicated opinion column for King Features Syndicate. He has continued to broadcast occasionally as a special correspondent for CBS, CNN, and NPR into the 21st century; one such occasion was Cronkite anchoring the second space flight by John Glenn in 1998 as he had Glenn's first in 1962. He was also considered to be a finalist for NASA's "Journalist in Space" program, which mirrored the Teacher In Space Program, but was dropped after the Challenger Disaster in 1986.

His other projects since his retirement have included voicing a character based on Benjamin Franklin in the educational television cartoon Liberty's Kids and, as amateur radio operator KB2GSD, narrating a documentary about amateur radio in the public service for the American Radio Relay League. In 1995 he made an appearance on Broadway, though not in the usual fashion - he provided the voice of the titular book in the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication is part of Arizona State University.

In April 1997, Cronkite underwent an emergency quadruple heart bypass surgery to relieve severely clogged arteries.

Since retiring, Cronkite has become outspoken on a number of political issues. In his column, he has repeatedly condemned President George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 1998, he befriended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial. He has also been a proponent of world government, penning fundraising letters for the World Federalist Association (now Citizens for Global Solutions). In accepting the 1999 Norman Cousins Global Governance Award at the ceremony at the United Nations, Cronkite said^*:

It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. To do that, of course, we Americans will have to yield up some of our sovereignty. That would be a bitter pill. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith in the new order. But the American colonies did it once and brought forth one of the most nearly perfect unions the world has ever seen.

In 2003, Cronkite, who owns property on Martha's Vineyard, became involved in a long-running debate, expressing his opposition to the construction of a wind farm in that area.

Before 2004, he could also be seen in the opening movie in the Walt Disney World attraction, The Magic of Disney Animation, interviewing Robin Williams as if he is still on the CBS News channel, ending his on-camera time with his famous catchphrase. He also was shown inviting Disney guests and tourists to the Disney Classics Theater.

He was also the voice of Disney's EPCOT Center ride Spaceship Earth between 1986 and 1994, which featured the famous Tomorrow's Child song. (This was the 2nd incarnation of the ride).

He recorded voice-overs for the 1995 film Apollo 13, modifying the script he was given to make it more "Cronkitian".

Cronkite appeared in the 2004 Robert Greenwald film Outfoxed, where he offered commentary on the alleged unethical and overtly political practices at the FOX News Channel. Cronkite remarked that when FOX News was founded by Rupert Murdoch, "it was intended to be a conservative organization - beyond that; a far-right wing organization."

On February 15, 2005, he went into the studio at CBS to record narration for WCC Chatham Radio, a documentary about Guglielmo Marconi and his Chatham station, which became the busiest ship-to-shore wireless station in North America from 1914 to 1994. The documentary was directed by Christopher Seufert of Mooncusser Films and premiered at the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center in April of 2005.

On March 15, 2005, his wife of almost 65 years, the former Betsy Maxwell, died at the age of 89 following a battle with cancer; she is survived by their three children. If she had lived until March 30, they would have celebrated their 65th anniversary.

Since May 2005, he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

His distinctive voice provides narration for the television ads of the University of Texas at Austin, his alma mater. Cronkite is also an avid sailor and a member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary with the honorary rank of commodore.

On January 15, 2006, during a press conference to promote a PBS documentary about his career (scheduled to air in July), Cronkite said that he felt the same way about America's presence in Iraq as he had about our presence in Vietnam in 1968, and that he felt we should recall American troops. This statement met with much criticism.

On January 16, 2006, Walter Cronkite said he was "keeping company" with New York realtor Joanna Simon, the sister of singer Carly Simon. "We are keeping company, as the old phrase used to be," Cronkite said. "I'm not making any moves immediately. I don't think it's proper. My wife has only been gone less than a year. I'll wait until that year has passed, at least."

Later, on March 1, 2006, Cronkite became the first non-astronaut to receive NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award. [http://www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2006/06/08/University/Apollo.11.Moon.Rock.Named.For.Cronkite.On.Display.At.Ut.Texas.Memorial.Museum-2043064.shtml

Cronkite is a supporter of the anti-War on Drugs Drug Policy Alliance and the nonprofit world hunger organization Heifer International.

References

Cronkite, Walter: First Priority of Humankind..., Speech to the United Nations, Oct. 1999.

External links

Walter Cronkite: A Living Legend Still Loving Animals
Biography on InterfaithAlliance
Spacefacts biography of Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite Fansite
Amateur Radio Today (video)
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University
Walter Cronkite Narration for Chatham Radio WCC documentary by Mooncusser Films
University of Texas TV ads
Cronkite's personal blog