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Walter Cronkite

February 09, 2023

Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News[1] for 19 years, from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll.[2][3][4] Cronkite received numerous honors including two Peabody Awards, a George Polk Award, an Emmy Award and in 1981 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Jimmy Carter.

Walter Cronkite
Cronkite in 1983
Born
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr.

(1916-11-04)November 4, 1916
St. Joseph, Missouri, U.S.
DiedJuly 17, 2009(2009-07-17) (aged 92)
New York City, U.S.
Other namesWalter Wilcox, Old Ironpants, Uncle Walter, King of the Anchormen
EducationUniversity of Texas at Austin
Occupation(s)Television and radio broadcaster, news anchor
Years active1935–2009
Spouse
Mary Elizabeth "Betsy" Maxwell
​
​
(m. 1940; died 2005)​
Children3, including Kathy

Cronkite reported many events from 1937 to 1981, including bombings in World War II; the Nuremberg trials; combat in the Vietnam War;[5] the Dawson's Field hijackings; Watergate; the Iran Hostage Crisis; and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr., and Beatles musician John Lennon. He was also known for his extensive coverage of the U.S. space program, from Project Mercury to the Moon landings to the Space Shuttle. He was the only non-NASA recipient of an Ambassador of Exploration award.[6] Cronkite is known for his departing catchphrase, "And that's the way it is", followed by the date of the broadcast.[7]

Cronkite died at his home on July 17, 2009, at the age of 92, from cerebrovascular disease.

Early life and education

Cronkite was born on November 4, 1916, in Saint Joseph, Missouri,[8] the son of Helen Lena (née Fritsche) and Dr. Walter Leland Cronkite, a dentist.[9][10][11]

Cronkite lived in Kansas City, Missouri, until he was ten, when his family moved to Houston, Texas.[10] He attended elementary school at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School (now Baker Montessori School),[12] junior high school at Lanier Junior High School (now Lanier Middle School) in Houston, and high school at San Jacinto High School, where he edited the high school newspaper.[8] He was a member of the Boy Scouts. He attended college at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), entering in the fall term of 1933,[13] where he worked on the Daily Texan and became a member of the Nu chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity.[14] He also was a member of the Houston chapter of DeMolay, a Masonic fraternal organization for boys.[15]

While attending UT, Cronkite had his first taste of performance, appearing in a play with fellow student Eli Wallach. He dropped out in 1935, not returning for the fall term, to concentrate on journalism.[13]

Career

Cronkite left college in his junior year, in the fall term of 1935,[13] after starting a series of newspaper reporting jobs covering news and sports.[16] He entered broadcasting as a radio announcer for WKY in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1936, he met his future wife, Mary Elizabeth "Betsy" Maxwell, while working as the sports announcer for KCMO (AM) in Kansas City, Missouri.[10][16] His broadcast name was "Walter Wilcox".[17] He would explain later that radio stations at the time did not want people to use their real names for fear of taking their listeners with them if they left.[citation needed][18] In Kansas City, he joined the United Press International in 1937.[16]

With his name now established, he received a job offer from Edward R. Murrow at CBS News to join the Murrow Boys team of war correspondents, relieving Bill Downs as the head of the Moscow bureau.[19] CBS offered Cronkite $125 ($2,235 in 2020 money) a week along with "commercial fees" amounting to $25 ($447 in 2020) for almost every time Cronkite reported on air. Up to that point, he had been making $57.50 ($1,027 in 2020) per week at UP, but he had reservations about broadcasting. He initially accepted the offer. When he informed his boss Harrison Salisbury, UP countered with a raise of $17.50 ($312 in 2020) per week; Hugh Baillie also offered him an extra $20 ($357 in 2020) per week to stay. Cronkite ultimately accepted the UP offer, a move which angered Murrow and drove a wedge between them that would last for years.[20][21]

Cronkite became one of the top American reporters in World War II, covering battles in North Africa and Europe.[10] He was on board USS Texas starting in Norfolk, Virginia, through her service off the coast of North Africa as part of Operation Torch, and thence back to the US. On the return trip, Cronkite was flown off Texas in one of her Vought OS2U Kingfisher aircraft when Norfolk was within flying distance. He was granted permission to be flown the rest of the distance to Norfolk so that he could outpace a rival correspondent on USS Massachusetts to return to the US and to issue the first uncensored news reports to be published about Operation Torch.[22] Cronkite's experiences aboard Texas launched his career as a war correspondent.[23] Subsequently, he was one of eight journalists selected by the United States Army Air Forces to fly bombing raids over Germany in a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress as part of group called The Writing 69th,[24] and during a mission fired a machine gun at a German fighter.[25] He also landed in a glider with the 101st Airborne Division in Operation Market Garden and covered the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he covered the Nuremberg trials[26] and served as the United Press main reporter in Moscow from 1946 to 1948.[27]

Early years at CBS

In 1950, Cronkite joined CBS News in its young and growing television division, again recruited by Murrow. Cronkite began working at WTOP-TV (now WUSA), the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.. He originally served as anchor of the network's 15-minute late-Sunday-evening newscast Up To the Minute, which followed What's My Line? at 11:00 pm ET from 1951 through 1962.

Although it was widely reported that the term "anchor" was coined to describe Cronkite's role at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, marking the first nationally televised convention coverage, other news presenters bore the title before him.[2] Cronkite anchored the network's coverage of the 1952 presidential election as well as later conventions. In 1964 he was temporarily replaced by the team of Robert Trout and Roger Mudd; this proved to be a mistake, and Cronkite returned to the anchor chair for future political conventions.[28]

From 1953 to 1957, Cronkite hosted the CBS program You Are There, which reenacted historical events, using the format of a news report.[9] His famous last line for these programs was: "What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times ... and you were there." In 1971, the show was revived and redesigned to attract an audience of teenagers and young adults, hosted again by Cronkite on Saturday mornings. In 1957, he began hosting The Twentieth Century (eventually renamed The 20th Century), a documentary series about important historical events of the century composed almost exclusively of newsreel footage and interviews. A long-running hit, the show was again renamed as The 21st Century in 1967 with Cronkite hosting speculative reporting on the future for another three years. Cronkite also hosted It's News to Me, a game show based on news events.[29]

During the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956 Cronkite hosted the CBS news-discussion series Pick the Winner.

Another of his network assignments was The Morning Show, CBS' short-lived challenge to NBC's Today in 1954.[16] His on-air duties included interviewing guests and chatting with a lion puppet named Charlemane about the news.[30] He considered this discourse with a puppet as "one of the highlights" of the show. He added, "A puppet can render opinions on people and things that a human commentator would not feel free to utter. I was and I am proud of it."[31] Cronkite also angered the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the show's sponsor, by grammatically correcting its advertising slogan. Instead of saying "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should" verbatim, he substituted "as" for "like."[29]

He was the lead broadcaster of the network's coverage of the 1960 Winter Olympics, the first-ever time such an event was televised in the United States. He replaced Jim McKay, who had suffered a mental breakdown.[32]

Anchor of the CBS Evening News

 
Cronkite interviews President John F. Kennedy to inaugurate the first half-hour nightly news broadcast in 1963

On April 16, 1962, Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchorman of the CBS's nightly feature newscast, tentatively renamed Walter Cronkite with the News,[10] but later the CBS Evening News on September 2, 1963, when the show was expanded from 15 to 30 minutes, making Cronkite the anchor of American network television's first nightly half-hour news program.[33] Cronkite's tenure as anchor of the CBS Evening News made him an icon in television news.[10]

During the early part of his tenure anchoring the CBS Evening News, Cronkite competed against NBC's anchor team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, who anchored The Huntley–Brinkley Report. For much of the 1960s, The Huntley–Brinkley Report had more viewers than Cronkite's broadcast. A key moment for Cronkite came during his coverage of John F. Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963.[34] Another factor in Cronkite and CBS' ascendancy to the top of the ratings was that, as the decade progressed, RCA made a corporate decision not to fund NBC News at the levels that CBS provided for its news broadcasts. Consequently, CBS News acquired a reputation for greater accuracy and depth in coverage. This reputation meshed well with Cronkite's wire service experience, and in 1967 the CBS Evening News began to surpass The Huntley–Brinkley Report in viewership during the summer months.[citation needed]

In 1969, during the Apollo 11 (with co-host and former astronaut Wally Schirra) and Apollo 13 Moon missions, Cronkite received the best ratings and made CBS the most-watched television network for the missions.[8] In 1970, when Huntley retired, the CBS Evening News finally dominated the American TV news viewing audience. Although NBC finally settled on the skilled and well-respected broadcast journalist John Chancellor, Cronkite proved to be more popular and continued to be top-rated until his retirement in 1981.[10]

One of Cronkite's trademarks was ending the CBS Evening News with the phrase "...And that's the way it is," followed by the date.[9] Keeping to standards of objective journalism, he omitted this phrase on nights when he ended the newscast with opinion or commentary.[10] Beginning with January 16, 1980, Day 50 of the Iran hostage crisis, Cronkite added the length of the hostages' captivity to the show's closing in order to remind the audience of the unresolved situation, ending only on Day 444, January 20, 1981.[35][36]

Historic moments

Kennedy's assassination

Cronkite is vividly remembered for breaking the news of the assassination of John F. Kennedy on Friday, November 22, 1963. Cronkite had been standing at the United Press International wire machine in the CBS newsroom as the bulletin of the President's shooting broke and he clamored to get on the air to break the news as he wanted CBS to be the first network to do so.[37]

There was a problem facing the crew in the newsroom, however. There was no television camera in the studio at the time, as the technical crew was working on it. Eventually, the camera was retrieved and brought back to the newsroom.[38] Because of the magnitude of the story and the continuous flow of information coming from various sources, time was of the essence but the camera would take at least twenty minutes to become operational under normal circumstances. The decision was made to dispatch Cronkite to the CBS Radio Network booth to report the events and play the audio over the television airwaves while the crew worked on the camera to see if they could get it set up quicker.[38]

Meanwhile, CBS was ten minutes into its live broadcast of the soap opera As the World Turns (ATWT), which had begun at the very minute of the shooting. A "CBS News Bulletin" bumper slide abruptly broke into the broadcast at 1:40 pm EST. Over the slide, Cronkite began reading what would be the first of three audio-only bulletins that were filed in the next twenty minutes:[39]

Here is a bulletin from CBS News: in Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting.[40]

While Cronkite was reading this bulletin, a second one arrived, mentioning the severity of Kennedy's wounds:

...President Kennedy shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas. Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr. Kennedy, she called, "Oh no!," the motorcade sped on. United Press [International] says that the wounds for President Kennedy perhaps could be fatal. Repeating, a bulletin from CBS News: President Kennedy has been shot by a would-be assassin in Dallas, Texas. Stay tuned to CBS News for further details.[40]

Just before the bulletin cut out, a CBS News staffer was heard saying "Connally too," apparently having just heard the news that Texas Governor John Connally had also been shot while riding in the presidential limousine with his wife Nellie and Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy.

CBS then rejoined the telecast of ATWT during a commercial break, which was followed by show announcer Dan McCullough's usual fee plug for the first half of the program and the network's 1:45 pm station identification break. Just before the second half of ATWT was to begin, the network broke in with the bumper slide a second time. In this bulletin Cronkite reported in greater detail about the assassination attempt on the President, while also breaking the news of Governor Connally's shooting.

...President Kennedy was shot as he drove from Dallas Airport to downtown Dallas; Governor Connally of Texas, in the car with him, was also shot. It is reported that three bullets rang out. A Secret Service man has been...was heard to shout from the car, "He's dead." Whether he referred to President Kennedy or not is not yet known. The President, cradled in the arms of his wife Mrs. Kennedy, was carried to an ambulance and the car rushed to Parkland Hospital outside Dallas, the President was taken to an emergency room in the hospital. Other White House officials were in doubt in the corridors of the hospital as to the condition of President Kennedy. Repeating this bulletin: President Kennedy shot while driving in an open car from the airport in Dallas, Texas, to downtown Dallas.[40]

Cronkite then recapped the events as they had happened: that the President and Governor Connally had been shot and were in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital, and no one knew their condition as yet. CBS then decided to return to ATWT, which was now midway through its second segment.

The cast had continued to perform live while Cronkite's bulletins broke into the broadcast, unaware of the unfolding events in Dallas. ATWT then took another scheduled commercial break. The segment before the break would be the last anyone would see of any network's programming until Tuesday, November 26. During the commercial, the bumper slide interrupted the proceedings again and Cronkite updated the viewers on the situation in Dallas. This bulletin went into more detail than the other two, revealing that Kennedy had been shot in the head, Connally in the chest. Cronkite remained on the air for the next ten minutes, continuing to read bulletins as they were handed to him, and recapping the events as they were known. He also related a report given to reporters by Texas Congressman Albert Thomas that the President and Governor were still alive, the first indication of their condition.[38] At 2:00 pm EST, with the top of the hour station break looming, Cronkite told the audience that there would be a brief pause so that all of CBS' affiliates, including those in the Mountain and Pacific time zones which were not on the same schedule, could join the network. He then left the radio booth and went to the anchor desk in the newsroom.

Within twenty seconds of the announcement, every CBS affiliate except Dallas' KRLD (which was providing local coverage) was airing the network's feed. The camera was finally operational by this time and enabled the audience to see Cronkite, who was clad in shirt and tie but without his suit coat, given the urgent nature of the story. Cronkite reminded the audience, again, of the attempt made on the life of the President and tossed to KRLD news director Eddie Barker at the Dallas Trade Mart, where Kennedy was supposed to be making a speech before he was shot. Barker relayed information that Kennedy's condition was extremely critical. Then, after a prayer for Kennedy, Barker quoted an unofficial report that the President was dead but stressed it was not confirmed.

After several minutes, the coverage came back to the CBS newsroom where Cronkite reported that the President had been given blood transfusions and two priests had been called into the room. He also played an audio report from KRLD that someone had been arrested in the assassination attempt at the Texas School Book Depository. Back in Dallas Barker announced another report of the death of the President, mentioning that it came from a reliable source. Before the network left KRLD's feed for good, Barker first announced, then retracted, a confirmation of Kennedy's death.

CBS cut back to Cronkite reporting that one of the priests had administered last rites to the president. In the next few minutes, several more bulletins reporting that Kennedy had died were given to Cronkite, including one from CBS's own correspondent Dan Rather that had been reported as confirmation of Kennedy's demise by CBS Radio. As these bulletins came into the newsroom, it was becoming clearer that Kennedy had in fact lost his life. Cronkite, however, stressed that these bulletins were simply reports and not any official confirmation of the President's condition; some of his colleagues recounted in 2013 that his early career as a wire service reporter taught him to wait for official word before reporting a story.[38] Still, as more word came in, Cronkite seemed to be resigned to the fact that it was only a matter of time before the assassination was confirmed. He appeared to concede this when, several minutes after he received the Rather report, he received word that the two priests who gave the last rites to Kennedy told reporters on the scene that he was dead. Cronkite said that report "seems to be as close to official as we can get", but would not declare it as such. Nor did he do so with a report from Washington, DC that came moments later, which said that government sources were now reporting the President was dead (this information was passed on to ABC as well, which took it as official confirmation and reported it as such; NBC did not report this information at all and chose instead to rely on reports from Charles Murphy and Robert MacNeil to confirm their suspicions).

At 2:38 pm EST, while filling in time with some observations about the security presence in Dallas, which had been increased due to violent acts against United Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson in the city earlier that year, Cronkite was handed a new bulletin. After looking it over for a moment, he took off his glasses, and made the official announcement:

From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: (reading AP flash) "President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time." (glancing up at clock) 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.[41]

After making that announcement, Cronkite paused briefly, put his glasses back on, and swallowed hard to maintain his composure. With noticeable emotion in his voice he intoned the next sentence of the news report:[41]

Vice President Johnson (clears throat) has left the hospital in Dallas, but we do not know to where he has proceeded; presumably he will be taking the oath of office shortly and become the 36th President of the United States.[41]

With emotion still in his voice and eyes watering, Cronkite once again recapped the events after collecting himself, incorporating some wire photos of the visit and explaining the significance of the pictures now that Kennedy was dead. He reminded the viewers that Vice President Johnson was now the President and was to be sworn in, that Governor Connally's condition was still unknown, and that there was no report of whether the assassin had been captured. He then handed the anchor position to Charles Collingwood, who had just entered the newsroom, took his suit coat, and left the room for a while.

At about 3:30 pm EST, Cronkite came back into the newsroom to relay some new information. The two major pieces of information involved the Oath of Office being administered to now-President Johnson, which officially made him the thirty-sixth President, and that Dallas police had arrested a man named Lee Harvey Oswald whom they suspected had fired the fatal shots. After that, Cronkite left again to begin preparing for that night's CBS Evening News, which he returned to anchor as normal. For the next four days, along with his colleagues, Cronkite continued to report segments of uninterrupted coverage of the assassination, including the announcement of Oswald's death in the hands of Jack Ruby on Sunday. The next day, on the day of the funeral, Cronkite concluded CBS Evening News with the following assessment about the events of the last four dark days:

It is said that the human mind has a greater capacity for remembering the pleasant than the unpleasant. But today was a day that will live in memory and in grief. Only history can write the importance of this day: Were these dark days the harbingers of even blacker ones to come, or like the black before the dawn shall they lead to some still as yet indiscernible sunrise of understanding among men, that violent words, no matter what their origin or motivation, can lead only to violent deeds? This is the larger question that will be answered, in part, in the manner that a shaken civilization seeks the answers to the immediate question: Who, and most importantly what, was Lee Harvey Oswald? The world's doubts must be put to rest. Tonight there will be few Americans who will go to bed without carrying with them the sense that somehow they have failed. If in the search of our conscience we find a new dedication to the American concepts that brought no political, sectional, religious or racial divisions, then maybe it may yet be possible to say that John Fitzgerald Kennedy did not die in vain. That's the way it is, Monday, November 25, 1963. This is Walter Cronkite, good night.[40]

Referring to his coverage of Kennedy's assassination, in a 2006 TV interview with Nick Clooney, Cronkite recalled,

I choked up, I really had a little trouble...my eyes got a little wet...[what Kennedy had represented] was just all lost to us. Fortunately, I grabbed hold before I was actually [crying]."[42]

In a 2003 CBS special commemorating the 40th anniversary of the assassination, Cronkite recalled his reaction upon having the death confirmed to him, he said,

And when you finally had to say it's official, the President is dead...pretty tough words in a situation like that. And they were, um, hard to come by.[43]

According to historian Douglas Brinkley, Cronkite provided a sense of perspective throughout the unfolding sequence of disturbing events.[34]

Vietnam War

In mid-February 1968, on the urging of his executive producer Ernest Leiser, Cronkite and Leiser journeyed to Vietnam to cover the aftermath of the Tet Offensive. They were invited to dine with General Creighton Abrams, the commander of all forces in Vietnam, whom Cronkite knew from World War II. According to Leiser, Abrams told Cronkite, "we cannot win this Goddamned war, and we ought to find a dignified way out."[44]

Upon return, Cronkite and Leiser wrote separate editorial reports based on that trip. Cronkite, an excellent writer, preferred Leiser's text over his own.[44] On February 27, 1968, Cronkite closed "Report from Vietnam: Who, What, When, Where, Why?" with that editorial report:

We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. They may be right, that Hanoi's winter-spring offensive has been forced by the Communist realization that they could not win the longer war of attrition, and that the Communists hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual negotiations. It would improve their position, and it would also require our realization, that we should have had all along, that any negotiations must be that – negotiations, not the dictation of peace terms. For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer's almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster. To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.[45]

 
Cronkite reporting on location during the Vietnam War in 1968

Following Cronkite's editorial report, President Lyndon B. Johnson is claimed by some to have said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."[46][47] However, this account of Johnson has been questioned by other observers in books on journalistic accuracy.[48][49][50] At the time the editorial aired, Johnson was in Austin, Texas, attending Texas Governor John Connally's birthday gala and was giving a speech in his honor.[50]

In his book This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV, CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer, who was serving as a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram when Cronkite's editorial aired, acknowledged that Johnson did not see the original broadcast but also defended the allegation that Johnson had made the remark.[51] According to Schieffer, Johnson's aide George Christian "told me that the President apparently saw some clips of it the next day" and that "That's when he made the remark about Cronkite. But he knew then that it would take more than Americans were willing to give it."[51] When asked about the remark during a 1979 interview, Christian claimed he had no recollection about what the President had said.[50] In his 1996 memoir A Reporter's Life, Cronkite claimed he was at first unsure about how much of an impact his editorial report had on Johnson's decision to drop his bid for re-election, and what eventually convinced him the President had made the statement was a recount from Bill Moyers, a journalist and former aide to Johnson.[52]

Several weeks later, Johnson, who sought to preserve his legacy and was now convinced his declining health could not withstand growing public criticism,[53][54] announced he would not seek reelection.

During the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Cronkite was anchoring the CBS network coverage as violence and protests occurred outside the convention, as well as scuffles inside the convention hall. When Dan Rather was punched to the floor (on camera) by security personnel, Cronkite commented, "I think we've got a bunch of thugs here, Dan."

Other historic events

The first publicly transmitted live trans-Atlantic program was broadcast via the Telstar satellite on July 23, 1962, at 3:00 pm EDT, and Cronkite was one of the main presenters in this multinational broadcast.[55][56] The broadcast was made possible in Europe by Eurovision and in North America by NBC, CBS, ABC, and the CBC.[55] The first public broadcast featured CBS's Cronkite and NBC's Chet Huntley in New York, and the BBC's Richard Dimbleby in Brussels.[55] Cronkite was in the New York studio at Rockefeller Plaza as the first pictures to be transmitted and received were the Statue of Liberty in New York and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.[55] The first segment included a televised major league baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.[55] From there, the video switched first to Washington, D.C.; then to Cape Canaveral, Florida; then to Quebec City, Quebec, and finally to Stratford, Ontario.[55] The Washington segment included a press conference with President Kennedy, talking about the price of the American dollar, which was causing concern in Europe.[55] This broadcast inaugurated live intercontinental news coverage, which was perfected later in the sixties with Early Bird and other Intelsat satellites.

General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower returned to his former Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) headquarters for an interview by Cronkite on the CBS News Special Report D-Day + 20, telecast on June 6, 1964.[57]

Cronkite is also remembered for his coverage of the United States space program, and at times was visibly enthusiastic, rubbing his hands together on camera with a smile and uttering, "Whew...boy" on July 20, 1969, when the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission put the first men on the Moon.[58]

Cronkite participated in Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China. Because Cronkite was colorblind, he had to ask others what color of coat First Lady Pat Nixon was wearing when they disembarked in Peking (Beijing).[59]

According to the 2006 PBS documentary on Cronkite, there was "nothing new" in his reports on the Watergate affair;[5] however, Cronkite brought together a wide range of reporting, and his credibility and status is credited by many with pushing the Watergate story to the forefront with the American public, ultimately resulting in the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon on August 9, 1974.[8] Cronkite had anchored the CBS coverage of Nixon's address, announcing his impending resignation, the night before.[60]

The January 22, 1973, broadcast of the CBS Evening News saw Cronkite break the news of the death of another notable American political figure: former president Lyndon B. Johnson.[61] At approximately 6:38 pm Eastern Time, while a pre-recorded report that the Vietnam peace talks in Paris had been successful was being played for the audience, Cronkite received a telephone call in the studio while off camera. The call was from Tom Johnson, the former press secretary for President Johnson who was at the time serving the former chief executive as station manager at KTBC-TV in Austin, Texas, which was affiliated with CBS at the time and was owned by the Johnson family. During the conversation the production staff cut away from the report back to the live camera in studio as Cronkite was still on the phone. After he was made aware that he was back on camera, Cronkite held up a finger to let everyone watching know he required a moment to let Johnson finish talking. Once Cronkite got what he needed, he thanked Johnson and asked him to stay on the line. He then turned to the camera and began to relay what Johnson had said to him.

I'm talking to Tom Johnson, the press secretary for Lyndon Johnson, who has reported that the thirty-sixth President of the United States died this afternoon in a...ambulance plane on the way to San Antonio, where he was taken after being stricken at his ranch- the LBJ Ranch, in Johnson City, Texas. He was stricken at 3:40 pm, Central Standard Time, 4:40...Eastern Standard Time. Three agents who were at the scene, who are permanently attached to the ranch to protect the President, uh, went to his immediate aid, gave him all emergency aid they could, put him in a plane, I suppose, Tom, one of the President's own planes? *pauses to wait for response* Colonel George McGranahan, who was the man who proclaimed the President dead upon arrival at Brooke Army General Hospital, in San Antonio. *pauses again* And Mrs. Johnson was notified of the events at her office in Austin and flew immediately to San Antonio and Tom Johnson, no relation, the President's news secretary, has told me that from Austin.[62]

During the final ten minutes of that broadcast, Cronkite reported on the death, giving a retrospective on the life of the nation's 36th president, and announced that CBS would air a special on Johnson later that evening. This story was re-told on a 2007 CBS-TV special honoring Cronkite's 90th birthday.[citation needed]

NBC-TV's Garrick Utley, anchoring NBC Nightly News that evening, also interrupted his newscast in order to break the story, doing so about three minutes after Cronkite on CBS. The news was not reported on that night's ABC Evening News, which was anchored by Howard K. Smith and Harry Reasoner, because ABC at the time fed their newscast live at 6:00 pm Eastern instead of 6:30 to get a head start on CBS and NBC for those stations that aired ABC Evening News live (although not every affiliate did).

On November 22, 1963, Cronkite introduced The Beatles to the United States by airing a four-minute story about the band on CBS Morning News. The story was scheduled to be shown again on the CBS Evening News that same day, but the assassination of John F. Kennedy prevented the broadcast of the regular evening news. The Beatles story was aired on the evening news program on December 10. [63]

Retirement

On February 14, 1980, Cronkite announced that he intended to retire from the CBS Evening News; at the time, CBS had a policy of mandatory retirement by age 65.[64] Although sometimes compared to a father figure or an uncle figure, in an interview about his retirement he described himself as being more like a "comfortable old shoe" to his audience. His last day in the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News was on March 6, 1981; he was succeeded the following Monday by Dan Rather.[65]

Cronkite's farewell statement:

This is my last broadcast as the anchorman of The CBS Evening News; for me, it's a moment for which I long have planned, but which, nevertheless, comes with some sadness. For almost two decades, after all, we've been meeting like this in the evenings, and I'll miss that. But those who have made anything of this departure, I'm afraid have made too much. This is but a transition, a passing of the baton. A great broadcaster and gentleman, Doug Edwards, preceded me in this job, and another, Dan Rather, will follow.[8] And anyway, the person who sits here is but the most conspicuous member of a superb team of journalists; writers, reporters, editors, producers, and none of that will change. Furthermore, I'm not even going away! I'll be back from time to time with special news reports and documentaries, and, beginning in June, every week, with our science program, Universe.[9] Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away; they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is: Friday, March 6, 1981. I'll be away on assignment, and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good night.[66]

On the eve of Cronkite's retirement, he appeared on The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson.[67] The following night, Carson did a comic spoof of his on-air farewell address.[68]

Other activities

 
Cronkite meeting with President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1981

Post-CBS Evening News

 
Cronkite wrote an article for the first issue of Martha's Vineyard Magazine.

As he had promised on his last show as anchor in 1981, Cronkite 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. Cronkite hosted Universe until its cancellation in 1982.[69] In 1983, he reported on the British general election for the ITV current affairs series World In Action, interviewing, among many others, the victorious Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.[70] Cronkite hosted the annual Vienna New Year's Concert on PBS from 1985 to 2008, succeeded by Julie Andrews in 2009.[71] For many years, until 2002, he was also the host of the annual Kennedy Center Honors.

In 1998, Cronkite hosted the 90-minute documentary, Silicon Valley: A 100 Year Renaissance, produced by the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association. The film documented Silicon Valley's rise from the origin of Stanford University to the current high-technology powerhouse. The documentary was broadcast on PBS throughout the United States and in 26 countries. Prior to 2004, he could also be seen in the opening movie "Back to Neverland" shown 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 Cronkite's famous catchphrase. In the feature, Cronkite describes the steps taken in the creation of an animated film, while Williams becomes an animated character (and even becomes Cronkite, impersonating his voice). He also was shown inviting Disney guests and tourists to the Disney Classics Theater.

On May 21, 1999, Cronkite participated in a panel discussion on "Integrity in the Media" with Ben Bradlee and Mike McCurry at the Connecticut Forum in Hartford, Connecticut. Cronkite provided an anecdote about taking a picture from a house in Houston, Texas, where a newsworthy event occurred and being praised for getting a unique photograph, only to find out later that the city desk had provided him with the wrong address.[72]

Voice-overs

Cronkite narrated the IMAX film about the Space Shuttle, The Dream is Alive, released in 1985. From May 26, 1986, to August 15, 1994, he was the narrator's voice in the EPCOT Center attraction Spaceship Earth, at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. He provided the pivotal voice of Captain Neweyes in the 1993 animated film We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story, delivering his trademark line at the end. In 1995, he made an appearance on Broadway, providing the voice of the titular book in the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.[73]

Cronkite was a finalist for NASA's Journalist in Space program, which mirrored the Teacher in Space Project, an opportunity that was suspended after the Challenger disaster in 1986. He recorded voice-overs for the 1995 film Apollo 13, modifying the script he was given to make it more "Cronkitian." In 2002, Cronkite was the voice of Benjamin Franklin in the educational television cartoon Liberty's Kids, which included a news segment ending with the same phrase he did back on the CBS Evening News. This role earned him Daytime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series, in 2003 and 2004, but he did not win. His distinctive voice provided the narration for the television ads of the University of Texas, Austin, his alma mater, with its 'We're Texas' ad campaign.[74]

He held amateur radio operator license KB2GSD and narrated a 2003 American Radio Relay League documentary explaining amateur radio's role in disaster relief.[75] The video tells Amateur Radio's public service story to non-hams, focusing on ham radio's part in helping various agencies respond to wildfires in the Western US during 2002, ham radio in space and the role Amateur Radio plays in emergency communications. "Dozens of radio amateurs helped the police and fire departments and other emergency services maintain communications in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC," narrator Cronkite intoned in reference to ham radio's response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Unusually, Cronkite was a Novice-class licensee—the entry level license—for his entire, and long, tenure in the hobby.[76]

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[77] in April 2005. In 2006, Cronkite hosted the World War One Living History Project, a program honoring America's final handful of veterans from the First World War. The program was created by Treehouse Productions and aired on NPR on November 11, 2006. In May 2009, Legacy of War, produced by PBS, was released. Cronkite chronicles, over archive footage, the events following World War II that resulted in America's rise as the dominant world power.[78]

Prior to his death, "Uncle Walter" hosted a number of TV specials and was featured in interviews about the times and events that occurred during his career as America's "most trusted" man.[5] In July 2006, the 90-minute documentary Walter Cronkite: Witness to History aired on PBS. The special was narrated by Katie Couric, who assumed the CBS Evening News anchor chair in September 2006. Cronkite provided the voiceover introduction to Couric's CBS Evening News, which began on September 5, 2006. Cronkite's voiceover was notably not used on introducing the broadcast reporting his funeral – no voiceover was used on this occasion.[citation needed]

TV and movie appearances

Cronkite made a cameo appearance on a 1974 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which he met with Lou Grant in his office. Ted Baxter, who at first tried to convince Cronkite that he (Baxter) was as good a newsman as Eric Sevareid, pleaded with Cronkite to hire him for the network news, at least to give sport scores, and gave an example: "The North Stars 3, the Kings Oh!" Cronkite turned to Grant and said, "I'm gonna get you for this!" Cronkite later said that he was disappointed that his scene was filmed in one take, since he had hoped to sit down and chat with the cast.

In the late 1980s and again in the 1990s, Cronkite appeared on the news-oriented situation comedy Murphy Brown as himself. Both episodes were written by the Emmy Award-winning team of Tom Seeley and Norm Gunzenhauser. He also continued hosting a variety of series. In the early 1980s, he was host of the documentary series World War II with Walter Cronkite. In 1991, he hosted the TV documentary Dinosaur! on A&E (not related to the documentary of the same title hosted by Christopher Reeve on CBS six years earlier), and a 1994 follow-up series, Ape Man: The Story of Human Evolution. In 1995, he narrated the World Liberty Concert held in the Netherlands.

Cronkite routinely hosted the Kennedy Center Honors from 1981 to 2002.

Cronkite appeared briefly in the 2005 dramatic documentary The American Ruling Class written by Lewis Lapham; the 2000 film Thirteen Days reporting on the Cuban Missile Crisis; and provided the opening synopsis of the American Space Program leading to the events in Apollo 13 for the 1995 Ron Howard film of the same name.

Political activism

 
Cronkite speaking at a NASA ceremony in February 2004

Cronkite wrote a syndicated opinion column for King Features Syndicate. In 2005 and 2006, he contributed to The Huffington Post.[79] Cronkite was the honorary chairman of The Interfaith Alliance.[80] In 2006, he presented the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award to actor and activist George Clooney on behalf of his organization at its annual dinner in New York.[81]

Cronkite was a vocal advocate for free airtime for political candidates.[5] He worked with the Alliance for Better Campaigns[5] and Common Cause,[9] for instance, on an unsuccessful lobbying effort to have an amendment added to the McCain-Feingold-Shays-Meehan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2001 that would have required TV broadcast companies to provide free airtime to candidates. Cronkite criticized the present system of campaign finance which allows elections to "be purchased" by special interests, and he noted that all the European democracies "provide their candidates with extensive free airtime."[82] "In fact," Cronkite pointed out, "of all the major nations worldwide that profess to have democracies, only seven – just seven – do not offer free airtime"[82] This put the United States on a list with Ecuador, Honduras, Malaysia, Taiwan, Tanzania, and Trinidad and Tobago. Cronkite concluded that "The failure to give free airtime for our political campaigns endangers our democracy."[82] During the elections held in 2000, the amount spent by candidates in the major TV markets approached $1 billion. "What our campaign asks is that the television industry yield just a tiny percentage of that windfall, less than 1 percent, to fund free airtime."[82]

He was a member of the Constitution Project's bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee.[83] He also supported the nonprofit world hunger organization Heifer International.

In 1998, he supported President Bill Clinton during Clinton's impeachment trial. He was also a proponent of limited world government on the American federalist model, writing 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.[84][85][86]

Cronkite contrasted his support for accountable global government with the opposition to it by politically active Christian fundamentalists in the United States:

Even as with the American rejection of the League of Nations, our failure to live up to our obligations to the United Nations is led by a handful of willful senators who choose to pursue their narrow, selfish political objectives at the cost of our nation's conscience. They pander to and are supported by the Christian Coalition and the rest of the religious right wing. Their leader, Pat Robertson, has written that we should have a world government but only when the messiah arrives. Any attempt to achieve world order before that time must be the work of the Devil! Well join me... I'm glad to sit here at the right hand of Satan.[84][85]

In 2003, Cronkite, who owned property on Martha's Vineyard, became involved in a long-running debate over his opposition to the construction of a wind farm in that area. In his column, he repeatedly condemned President George W. Bush and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Cronkite appeared in the 2004 Robert Greenwald film Outfoxed, where he offered commentary on what he said were 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". In January 2006, during a press conference to promote the PBS documentary about his career, Cronkite said that he felt the same way about America's presence in Iraq as he had about their presence in Vietnam in 1968 and that he felt America should recall its troops.[87]

Cronkite spoke out against the War on Drugs in support of the Drug Policy Alliance, writing a fundraising letter and appearing in advertisements on behalf of the DPA.[88] In the letter, Cronkite wrote: "Today, our nation is fighting two wars: one abroad and one at home. While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on our own streets. Its casualties are the wasted lives of our own citizens. I am speaking of the war on drugs. And I cannot help but wonder how many more lives, and how much more money, will be wasted before another Robert McNamara admits what is plain for all to see: the war on drugs is a failure."[88]

Personal life

 
Cronkite at the helm of the USS Constitution in July 1997

Cronkite was married for nearly 65 years to Mary Elizabeth 'Betsy' Maxwell Cronkite, from March 30, 1940, until her death from cancer on March 15, 2005.[89][90] They had three children: Nancy Cronkite, Mary Kathleen (Kathy) Cronkite, and Walter Leland (Chip) Cronkite III (who is married to actress Deborah Rush). Cronkite dated singer Joanna Simon from 2005 to 2009.[91][92] A grandson, Walter Cronkite IV, now works at CBS.[93] Cronkite's cousin is former Mayor of Kansas City and 2008 Democratic nominee for Missouri's 6th congressional district Kay Barnes.[94]

Cronkite was an accomplished sailor and enjoyed sailing coastal waters of the United States in his custom-built 48-foot Sunward "Wyntje". Cronkite was a member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, with the honorary rank of commodore.[95][96] Throughout the 1950s, he was an aspiring sports car racer, even racing in the 1959 12 Hours of Sebring.[97]

Cronkite was reported to be a fan of the game Diplomacy, which was rumored to be Henry Kissinger's favorite game.[98]

Death

External video
  Memorial service for Walter Cronkite, September 9, 2009, C-SPAN

In June 2009, Cronkite was reported to be terminally ill.[99] He died on July 17, 2009, at his home in New York City aged 92.[16][100][101] He is believed to have died from cerebrovascular disease.[102] Cronkite's funeral took place on July 23, 2009, at St. Bartholomew's Church in midtown Manhattan, New York City. Among many journalists who attended were[103] Tom Brokaw, Connie Chung, Katie Couric, Charles Gibson, Matt Lauer, Dan Rather, Andy Rooney, Morley Safer, Diane Sawyer, Bob Schieffer, Meredith Vieira, Barbara Walters, and Brian Williams. At his funeral, his friends noted his love of music, including, recently, drumming.[citation needed] He was cremated and his remains buried next to his wife, Betsy, in the family plot in Kansas City.[104][96]

Legacy

Public credibility and trustworthiness

For many years, until a decade after he left his post as anchor,[105] Cronkite was considered one of the most trusted figures in the United States. For most of his 19 years as anchor, he was the "predominant news voice in America."[105] 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.[8][100] USA Today wrote that "few TV figures have ever had as much power as Cronkite did at his height."[105] Enjoying the cult of personality surrounding Cronkite in those years, CBS allowed some good-natured fun-poking at its star anchorman in some episodes of the network's popular situation comedy All in the Family, during which the lead character Archie Bunker would sometimes complain about the newsman, calling him "Pinko Cronkite."

Cronkite trained himself to speak at a rate of 124 words per minute in his newscasts, so that viewers could clearly understand him.[106] In contrast, Americans average about 165 words per minute, and fast, difficult-to-understand talkers speak close to 200 words per minute.[107]

Awards and honors

 
Cronkite hosting the 61st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon in May 2002

In 1968, the faculty of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University voted to award Cronkite the Carr Van Anda Award "for enduring contributions to journalism."[108] In 1970, Cronkite received a "Freedom of the Press" George Polk Award[8][9] and the Paul White Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association.[109]

In 1972, in recognition of his career, Princeton University's American Whig-Cliosophic Society awarded Cronkite the James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service.[110]

 
Cronkite in 1996

In 1977, Cronkite was elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society, for which he was a proactive supporter and member, even participating in educational video materials for the society's 175th anniversary.[111][112] In 1981, the year he retired, former president Jimmy Carter awarded Cronkite the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[8][9] In that year, he also received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards,[113] and the Paul White Award for lifetime achievement from the Radio Television Digital News Association.[109] In 1985, Cronkite was honored with the induction into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.[9] In 1989 he received the Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Speech.[114] He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1994.[115] In 1995, he received the Ischia International Journalism Award.[116] In 1999, Cronkite received the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement's Corona Award in recognition of a lifetime of achievement in space exploration.[117] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003.[118] On March 1, 2006, Cronkite became the first non-astronaut to receive NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award.[6][119] Among Cronkite's numerous awards were four Peabody awards for excellence in broadcasting.[9]

In 2003, Cronkite was honored by the Vienna Philharmonic with the Franz Schalk Gold Medal, in view of his contributions to the New Year's Concert and the cultural image of Austria.[120]

Minor planet 6318 Cronkite, discovered in 1990 by Eleanor Helin, is named in his honor.[121]

Cronkite School at Arizona State University

A few years after Cronkite retired, Tom Chauncey, a former owner of KOOL-TV, the then-CBS affiliate in Phoenix, contacted Cronkite, an old friend, and asked him if he would be willing to have the journalism school at Arizona State University named after him. Cronkite immediately agreed.[5][122] The ASU program acquired status and respect from its namesake.

Cronkite was not just a namesake, but he also took the time to interact with the students and staff of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.[8][123] Cronkite made the trip to Arizona annually to present the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism to a leader in the field of media.

"The values that Mr. Cronkite embodies – excellence, integrity, accuracy, fairness, objectivity – we try to instill in our students each and every day. There is no better role model for our faculty or our students," said Dean Christopher Callahan.[122]

The school, with approximately 1,700 students, is widely regarded as one of the top journalism schools in the country. It is housed in a new facility in downtown Phoenix that is equipped with 14 digital newsrooms and computer labs, two TV studios, 280 digital student work stations, the Cronkite Theater, the First Amendment Forum, and new technology. The school's students regularly finish at the top of national collegiate journalism competitions, such as the Hearst Journalism Awards program and the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards. In 2009, students won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for college print reporting.[citation needed]

In 2008, the state-of-the-art journalism education complex in the heart of ASU's Downtown Phoenix campus was also built in his honor. The Walter Cronkite Regents Chair in Communication seats the Texas College of Communications dean.[8]

Walter Cronkite Papers

The Walter Cronkite papers are preserved at the curatorial Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.[8] Occupying 293 linear feet (almost 90 metres) of shelf space, the papers document Cronkite's journalism career. Amongst the collected material are Cronkite's early beginnings while he still lived in Houston. They encompass his coverage of World War II as a United Press International correspondent, where he cemented his reputation by taking on hazardous overseas assignments.[5] During this time he also covered the Nuremberg war crimes trial serving as the chief of the United Press bureau in Moscow. The main content of the papers documents Cronkite's career with CBS News between 1950 and 1981.

The Cronkite Papers assemble a variety of interviews with U.S. presidents, including Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, and Ronald Reagan.[8] President Lyndon Johnson requested a special interview with Cronkite while he was broadcasting live on CBS.

External video
  Booknotes interview with Cronkite on A Reporter's Life, June 29, 1997, C-SPAN

Between 1990 and 1993, Don Carleton, executive director for the Center for American History, assisted Cronkite[124] as he compiled an oral history to write his autobiography, A Reporter's Life, which was published in 1996.[10] The taped memoirs became an integral part of an eight-part television series Cronkite Remembers, which was shown on the Discovery Channel.[125]

As a newsman, Cronkite devoted his attention to the early days of the space program, and the "space race" between the United States and the Soviet Union. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration honored Cronkite on February 28, 2006. Michael Coats, director of NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, presented Cronkite with the Ambassador of Exploration Award. Cronkite was the first non-astronaut thus honored.[126]

NASA presented Cronkite with a Moon rock sample from the early Apollo expeditions spanning 1969 to 1972.[127][128] Cronkite passed on the Moon rock to Bill Powers, president of the University of Texas at Austin, and it became part of the collection at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. Carleton said at this occasion, "We are deeply honored by Walter Cronkite's decision to entrust this prestigious award to the Center for American History. The Center already serves as the proud steward of his professional and personal papers, which include his coverage of the space program for CBS News. It is especially fitting that the archive documenting Walter's distinguished career should also include one of the moon rocks that the heroic astronauts of the Apollo program brought to Earth."[125][129]

Memorial at Missouri Western State University

On November 4, 2013, Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri, dedicated the Walter Cronkite Memorial.[130] The nearly 6,000 square-foot memorial includes images, videos and memorabilia from Cronkite's life and the many events he covered as a journalist.[131] The memorial includes a replica of the newsroom from which Cronkite broadcast the news during the 1960s and 1970s.[132] In 2014, the Memorial received the Missouri Division of Tourism's Spotlight Award.[133]

Books

  • The Challenges of Change (1971). Washington: Public Affairs Press. LCCN 71-149494.
  • Eye on the World (1971). New York: Cowles Book Co. ISBN 0402120884.
  • A Reporter's Life (1996). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-57879-1.

See also

References

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Further reading

  • Cronkite, Walter (1971). Eye on the World. New York: Cowles Book Company. ASIN B007RCFWFM.
  • Brinkley, Douglas (2012). Cronkite. New York: Harper. ISBN 978-0-06-137426-5.
  • Menand, Louis, "Seeing It Now: Walter Cronkite and the legend of CBS News", The New Yorker, July 9, 2012

External links

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Walter Cronkite.
Media offices
Preceded by CBS Evening News anchor
April 16, 1962 – March 6, 1981 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
None
 American television prime time anchor, Winter Olympic Games
1960 		Succeeded by

February 09, 2023
walter, cronkite, walter, leland, cronkite, november, 1916, july, 2009, american, broadcast, journalist, served, anchorman, evening, news, years, from, 1962, 1981, during, 1960s, 1970s, often, cited, most, trusted, america, after, being, named, opinion, poll, . Walter Leland Cronkite Jr November 4 1916 July 17 2009 was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News 1 for 19 years from 1962 to 1981 During the 1960s and 1970s he was often cited as the most trusted man in America after being so named in an opinion poll 2 3 4 Cronkite received numerous honors including two Peabody Awards a George Polk Award an Emmy Award and in 1981 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Jimmy Carter Walter CronkiteCronkite in 1983BornWalter Leland Cronkite Jr 1916 11 04 November 4 1916St Joseph Missouri U S DiedJuly 17 2009 2009 07 17 aged 92 New York City U S Other namesWalter Wilcox Old Ironpants Uncle Walter King of the AnchormenEducationUniversity of Texas at AustinOccupation s Television and radio broadcaster news anchorYears active1935 2009SpouseMary Elizabeth Betsy Maxwell m 1940 died 2005 wbr Children3 including KathyCronkite reported many events from 1937 to 1981 including bombings in World War II the Nuremberg trials combat in the Vietnam War 5 the Dawson s Field hijackings Watergate the Iran Hostage Crisis and the assassinations of President John F Kennedy civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr and Beatles musician John Lennon He was also known for his extensive coverage of the U S space program from Project Mercury to the Moon landings to the Space Shuttle He was the only non NASA recipient of an Ambassador of Exploration award 6 Cronkite is known for his departing catchphrase And that s the way it is followed by the date of the broadcast 7 Cronkite died at his home on July 17 2009 at the age of 92 from cerebrovascular disease Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2 1 Early years at CBS 2 2 Anchor of the CBS Evening News 3 Historic moments 3 1 Kennedy s assassination 3 2 Vietnam War 3 3 Other historic events 4 Retirement 5 Other activities 5 1 Post CBS Evening News 5 2 Voice overs 5 3 TV and movie appearances 5 4 Political activism 6 Personal life 7 Death 8 Legacy 8 1 Public credibility and trustworthiness 8 2 Awards and honors 8 3 Cronkite School at Arizona State University 8 4 Walter Cronkite Papers 8 5 Memorial at Missouri Western State University 9 Books 10 See also 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External linksEarly life and educationCronkite was born on November 4 1916 in Saint Joseph Missouri 8 the son of Helen Lena nee Fritsche and Dr Walter Leland Cronkite a dentist 9 10 11 Cronkite lived in Kansas City Missouri until he was ten when his family moved to Houston Texas 10 He attended elementary school at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School now Baker Montessori School 12 junior high school at Lanier Junior High School now Lanier Middle School in Houston and high school at San Jacinto High School where he edited the high school newspaper 8 He was a member of the Boy Scouts He attended college at the University of Texas at Austin UT entering in the fall term of 1933 13 where he worked on the Daily Texan and became a member of the Nu chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity 14 He also was a member of the Houston chapter of DeMolay a Masonic fraternal organization for boys 15 While attending UT Cronkite had his first taste of performance appearing in a play with fellow student Eli Wallach He dropped out in 1935 not returning for the fall term to concentrate on journalism 13 CareerCronkite left college in his junior year in the fall term of 1935 13 after starting a series of newspaper reporting jobs covering news and sports 16 He entered broadcasting as a radio announcer for WKY in Oklahoma City Oklahoma In 1936 he met his future wife Mary Elizabeth Betsy Maxwell while working as the sports announcer for KCMO AM in Kansas City Missouri 10 16 His broadcast name was Walter Wilcox 17 He would explain later that radio stations at the time did not want people to use their real names for fear of taking their listeners with them if they left citation needed 18 In Kansas City he joined the United Press International in 1937 16 With his name now established he received a job offer from Edward R Murrow at CBS News to join the Murrow Boys team of war correspondents relieving Bill Downs as the head of the Moscow bureau 19 CBS offered Cronkite 125 2 235 in 2020 money a week along with commercial fees amounting to 25 447 in 2020 for almost every time Cronkite reported on air Up to that point he had been making 57 50 1 027 in 2020 per week at UP but he had reservations about broadcasting He initially accepted the offer When he informed his boss Harrison Salisbury UP countered with a raise of 17 50 312 in 2020 per week Hugh Baillie also offered him an extra 20 357 in 2020 per week to stay Cronkite ultimately accepted the UP offer a move which angered Murrow and drove a wedge between them that would last for years 20 21 Cronkite became one of the top American reporters in World War II covering battles in North Africa and Europe 10 He was on board USS Texas starting in Norfolk Virginia through her service off the coast of North Africa as part of Operation Torch and thence back to the US On the return trip Cronkite was flown off Texas in one of her Vought OS2U Kingfisher aircraft when Norfolk was within flying distance He was granted permission to be flown the rest of the distance to Norfolk so that he could outpace a rival correspondent on USS Massachusetts to return to the US and to issue the first uncensored news reports to be published about Operation Torch 22 Cronkite s experiences aboard Texas launched his career as a war correspondent 23 Subsequently he was one of eight journalists selected by the United States Army Air Forces to fly bombing raids over Germany in a Boeing B 17 Flying Fortress as part of group called The Writing 69th 24 and during a mission fired a machine gun at a German fighter 25 He also landed in a glider with the 101st Airborne Division in Operation Market Garden and covered the Battle of the Bulge After the war he covered the Nuremberg trials 26 and served as the United Press main reporter in Moscow from 1946 to 1948 27 Early years at CBS In 1950 Cronkite joined CBS News in its young and growing television division again recruited by Murrow Cronkite began working at WTOP TV now WUSA the CBS affiliate in Washington D C He originally served as anchor of the network s 15 minute late Sunday evening newscast Up To the Minute which followed What s My Line at 11 00 pm ET from 1951 through 1962 Although it was widely reported that the term anchor was coined to describe Cronkite s role at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions marking the first nationally televised convention coverage other news presenters bore the title before him 2 Cronkite anchored the network s coverage of the 1952 presidential election as well as later conventions In 1964 he was temporarily replaced by the team of Robert Trout and Roger Mudd this proved to be a mistake and Cronkite returned to the anchor chair for future political conventions 28 From 1953 to 1957 Cronkite hosted the CBS program You Are There which reenacted historical events using the format of a news report 9 His famous last line for these programs was What sort of day was it A day like all days filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times and you were there In 1971 the show was revived and redesigned to attract an audience of teenagers and young adults hosted again by Cronkite on Saturday mornings In 1957 he began hosting The Twentieth Century eventually renamed The 20th Century a documentary series about important historical events of the century composed almost exclusively of newsreel footage and interviews A long running hit the show was again renamed as The 21st Century in 1967 with Cronkite hosting speculative reporting on the future for another three years Cronkite also hosted It s News to Me a game show based on news events 29 During the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956 Cronkite hosted the CBS news discussion series Pick the Winner Another of his network assignments was The Morning Show CBS short lived challenge to NBC s Today in 1954 16 His on air duties included interviewing guests and chatting with a lion puppet named Charlemane about the news 30 He considered this discourse with a puppet as one of the highlights of the show He added A puppet can render opinions on people and things that a human commentator would not feel free to utter I was and I am proud of it 31 Cronkite also angered the R J Reynolds Tobacco Company the show s sponsor by grammatically correcting its advertising slogan Instead of saying Winston tastes good like a cigarette should verbatim he substituted as for like 29 He was the lead broadcaster of the network s coverage of the 1960 Winter Olympics the first ever time such an event was televised in the United States He replaced Jim McKay who had suffered a mental breakdown 32 Anchor of the CBS Evening News Cronkite interviews President John F Kennedy to inaugurate the first half hour nightly news broadcast in 1963 On April 16 1962 Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchorman of the CBS s nightly feature newscast tentatively renamed Walter Cronkite with the News 10 but later the CBS Evening News on September 2 1963 when the show was expanded from 15 to 30 minutes making Cronkite the anchor of American network television s first nightly half hour news program 33 Cronkite s tenure as anchor of the CBS Evening News made him an icon in television news 10 During the early part of his tenure anchoring the CBS Evening News Cronkite competed against NBC s anchor team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley who anchored The Huntley Brinkley Report For much of the 1960s The Huntley Brinkley Report had more viewers than Cronkite s broadcast A key moment for Cronkite came during his coverage of John F Kennedy s assassination on November 22 1963 34 Another factor in Cronkite and CBS ascendancy to the top of the ratings was that as the decade progressed RCA made a corporate decision not to fund NBC News at the levels that CBS provided for its news broadcasts Consequently CBS News acquired a reputation for greater accuracy and depth in coverage This reputation meshed well with Cronkite s wire service experience and in 1967 the CBS Evening News began to surpass The Huntley Brinkley Report in viewership during the summer months citation needed In 1969 during the Apollo 11 with co host and former astronaut Wally Schirra and Apollo 13 Moon missions Cronkite received the best ratings and made CBS the most watched television network for the missions 8 In 1970 when Huntley retired the CBS Evening News finally dominated the American TV news viewing audience Although NBC finally settled on the skilled and well respected broadcast journalist John Chancellor Cronkite proved to be more popular and continued to be top rated until his retirement in 1981 10 One of Cronkite s trademarks was ending the CBS Evening News with the phrase And that s the way it is followed by the date 9 Keeping to standards of objective journalism he omitted this phrase on nights when he ended the newscast with opinion or commentary 10 Beginning with January 16 1980 Day 50 of the Iran hostage crisis Cronkite added the length of the hostages captivity to the show s closing in order to remind the audience of the unresolved situation ending only on Day 444 January 20 1981 35 36 Historic momentsKennedy s assassination This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Walter Cronkite news newspapers books scholar JSTOR March 2010 Learn how and when to remove this template message Cronkite is vividly remembered for breaking the news of the assassination of John F Kennedy on Friday November 22 1963 Cronkite had been standing at the United Press International wire machine in the CBS newsroom as the bulletin of the President s shooting broke and he clamored to get on the air to break the news as he wanted CBS to be the first network to do so 37 There was a problem facing the crew in the newsroom however There was no television camera in the studio at the time as the technical crew was working on it Eventually the camera was retrieved and brought back to the newsroom 38 Because of the magnitude of the story and the continuous flow of information coming from various sources time was of the essence but the camera would take at least twenty minutes to become operational under normal circumstances The decision was made to dispatch Cronkite to the CBS Radio Network booth to report the events and play the audio over the television airwaves while the crew worked on the camera to see if they could get it set up quicker 38 Meanwhile CBS was ten minutes into its live broadcast of the soap opera As the World Turns ATWT which had begun at the very minute of the shooting A CBS News Bulletin bumper slide abruptly broke into the broadcast at 1 40 pm EST Over the slide Cronkite began reading what would be the first of three audio only bulletins that were filed in the next twenty minutes 39 Here is a bulletin from CBS News in Dallas Texas three shots were fired at President Kennedy s motorcade in downtown Dallas The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting 40 While Cronkite was reading this bulletin a second one arrived mentioning the severity of Kennedy s wounds President Kennedy shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas Mrs Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr Kennedy she called Oh no the motorcade sped on United Press International says that the wounds for President Kennedy perhaps could be fatal Repeating a bulletin from CBS News President Kennedy has been shot by a would be assassin in Dallas Texas Stay tuned to CBS News for further details 40 Just before the bulletin cut out a CBS News staffer was heard saying Connally too apparently having just heard the news that Texas Governor John Connally had also been shot while riding in the presidential limousine with his wife Nellie and Mr and Mrs Kennedy CBS then rejoined the telecast of ATWT during a commercial break which was followed by show announcer Dan McCullough s usual fee plug for the first half of the program and the network s 1 45 pm station identification break Just before the second half of ATWT was to begin the network broke in with the bumper slide a second time In this bulletin Cronkite reported in greater detail about the assassination attempt on the President while also breaking the news of Governor Connally s shooting President Kennedy was shot as he drove from Dallas Airport to downtown Dallas Governor Connally of Texas in the car with him was also shot It is reported that three bullets rang out A Secret Service man has been was heard to shout from the car He s dead Whether he referred to President Kennedy or not is not yet known The President cradled in the arms of his wife Mrs Kennedy was carried to an ambulance and the car rushed to Parkland Hospital outside Dallas the President was taken to an emergency room in the hospital Other White House officials were in doubt in the corridors of the hospital as to the condition of President Kennedy Repeating this bulletin President Kennedy shot while driving in an open car from the airport in Dallas Texas to downtown Dallas 40 Cronkite then recapped the events as they had happened that the President and Governor Connally had been shot and were in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital and no one knew their condition as yet CBS then decided to return to ATWT which was now midway through its second segment The cast had continued to perform live while Cronkite s bulletins broke into the broadcast unaware of the unfolding events in Dallas ATWT then took another scheduled commercial break The segment before the break would be the last anyone would see of any network s programming until Tuesday November 26 During the commercial the bumper slide interrupted the proceedings again and Cronkite updated the viewers on the situation in Dallas This bulletin went into more detail than the other two revealing that Kennedy had been shot in the head Connally in the chest Cronkite remained on the air for the next ten minutes continuing to read bulletins as they were handed to him and recapping the events as they were known He also related a report given to reporters by Texas Congressman Albert Thomas that the President and Governor were still alive the first indication of their condition 38 At 2 00 pm EST with the top of the hour station break looming Cronkite told the audience that there would be a brief pause so that all of CBS affiliates including those in the Mountain and Pacific time zones which were not on the same schedule could join the network He then left the radio booth and went to the anchor desk in the newsroom Within twenty seconds of the announcement every CBS affiliate except Dallas KRLD which was providing local coverage was airing the network s feed The camera was finally operational by this time and enabled the audience to see Cronkite who was clad in shirt and tie but without his suit coat given the urgent nature of the story Cronkite reminded the audience again of the attempt made on the life of the President and tossed to KRLD news director Eddie Barker at the Dallas Trade Mart where Kennedy was supposed to be making a speech before he was shot Barker relayed information that Kennedy s condition was extremely critical Then after a prayer for Kennedy Barker quoted an unofficial report that the President was dead but stressed it was not confirmed After several minutes the coverage came back to the CBS newsroom where Cronkite reported that the President had been given blood transfusions and two priests had been called into the room He also played an audio report from KRLD that someone had been arrested in the assassination attempt at the Texas School Book Depository Back in Dallas Barker announced another report of the death of the President mentioning that it came from a reliable source Before the network left KRLD s feed for good Barker first announced then retracted a confirmation of Kennedy s death CBS cut back to Cronkite reporting that one of the priests had administered last rites to the president In the next few minutes several more bulletins reporting that Kennedy had died were given to Cronkite including one from CBS s own correspondent Dan Rather that had been reported as confirmation of Kennedy s demise by CBS Radio As these bulletins came into the newsroom it was becoming clearer that Kennedy had in fact lost his life Cronkite however stressed that these bulletins were simply reports and not any official confirmation of the President s condition some of his colleagues recounted in 2013 that his early career as a wire service reporter taught him to wait for official word before reporting a story 38 Still as more word came in Cronkite seemed to be resigned to the fact that it was only a matter of time before the assassination was confirmed He appeared to concede this when several minutes after he received the Rather report he received word that the two priests who gave the last rites to Kennedy told reporters on the scene that he was dead Cronkite said that report seems to be as close to official as we can get but would not declare it as such Nor did he do so with a report from Washington DC that came moments later which said that government sources were now reporting the President was dead this information was passed on to ABC as well which took it as official confirmation and reported it as such NBC did not report this information at all and chose instead to rely on reports from Charles Murphy and Robert MacNeil to confirm their suspicions At 2 38 pm EST while filling in time with some observations about the security presence in Dallas which had been increased due to violent acts against United Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson in the city earlier that year Cronkite was handed a new bulletin After looking it over for a moment he took off his glasses and made the official announcement From Dallas Texas the flash apparently official reading AP flash President Kennedy died at 1 p m Central Standard Time glancing up at clock 2 o clock Eastern Standard Time some 38 minutes ago 41 After making that announcement Cronkite paused briefly put his glasses back on and swallowed hard to maintain his composure With noticeable emotion in his voice he intoned the next sentence of the news report 41 Vice President Johnson clears throat has left the hospital in Dallas but we do not know to where he has proceeded presumably he will be taking the oath of office shortly and become the 36th President of the United States 41 With emotion still in his voice and eyes watering Cronkite once again recapped the events after collecting himself incorporating some wire photos of the visit and explaining the significance of the pictures now that Kennedy was dead He reminded the viewers that Vice President Johnson was now the President and was to be sworn in that Governor Connally s condition was still unknown and that there was no report of whether the assassin had been captured He then handed the anchor position to Charles Collingwood who had just entered the newsroom took his suit coat and left the room for a while At about 3 30 pm EST Cronkite came back into the newsroom to relay some new information The two major pieces of information involved the Oath of Office being administered to now President Johnson which officially made him the thirty sixth President and that Dallas police had arrested a man named Lee Harvey Oswald whom they suspected had fired the fatal shots After that Cronkite left again to begin preparing for that night s CBS Evening News which he returned to anchor as normal For the next four days along with his colleagues Cronkite continued to report segments of uninterrupted coverage of the assassination including the announcement of Oswald s death in the hands of Jack Ruby on Sunday The next day on the day of the funeral Cronkite concluded CBS Evening News with the following assessment about the events of the last four dark days It is said that the human mind has a greater capacity for remembering the pleasant than the unpleasant But today was a day that will live in memory and in grief Only history can write the importance of this day Were these dark days the harbingers of even blacker ones to come or like the black before the dawn shall they lead to some still as yet indiscernible sunrise of understanding among men that violent words no matter what their origin or motivation can lead only to violent deeds This is the larger question that will be answered in part in the manner that a shaken civilization seeks the answers to the immediate question Who and most importantly what was Lee Harvey Oswald The world s doubts must be put to rest Tonight there will be few Americans who will go to bed without carrying with them the sense that somehow they have failed If in the search of our conscience we find a new dedication to the American concepts that brought no political sectional religious or racial divisions then maybe it may yet be possible to say that John Fitzgerald Kennedy did not die in vain That s the way it is Monday November 25 1963 This is Walter Cronkite good night 40 Referring to his coverage of Kennedy s assassination in a 2006 TV interview with Nick Clooney Cronkite recalled I choked up I really had a little trouble my eyes got a little wet what Kennedy had represented was just all lost to us Fortunately I grabbed hold before I was actually crying 42 In a 2003 CBS special commemorating the 40th anniversary of the assassination Cronkite recalled his reaction upon having the death confirmed to him he said And when you finally had to say it s official the President is dead pretty tough words in a situation like that And they were um hard to come by 43 According to historian Douglas Brinkley Cronkite provided a sense of perspective throughout the unfolding sequence of disturbing events 34 Vietnam War In mid February 1968 on the urging of his executive producer Ernest Leiser Cronkite and Leiser journeyed to Vietnam to cover the aftermath of the Tet Offensive They were invited to dine with General Creighton Abrams the commander of all forces in Vietnam whom Cronkite knew from World War II According to Leiser Abrams told Cronkite we cannot win this Goddamned war and we ought to find a dignified way out 44 Upon return Cronkite and Leiser wrote separate editorial reports based on that trip Cronkite an excellent writer preferred Leiser s text over his own 44 On February 27 1968 Cronkite closed Report from Vietnam Who What When Where Why with that editorial report We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders both in Vietnam and Washington to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds They may be right that Hanoi s winter spring offensive has been forced by the Communist realization that they could not win the longer war of attrition and that the Communists hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual negotiations It would improve their position and it would also require our realization that we should have had all along that any negotiations must be that negotiations not the dictation of peace terms For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate This summer s almost certain standoff will either end in real give and take negotiations or terrible escalation and for every means we have to escalate the enemy can match us and that applies to invasion of the North the use of nuclear weapons or the mere commitment of one hundred or two hundred or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle And with each escalation the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of the evidence the optimists who have been wrong in the past To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic yet unsatisfactory conclusion On the off chance that military and political analysts are right in the next few months we must test the enemy s intentions in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate not as victors but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could 45 Cronkite reporting on location during the Vietnam War in 1968 Following Cronkite s editorial report President Lyndon B Johnson is claimed by some to have said If I ve lost Cronkite I ve lost Middle America 46 47 However this account of Johnson has been questioned by other observers in books on journalistic accuracy 48 49 50 At the time the editorial aired Johnson was in Austin Texas attending Texas Governor John Connally s birthday gala and was giving a speech in his honor 50 In his book This Just In What I Couldn t Tell You on TV CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer who was serving as a reporter for the Fort Worth Star Telegram when Cronkite s editorial aired acknowledged that Johnson did not see the original broadcast but also defended the allegation that Johnson had made the remark 51 According to Schieffer Johnson s aide George Christian told me that the President apparently saw some clips of it the next day and that That s when he made the remark about Cronkite But he knew then that it would take more than Americans were willing to give it 51 When asked about the remark during a 1979 interview Christian claimed he had no recollection about what the President had said 50 In his 1996 memoir A Reporter s Life Cronkite claimed he was at first unsure about how much of an impact his editorial report had on Johnson s decision to drop his bid for re election and what eventually convinced him the President had made the statement was a recount from Bill Moyers a journalist and former aide to Johnson 52 Several weeks later Johnson who sought to preserve his legacy and was now convinced his declining health could not withstand growing public criticism 53 54 announced he would not seek reelection During the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago Cronkite was anchoring the CBS network coverage as violence and protests occurred outside the convention as well as scuffles inside the convention hall When Dan Rather was punched to the floor on camera by security personnel Cronkite commented I think we ve got a bunch of thugs here Dan Other historic events The first publicly transmitted live trans Atlantic program was broadcast via the Telstar satellite on July 23 1962 at 3 00 pm EDT and Cronkite was one of the main presenters in this multinational broadcast 55 56 The broadcast was made possible in Europe by Eurovision and in North America by NBC CBS ABC and the CBC 55 The first public broadcast featured CBS s Cronkite and NBC s Chet Huntley in New York and the BBC s Richard Dimbleby in Brussels 55 Cronkite was in the New York studio at Rockefeller Plaza as the first pictures to be transmitted and received were the Statue of Liberty in New York and the Eiffel Tower in Paris 55 The first segment included a televised major league baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field 55 From there the video switched first to Washington D C then to Cape Canaveral Florida then to Quebec City Quebec and finally to Stratford Ontario 55 The Washington segment included a press conference with President Kennedy talking about the price of the American dollar which was causing concern in Europe 55 This broadcast inaugurated live intercontinental news coverage which was perfected later in the sixties with Early Bird and other Intelsat satellites General of the Army Dwight D Eisenhower returned to his former Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force SHAEF headquarters for an interview by Cronkite on the CBS News Special Report D Day 20 telecast on June 6 1964 57 Cronkite is also remembered for his coverage of the United States space program and at times was visibly enthusiastic rubbing his hands together on camera with a smile and uttering Whew boy on July 20 1969 when the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission put the first men on the Moon 58 Cronkite participated in Richard Nixon s 1972 visit to China Because Cronkite was colorblind he had to ask others what color of coat First Lady Pat Nixon was wearing when they disembarked in Peking Beijing 59 According to the 2006 PBS documentary on Cronkite there was nothing new in his reports on the Watergate affair 5 however Cronkite brought together a wide range of reporting and his credibility and status is credited by many with pushing the Watergate story to the forefront with the American public ultimately resulting in the resignation of President Richard M Nixon on August 9 1974 8 Cronkite had anchored the CBS coverage of Nixon s address announcing his impending resignation the night before 60 The January 22 1973 broadcast of the CBS Evening News saw Cronkite break the news of the death of another notable American political figure former president Lyndon B Johnson 61 At approximately 6 38 pm Eastern Time while a pre recorded report that the Vietnam peace talks in Paris had been successful was being played for the audience Cronkite received a telephone call in the studio while off camera The call was from Tom Johnson the former press secretary for President Johnson who was at the time serving the former chief executive as station manager at KTBC TV in Austin Texas which was affiliated with CBS at the time and was owned by the Johnson family During the conversation the production staff cut away from the report back to the live camera in studio as Cronkite was still on the phone After he was made aware that he was back on camera Cronkite held up a finger to let everyone watching know he required a moment to let Johnson finish talking Once Cronkite got what he needed he thanked Johnson and asked him to stay on the line He then turned to the camera and began to relay what Johnson had said to him I m talking to Tom Johnson the press secretary for Lyndon Johnson who has reported that the thirty sixth President of the United States died this afternoon in a ambulance plane on the way to San Antonio where he was taken after being stricken at his ranch the LBJ Ranch in Johnson City Texas He was stricken at 3 40 pm Central Standard Time 4 40 Eastern Standard Time Three agents who were at the scene who are permanently attached to the ranch to protect the President uh went to his immediate aid gave him all emergency aid they could put him in a plane I suppose Tom one of the President s own planes pauses to wait for response Colonel George McGranahan who was the man who proclaimed the President dead upon arrival at Brooke Army General Hospital in San Antonio pauses again And Mrs Johnson was notified of the events at her office in Austin and flew immediately to San Antonio and Tom Johnson no relation the President s news secretary has told me that from Austin 62 During the final ten minutes of that broadcast Cronkite reported on the death giving a retrospective on the life of the nation s 36th president and announced that CBS would air a special on Johnson later that evening This story was re told on a 2007 CBS TV special honoring Cronkite s 90th birthday citation needed NBC TV s Garrick Utley anchoring NBC Nightly News that evening also interrupted his newscast in order to break the story doing so about three minutes after Cronkite on CBS The news was not reported on that night s ABC Evening News which was anchored by Howard K Smith and Harry Reasoner because ABC at the time fed their newscast live at 6 00 pm Eastern instead of 6 30 to get a head start on CBS and NBC for those stations that aired ABC Evening News live although not every affiliate did On November 22 1963 Cronkite introduced The Beatles to the United States by airing a four minute story about the band on CBS Morning News The story was scheduled to be shown again on the CBS Evening News that same day but the assassination of John F Kennedy prevented the broadcast of the regular evening news The Beatles story was aired on the evening news program on December 10 63 RetirementOn February 14 1980 Cronkite announced that he intended to retire from the CBS Evening News at the time CBS had a policy of mandatory retirement by age 65 64 Although sometimes compared to a father figure or an uncle figure in an interview about his retirement he described himself as being more like a comfortable old shoe to his audience His last day in the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News was on March 6 1981 he was succeeded the following Monday by Dan Rather 65 Cronkite s farewell statement This is my last broadcast as the anchorman of The CBS Evening News for me it s a moment for which I long have planned but which nevertheless comes with some sadness For almost two decades after all we ve been meeting like this in the evenings and I ll miss that But those who have made anything of this departure I m afraid have made too much This is but a transition a passing of the baton A great broadcaster and gentleman Doug Edwards preceded me in this job and another Dan Rather will follow 8 And anyway the person who sits here is but the most conspicuous member of a superb team of journalists writers reporters editors producers and none of that will change Furthermore I m not even going away I ll be back from time to time with special news reports and documentaries and beginning in June every week with our science program Universe 9 Old anchormen you see don t fade away they just keep coming back for more And that s the way it is Friday March 6 1981 I ll be away on assignment and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years Good night 66 On the eve of Cronkite s retirement he appeared on The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson 67 The following night Carson did a comic spoof of his on air farewell address 68 Other activities Cronkite meeting with President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1981 Post CBS Evening News Cronkite wrote an article for the first issue of Martha s Vineyard Magazine As he had promised on his last show as anchor in 1981 Cronkite 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 Cronkite hosted Universe until its cancellation in 1982 69 In 1983 he reported on the British general election for the ITV current affairs series World In Action interviewing among many others the victorious Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher 70 Cronkite hosted the annual Vienna New Year s Concert on PBS from 1985 to 2008 succeeded by Julie Andrews in 2009 71 For many years until 2002 he was also the host of the annual Kennedy Center Honors In 1998 Cronkite hosted the 90 minute documentary Silicon Valley A 100 Year Renaissance produced by the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association The film documented Silicon Valley s rise from the origin of Stanford University to the current high technology powerhouse The documentary was broadcast on PBS throughout the United States and in 26 countries Prior to 2004 he could also be seen in the opening movie Back to Neverland shown 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 Cronkite s famous catchphrase In the feature Cronkite describes the steps taken in the creation of an animated film while Williams becomes an animated character and even becomes Cronkite impersonating his voice He also was shown inviting Disney guests and tourists to the Disney Classics Theater On May 21 1999 Cronkite participated in a panel discussion on Integrity in the Media with Ben Bradlee and Mike McCurry at the Connecticut Forum in Hartford Connecticut Cronkite provided an anecdote about taking a picture from a house in Houston Texas where a newsworthy event occurred and being praised for getting a unique photograph only to find out later that the city desk had provided him with the wrong address 72 Voice overs Cronkite narrated the IMAX film about the Space Shuttle The Dream is Alive released in 1985 From May 26 1986 to August 15 1994 he was the narrator s voice in the EPCOT Center attraction Spaceship Earth at Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida He provided the pivotal voice of Captain Neweyes in the 1993 animated film We re Back A Dinosaur s Story delivering his trademark line at the end In 1995 he made an appearance on Broadway providing the voice of the titular book in the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying 73 Cronkite was a finalist for NASA s Journalist in Space program which mirrored the Teacher in Space Project an opportunity that was suspended after the Challenger disaster in 1986 He recorded voice overs for the 1995 film Apollo 13 modifying the script he was given to make it more Cronkitian In 2002 Cronkite was the voice of Benjamin Franklin in the educational television cartoon Liberty s Kids which included a news segment ending with the same phrase he did back on the CBS Evening News This role earned him Daytime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Performer in a Children s Series in 2003 and 2004 but he did not win His distinctive voice provided the narration for the television ads of the University of Texas Austin his alma mater with its We re Texas ad campaign 74 He held amateur radio operator license KB2GSD and narrated a 2003 American Radio Relay League documentary explaining amateur radio s role in disaster relief 75 The video tells Amateur Radio s public service story to non hams focusing on ham radio s part in helping various agencies respond to wildfires in the Western US during 2002 ham radio in space and the role Amateur Radio plays in emergency communications Dozens of radio amateurs helped the police and fire departments and other emergency services maintain communications in New York Pennsylvania and Washington DC narrator Cronkite intoned in reference to ham radio s response to the terrorist attacks on September 11 2001 Unusually Cronkite was a Novice class licensee the entry level license for his entire and long tenure in the hobby 76 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 77 in April 2005 In 2006 Cronkite hosted the World War One Living History Project a program honoring America s final handful of veterans from the First World War The program was created by Treehouse Productions and aired on NPR on November 11 2006 In May 2009 Legacy of War produced by PBS was released Cronkite chronicles over archive footage the events following World War II that resulted in America s rise as the dominant world power 78 Prior to his death Uncle Walter hosted a number of TV specials and was featured in interviews about the times and events that occurred during his career as America s most trusted man 5 In July 2006 the 90 minute documentary Walter Cronkite Witness to History aired on PBS The special was narrated by Katie Couric who assumed the CBS Evening News anchor chair in September 2006 Cronkite provided the voiceover introduction to Couric s CBS Evening News which began on September 5 2006 Cronkite s voiceover was notably not used on introducing the broadcast reporting his funeral no voiceover was used on this occasion citation needed TV and movie appearances Cronkite made a cameo appearance on a 1974 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show in which he met with Lou Grant in his office Ted Baxter who at first tried to convince Cronkite that he Baxter was as good a newsman as Eric Sevareid pleaded with Cronkite to hire him for the network news at least to give sport scores and gave an example The North Stars 3 the Kings Oh Cronkite turned to Grant and said I m gonna get you for this Cronkite later said that he was disappointed that his scene was filmed in one take since he had hoped to sit down and chat with the cast In the late 1980s and again in the 1990s Cronkite appeared on the news oriented situation comedy Murphy Brown as himself Both episodes were written by the Emmy Award winning team of Tom Seeley and Norm Gunzenhauser He also continued hosting a variety of series In the early 1980s he was host of the documentary series World War II with Walter Cronkite In 1991 he hosted the TV documentary Dinosaur on A amp E not related to the documentary of the same title hosted by Christopher Reeve on CBS six years earlier and a 1994 follow up series Ape Man The Story of Human Evolution In 1995 he narrated the World Liberty Concert held in the Netherlands Cronkite routinely hosted the Kennedy Center Honors from 1981 to 2002 Cronkite appeared briefly in the 2005 dramatic documentary The American Ruling Class written by Lewis Lapham the 2000 film Thirteen Days reporting on the Cuban Missile Crisis and provided the opening synopsis of the American Space Program leading to the events in Apollo 13 for the 1995 Ron Howard film of the same name Political activism Cronkite speaking at a NASA ceremony in February 2004 Cronkite wrote a syndicated opinion column for King Features Syndicate In 2005 and 2006 he contributed to The Huffington Post 79 Cronkite was the honorary chairman of The Interfaith Alliance 80 In 2006 he presented the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award to actor and activist George Clooney on behalf of his organization at its annual dinner in New York 81 Cronkite was a vocal advocate for free airtime for political candidates 5 He worked with the Alliance for Better Campaigns 5 and Common Cause 9 for instance on an unsuccessful lobbying effort to have an amendment added to the McCain Feingold Shays Meehan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2001 that would have required TV broadcast companies to provide free airtime to candidates Cronkite criticized the present system of campaign finance which allows elections to be purchased by special interests and he noted that all the European democracies provide their candidates with extensive free airtime 82 In fact Cronkite pointed out of all the major nations worldwide that profess to have democracies only seven just seven do not offer free airtime 82 This put the United States on a list with Ecuador Honduras Malaysia Taiwan Tanzania and Trinidad and Tobago Cronkite concluded that The failure to give free airtime for our political campaigns endangers our democracy 82 During the elections held in 2000 the amount spent by candidates in the major TV markets approached 1 billion What our campaign asks is that the television industry yield just a tiny percentage of that windfall less than 1 percent to fund free airtime 82 He was a member of the Constitution Project s bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee 83 He also supported the nonprofit world hunger organization Heifer International In 1998 he supported President Bill Clinton during Clinton s impeachment trial He was also a proponent of limited world government on the American federalist model writing 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 84 85 86 Cronkite contrasted his support for accountable global government with the opposition to it by politically active Christian fundamentalists in the United States Even as with the American rejection of the League of Nations our failure to live up to our obligations to the United Nations is led by a handful of willful senators who choose to pursue their narrow selfish political objectives at the cost of our nation s conscience They pander to and are supported by the Christian Coalition and the rest of the religious right wing Their leader Pat Robertson has written that we should have a world government but only when the messiah arrives Any attempt to achieve world order before that time must be the work of the Devil Well join me I m glad to sit here at the right hand of Satan 84 85 In 2003 Cronkite who owned property on Martha s Vineyard became involved in a long running debate over his opposition to the construction of a wind farm in that area In his column he repeatedly condemned President George W Bush and the 2003 invasion of Iraq Cronkite appeared in the 2004 Robert Greenwald film Outfoxed where he offered commentary on what he said were 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 In January 2006 during a press conference to promote the PBS documentary about his career Cronkite said that he felt the same way about America s presence in Iraq as he had about their presence in Vietnam in 1968 and that he felt America should recall its troops 87 Cronkite spoke out against the War on Drugs in support of the Drug Policy Alliance writing a fundraising letter and appearing in advertisements on behalf of the DPA 88 In the letter Cronkite wrote Today our nation is fighting two wars one abroad and one at home While the war in Iraq is in the headlines the other war is still being fought on our own streets Its casualties are the wasted lives of our own citizens I am speaking of the war on drugs And I cannot help but wonder how many more lives and how much more money will be wasted before another Robert McNamara admits what is plain for all to see the war on drugs is a failure 88 Personal life Cronkite at the helm of the USS Constitution in July 1997 Cronkite was married for nearly 65 years to Mary Elizabeth Betsy Maxwell Cronkite from March 30 1940 until her death from cancer on March 15 2005 89 90 They had three children Nancy Cronkite Mary Kathleen Kathy Cronkite and Walter Leland Chip Cronkite III who is married to actress Deborah Rush Cronkite dated singer Joanna Simon from 2005 to 2009 91 92 A grandson Walter Cronkite IV now works at CBS 93 Cronkite s cousin is former Mayor of Kansas City and 2008 Democratic nominee for Missouri s 6th congressional district Kay Barnes 94 Cronkite was an accomplished sailor and enjoyed sailing coastal waters of the United States in his custom built 48 foot Sunward Wyntje Cronkite was a member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary with the honorary rank of commodore 95 96 Throughout the 1950s he was an aspiring sports car racer even racing in the 1959 12 Hours of Sebring 97 Cronkite was reported to be a fan of the game Diplomacy which was rumored to be Henry Kissinger s favorite game 98 DeathExternal video Memorial service for Walter Cronkite September 9 2009 C SPANIn June 2009 Cronkite was reported to be terminally ill 99 He died on July 17 2009 at his home in New York City aged 92 16 100 101 He is believed to have died from cerebrovascular disease 102 Cronkite s funeral took place on July 23 2009 at St Bartholomew s Church in midtown Manhattan New York City Among many journalists who attended were 103 Tom Brokaw Connie Chung Katie Couric Charles Gibson Matt Lauer Dan Rather Andy Rooney Morley Safer Diane Sawyer Bob Schieffer Meredith Vieira Barbara Walters and Brian Williams At his funeral his friends noted his love of music including recently drumming citation needed He was cremated and his remains buried next to his wife Betsy in the family plot in Kansas City 104 96 LegacyPublic credibility and trustworthiness For many years until a decade after he left his post as anchor 105 Cronkite was considered one of the most trusted figures in the United States For most of his 19 years as anchor he was the predominant news voice in America 105 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 8 100 USA Today wrote that few TV figures have ever had as much power as Cronkite did at his height 105 Enjoying the cult of personality surrounding Cronkite in those years CBS allowed some good natured fun poking at its star anchorman in some episodes of the network s popular situation comedy All in the Family during which the lead character Archie Bunker would sometimes complain about the newsman calling him Pinko Cronkite Cronkite trained himself to speak at a rate of 124 words per minute in his newscasts so that viewers could clearly understand him 106 In contrast Americans average about 165 words per minute and fast difficult to understand talkers speak close to 200 words per minute 107 Awards and honors Cronkite hosting the 61st Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon in May 2002 In 1968 the faculty of the E W Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University voted to award Cronkite the Carr Van Anda Award for enduring contributions to journalism 108 In 1970 Cronkite received a Freedom of the Press George Polk Award 8 9 and the Paul White Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association 109 In 1972 in recognition of his career Princeton University s American Whig Cliosophic Society awarded Cronkite the James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service 110 Cronkite in 1996 In 1977 Cronkite was elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society for which he was a proactive supporter and member even participating in educational video materials for the society s 175th anniversary 111 112 In 1981 the year he retired former president Jimmy Carter awarded Cronkite the Presidential Medal of Freedom 8 9 In that year he also received the S Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards 113 and the Paul White Award for lifetime achievement from the Radio Television Digital News Association 109 In 1985 Cronkite was honored with the induction into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame 9 In 1989 he received the Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Speech 114 He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1994 115 In 1995 he received the Ischia International Journalism Award 116 In 1999 Cronkite received the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement s Corona Award in recognition of a lifetime of achievement in space exploration 117 He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003 118 On March 1 2006 Cronkite became the first non astronaut to receive NASA s Ambassador of Exploration Award 6 119 Among Cronkite s numerous awards were four Peabody awards for excellence in broadcasting 9 In 2003 Cronkite was honored by the Vienna Philharmonic with the Franz Schalk Gold Medal in view of his contributions to the New Year s Concert and the cultural image of Austria 120 Minor planet 6318 Cronkite discovered in 1990 by Eleanor Helin is named in his honor 121 Cronkite School at Arizona State University A few years after Cronkite retired Tom Chauncey a former owner of KOOL TV the then CBS affiliate in Phoenix contacted Cronkite an old friend and asked him if he would be willing to have the journalism school at Arizona State University named after him Cronkite immediately agreed 5 122 The ASU program acquired status and respect from its namesake Cronkite was not just a namesake but he also took the time to interact with the students and staff of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication 8 123 Cronkite made the trip to Arizona annually to present the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism to a leader in the field of media The values that Mr Cronkite embodies excellence integrity accuracy fairness objectivity we try to instill in our students each and every day There is no better role model for our faculty or our students said Dean Christopher Callahan 122 The school with approximately 1 700 students is widely regarded as one of the top journalism schools in the country It is housed in a new facility in downtown Phoenix that is equipped with 14 digital newsrooms and computer labs two TV studios 280 digital student work stations the Cronkite Theater the First Amendment Forum and new technology The school s students regularly finish at the top of national collegiate journalism competitions such as the Hearst Journalism Awards program and the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards In 2009 students won the Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award for college print reporting citation needed In 2008 the state of the art journalism education complex in the heart of ASU s Downtown Phoenix campus was also built in his honor The Walter Cronkite Regents Chair in Communication seats the Texas College of Communications dean 8 Walter Cronkite Papers The namesake Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication named after Cronkite This section contains close paraphrasing of a non free copyrighted source https www cah utexas edu collections news media cronkite php Copyvios report Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page Please improve this article by re writing it in your own words December 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Walter Cronkite papers are preserved at the curatorial Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin 8 Occupying 293 linear feet almost 90 metres of shelf space the papers document Cronkite s journalism career Amongst the collected material are Cronkite s early beginnings while he still lived in Houston They encompass his coverage of World War II as a United Press International correspondent where he cemented his reputation by taking on hazardous overseas assignments 5 During this time he also covered the Nuremberg war crimes trial serving as the chief of the United Press bureau in Moscow The main content of the papers documents Cronkite s career with CBS News between 1950 and 1981 The Cronkite Papers assemble a variety of interviews with U S presidents including Herbert Hoover Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan 8 President Lyndon Johnson requested a special interview with Cronkite while he was broadcasting live on CBS External video Booknotes interview with Cronkite on A Reporter s Life June 29 1997 C SPANBetween 1990 and 1993 Don Carleton executive director for the Center for American History assisted Cronkite 124 as he compiled an oral history to write his autobiography A Reporter s Life which was published in 1996 10 The taped memoirs became an integral part of an eight part television series Cronkite Remembers which was shown on the Discovery Channel 125 As a newsman Cronkite devoted his attention to the early days of the space program and the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union The National Aeronautics and Space Administration honored Cronkite on February 28 2006 Michael Coats director of NASA s Lyndon B Johnson Space Center in Houston presented Cronkite with the Ambassador of Exploration Award Cronkite was the first non astronaut thus honored 126 NASA presented Cronkite with a Moon rock sample from the early Apollo expeditions spanning 1969 to 1972 127 128 Cronkite passed on the Moon rock to Bill Powers president of the University of Texas at Austin and it became part of the collection at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History Carleton said at this occasion We are deeply honored by Walter Cronkite s decision to entrust this prestigious award to the Center for American History The Center already serves as the proud steward of his professional and personal papers which include his coverage of the space program for CBS News It is especially fitting that the archive documenting Walter s distinguished career should also include one of the moon rocks that the heroic astronauts of the Apollo program brought to Earth 125 129 Memorial at Missouri Western State University On November 4 2013 Missouri Western State University in St Joseph Missouri dedicated the Walter Cronkite Memorial 130 The nearly 6 000 square foot memorial includes images videos and memorabilia from Cronkite s life and the many events he covered as a journalist 131 The memorial includes a replica of the newsroom from which Cronkite broadcast the news during the 1960s and 1970s 132 In 2014 the Memorial received the Missouri Division of Tourism s Spotlight Award 133 BooksThe Challenges of Change 1971 Washington Public Affairs Press LCCN 71 149494 Eye on the World 1971 New York Cowles Book Co ISBN 0402120884 A Reporter s Life 1996 New York Alfred A Knopf ISBN 0 394 57879 1 See alsoNew Yorkers in journalism Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass CommunicationReferences Walter Cronkite Biography Facts amp Views on Vietnam War Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved April 27 2021 a b Ben Zimmer July 31 2009 Too Good to Check On the Media Interview audio transcript Interviewed by Bob Garfield NPR Archived from the original on August 4 2009 Retrieved August 2 2009 CBS at 75 Timeline The 1950s CBS Archived from the original on May 5 2006 Retrieved April 26 2006 Cook Jeff Scott 1989 The elements of speechwriting and public speaking Macmillan p 171 ISBN 0 02 527791 X a b c d e f g Winfrey Lee Schaffer Michael D July 17 2009 Walter Cronkite dies The Philadelphia Inquirer Retrieved July 18 2009 a b Cronkite honored by NASA for space coverage USA Today February 26 2006 Retrieved August 2 2012 Watkins Tom How That s the way it is became Cronkite s tag line CNN Retrieved May 23 2018 a b c d e f g h i j k l Barron David July 17 2009 News icon Walter Cronkite dies at 92 Houston Chronicle Retrieved July 17 2009 a b c d e f g h i Former CBS News Anchor Walter Cronkite Dies WorldNow and Sarkes Tarzian Inc KTVN Channel 2 July 17 2009 Archived from the original on July 26 2009 Retrieved July 18 2009 a b c d e f g h i Barnhart Aaron July 17 2009 How Missouri native became most trusted man in America McClatchy Retrieved August 2 2012 Walter Cronkite Biography 1916 2009 Film Reference Retrieved July 17 2009 Meeks Flori May 6 2014 Switch to Montessori proved pivotal for Wilson school Heights Examiner Houston Chronicle Retrieved March 11 2017 a b c Cronkite Walter December 4 2009 Cronkite s Texas A Q amp A with Walter Cronkite UTNews Interview Interviewed by Don Carleton Austin Texas U S University of Texas at Austin Retrieved November 4 2016 Walter Cronkite dead at 92 Austin Statesman July 17 2009 Walter Cronkite Was My Brother mastermason com Retrieved December 18 2019 a b c d e CBS Legend Walter Cronkite Dies Most Trusted Man in America Passes Away in New York at 92 CBS News July 17 2009 Retrieved July 17 2009 Fenster Bob 2005 The Duh Awards In This Stupid World We Take the Prize Andrews McMeel Publishing p 176 ISBN 0 7407 5021 6 Gay Timothy M 2012 Assignment to Hell the war against Nazi Germany with correspondents Walter Cronkite Andy Rooney A J Liebling Homer Bigart and Hal Boyle Penguin ISBN 9781101585382 McDonough John Dispatches From The Front Chicago Tribune Sperber A M 1998 Murrow His Life and Times Fordham University Press p 228 ISBN 0 8232 1881 3 Gay Timothy M 2013 Assignment to Hell The War Against Nazi Germany with Correspondents Walter Cronkite Andy Rooney A J Liebling Homer Bigart and Hal Boyle NAL Caliber Trade ISBN 978 0 451 41715 2 Cronkite Walter 1996 A Reporter s Life New York Alfred A Knopf pp 89 90 ISBN 0 394 57879 1 USS Texas BB 35 Historic Naval Ships Visitors Guide Historic Naval Ships Association Archived from the original on September 5 2006 Retrieved December 29 2006 Auster Albert 2008 Cronkite Walter U S Broadcast Journalist The Museum of Broadcast Communications museum tv Archived from the original on March 25 2009 Retrieved July 20 2009 Ferguson Billy G 2003 Unipress United Press International covering the 20th century Fulcrum Publications p 141 ISBN 9781555914813 Retrieved August 5 2012 Cronkite Walter February 20 2006 Listening In On the Nuremberg Trials National Public Radio retrieved August 2 2012 Erlich Reese Walter Cronkite Remembers The Russia Project Retrieved August 5 2012 Brinkley pp 320 321 a b Martin Douglas July 17 2009 Walter Cronkite 92 Dies Trusted Voice of TV The New York Times Retrieved August 2 2009 Cronkite with Charlemane the Lion on CBS The Morning Show photograph CBS News June 23 2006 Retrieved August 2 2009 Zurawik David July 18 2009 Walter Cronkite America s original anchorman dies at age 92 The Baltimore Sun Retrieved February 17 2022 Sandomir Richard July 19 2009 Amid Blizzard Cronkite Helped Make Sports History The New York Times Retrieved August 2 2009 Brinkley p 256 a b Sneed Tierney November 14 2013 How John F Kennedy s Assassination Changed Television Forever U S News amp World Report Archived from the original on August 20 2017 Retrieved August 20 2017 CBS News Transcripts January 16 1980 Goodman Ellen June 17 1980 And That s the Way It Is Or Is It The Washington Post Retrieved July 18 2009 Daniel Douglass K 2007 Harry Reasoner a life in the news digitised online by Google Books online University of Texas Press pp 87 88 ISBN 978 0 292 71477 9 a b c d Secrets of the Dead season 13 episode 1 JFK One PM Central Standard Time Produced by WNET premiered November 13 2013 on PBS Morrow Robert D 1993 First Hand Knowledge How I Participated in the CIA Mafia Murder of President Kennedy digitised online by Google Books online SP Books ISBN 978 1 56171 274 8 a b c d Cronkite broadcasts Moon landing JFK death MSNBC July 17 2009 Archived from the original on September 19 2012 Retrieved October 6 2010 a b c JFK Assassination CBS Coverage Part 8 10 1963 CBS News November 22 1963 Archived from the original on July 21 2010 Retrieved August 2 2012 Taylor Alan 2009 Walter was more than just an anchor He was family Obama pays tribute after death of TV legend Cronkite Sunday Herald Retrieved August 14 2012 Remembering Walter Cronkite That s the Way it Was The World of Politics News and Entertainment Remember a Broadcasting Legend and American Icon CBS News July 19 2009 Retrieved July 18 2009 a b Fromson Murray July 21 2009 And That s The Way It Was Huffington Post Retrieved December 4 2009 Who What When Where Why Report from Vietnam by Walter Cronkite CBS Evening News February 27 1968 Archived from the original on February 27 2012 Retrieved August 3 2012 Moore Frazier July 18 2009 Legendary CBS anchor Walter Cronkite dies at 92 GMA News Associated Press Retrieved August 3 2012 Wicker Tom January 26 1997 Broadcast News The New York Times Retrieved May 1 2009 Braestrup Peter 1994 Big Story Presidio Press ISBN 978 0891415312 Campbell W Joseph 2010 Getting It Wrong Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 25566 1 a b c Campbell W Joseph July 9 2012 Chris Matthews invokes the if I ve lost Cronkite myth in NYT review Retrieved August 3 2012 a b Schieffer Bob January 6 2004 This Just In What I Couldn t Tell You on TV Putnam Pub Group ISBN 978 0 399 14971 9 Retrieved June 8 2013 Cronkite Walter 1996 A Reporter s Life 1st ed Ballantine Books p 256 ISBN 978 0 394 57879 8 Risen Clay April 2008 The Unmaking of the President smithsonianmag com Behind L B J s Decision Not to Run in 68 The New York Times April 16 1988 a b c d e f g Cronkite Walter July 18 2009 From The Archives Cronkite Live Via Satellite NPR Retrieved July 23 2009 Cronkite Walter July 23 2002 The Day the World Got Smaller NPR All Things Considered full audio segment Retrieved July 23 2009 Eisenhower Recalls the Ordeal Of D Day Assault 20 Years Ago The New York Times June 6 1964 Retrieved December 6 2019 Brinkley p 420 Assignment China The Week That Changed The World USC U S China Institute January 26 2012 Event occurs at 18 33 Archived from the original on November 2 2021 via YouTube Brinkley pp 502 503 Vanderbilt Television News Archive CBS Evening News for Monday Jan 22 1973 Vanderbilt University Television News Archive January 22 1973 Retrieved July 18 2009 Walter Cronkite announces the death of LBJ 1973 CBS January 22 1973 Archived from the original on February 25 2011 Retrieved August 3 2012 Lewis Martin July 19 2009 Tweet The Beatles How Walter Cronkite Sent The Beatles Viral in 1963 The Huffington Post Retrieved June 7 2010 Walter Cronkite at museum tv Archived September 23 2006 at the Wayback Machine Murray Michael D 1999 Encyclopedia of television news illustrated ed Greenwood Publishing Group p 35 ISBN 978 1 57356 108 2 Cronkite Walter March 6 1981 And that s the way it is Walter Cronkite s final sign off CBS Archived from the original on November 2 2021 Retrieved September 7 2016 Lloyd Wynn January 21 2018 Johnny Carson Plays Walter Cronkite Archived from the original on August 12 2019 via YouTube RockfrdDrm August 27 2013 Johnny Carson Plays Walter Cronkite Archived from the original on November 2 2021 via YouTube Bedell Sally August 12 1982 CRONKITE S UNIVERSE IS CANCELED The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved April 27 2021 TV Interview for Granada World in Action Margaret Thatcher Foundation 2009 Retrieved July 20 2009 From Vienna The New Year s Celebration 2009 Educational Broadcasting Corporation December 9 2008 Retrieved July 18 2009 YouTube Walter Cronkite and Ben Bradlee YouTube 2009 Archived from the original on November 2 2021 Retrieved July 20 2009 Canby Vincent March 24 1995 Theater Review How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying Climbing The Ladder Song by Song The New York Times Retrieved November 27 2019 Giving to UT Philanthropy at the University of Texas Office of the Vice President for Development University of Texas 1997 2009 Archived from the original on December 2 2002 Retrieved July 20 2009 ARRL Videos Amateur Radio Today DVD arrl org Amateur License KB2GSD CRONKITE JR WALTER L fcc gov Federal Communications Commission Retrieved November 27 2019 Chatham Marconi Maritime Center Chatham Marconi Maritime Center 2008 Retrieved July 20 2009 Legacy of War Legacy of War Spoilers Episode Guides Message Board TV Guide Retrieved July 18 2009 Walter Cronkite Huffington Post July 20 2009 Retrieved July 20 2009 Message From Walter Cronkite The Interfaith Alliance Retrieved August 3 2012 9th Annual Walter Cronkite Faith amp Freedom Award Gala The Interfaith Alliance November 1 2006 Archived from the original on April 15 2007 Retrieved July 20 2009 a b c d Cronkite Walter November 4 2002 Free the Air Waves Citizens Union Foundation Gotham Gazette The Constitution Project Bipartisan Committee Denounces Illegal Spying Program Common Dreams org 1997 2009 Archived from the original on July 25 2009 Retrieved July 20 2009 a b A speech by Walter Cronkite United Nations national sovereignty and the future of the world Upon receiving the Norman Cousins Global Governance Award on October 19 1999 at the UN Delegates Dining Room in New York City Renew America 1999 Retrieved July 18 2009 a b Cronkite Walter 1999 ASI presents Hillary Walter Cronkite and World Government YouTube Archived from the original on November 2 2021 Retrieved August 3 2012 Cabrera Luis July 15 2004 Political theory of global justice digitised online by Google Books online Routledge Taylor and Francis Group p 166 ISBN 9780203335192 Originally quoted for this book in Walter Cronkite The Case for Democratic World Government Earth Island Journal Vol 15 no 2 Summer 2000 p 45 Cronkite Time for U S to Leave Iraq San Francisco Chronicle Archived from the original on October 2 2008 Retrieved April 26 2006 a b Cronkite Walter 2006 Why I Support DPA and So Should You Drug Policy Alliance Archived from the original on March 4 2006 Retrieved July 17 2009 Legendary TV news anchor Walter Cronkite dies abs cbnnews com Reuters July 19 2009 Social Security Death Index Ancestry com 2009 Retrieved July 20 2009 Fanelli James August 23 2009 WALTER JILT HIS GAL PAL New York Post Nocera Kate Girlfriend recalls the way Walter Cronkite was As a journalist impartial as a human passionate New York Daily News Retrieved December 13 2019 Joynt Carol Ross May 17 2013 Walt Cronkite s Party for His Book About His Grandfather Walter Cronkite washingtonian com Cronkite wins Truman neighbor award Lawrence Journal World Associated Press May 9 2004 USCG Frequently Asked Questions Walter Cronkite U S Department of Homeland Security July 22 2008 Retrieved July 20 2009 a b Stelter Brian July 23 2009 Friends Recall Walter Cronkite s Private Side The New York Times Garrett Jerry July 20 2009 Walter Cronkite the Race Car Driver Wheels Blog NYTimes com The New York Times Retrieved July 20 2009 McClellan Joseph June 2 1986 Lying and Cheating by the Rules The Washington Post Archived from the original on July 15 2020 Moore Frazier June 19 2009 Veteran CBS newsman Walter Cronkite reported ill USA Today Retrieved August 3 2012 a b Ryan Joal July 17 2009 News Legend Walter Cronkite Dead at 92 e online Retrieved July 17 2009 Stelter Brian July 17 2009 Walter Cronkite Iconic Anchorman Dies Media Coder Retrieved July 17 2009 Former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite dies Today com Associated Press July 19 2009 Retrieved July 20 2009 Nichols Michelle July 18 2009 Legendary TV news anchor Walter Cronkite dies Reuters Retrieved April 27 2021 Loved ones colleagues honor Walter Cronkite Today com Associated Press July 23 2009 Archived from the original on December 4 2014 a b c Bianco Robert July 17 2009 Cronkite s passing A death in everyone s family USA Today Retrieved July 18 2009 Hinckley David July 18 2009 Walter Cronkite remains gold standard for journalists New York Daily News Archived from the original on May 28 2016 Retrieved July 18 2009 Statement from audiologist Ray Hull PhD ray hull wichita edu quoted in Home Make Over How to design an efficient listening environment by Alyssa Banotai ADVANCE For Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists April 16 2007 p 8 E W Scripps School of Journalism a b Paul White Award Radio Television Digital News Association Retrieved May 27 2014 2002 Letter to Kofi Annan Archived December 26 2012 at the Wayback Machine Portrait with Walter Cronkite YouTube Retrieved October 22 2022 Member List American Antiquarian Society Retrieved October 22 2022 National Jefferson Awards Foundation jeffersonawards org Four Freedom Awards Roosevelt Institute Archived from the original on March 25 2015 Retrieved April 4 2015 APS Member History search amphilsoc org Retrieved January 10 2022 Premio Ischia Roll of Honour Archived from the original on July 5 2010 Retrieved May 9 2011 Dyson Marianne March 12 1999 1999 Corona Award Recipient Retrieved April 19 2011 Book of Members 1780 2010 Chapter C PDF American Academy of Arts and Sciences Retrieved April 22 2011 Newsman Walter Cronkite to be honored by NASA for his coverage of America s space program The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History University of Texas at Austin 2008 Retrieved July 17 2009 Philharmonic Journal Walter Cronkite awarded the Franz Schalk Medal in Gold Wiener Philharmoniker 6318 Cronkite 1990 WA Minor planet center Retrieved December 4 2020 a b Walter Cronkite and ASU The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication January 29 2009 Retrieved July 18 2009 Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Walter Cronkite Biography ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Retrieved July 17 2009 In Memoriam Walter Cronkite 1916 2009 Center for American History Retrieved July 31 2009 a b News Media History Walter Cronkite The Walter Cronkite Papers The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History University of Texas at Austin 2006 2008 Archived from the original on September 10 2019 Retrieved July 18 2009 Walter Cronkite on Apollo 11 Moon Landing The Inspiration Room July 18 2009 Retrieved July 18 2009 NASA Honors Veteran Journalist Walter Cronkite NASA February 28 2006 Retrieved July 18 2009 Patch Justin June 8 2009 Apollo 11 moon rock named for Cronkite on display at UT Texas Memorial Museum Daily Texan Archived from the original on May 29 2007 Retrieved July 20 2009 Newsman Walter Cronkite to be honored by NASA University of Texas at Austin Office of Public Affairs Infinite Now February 3 2006 Archived from the original on July 25 2009 Retrieved July 18 2009 Weston Alonzo November 4 2013 Western dedicates Cronkite memorial St Joseph News Press Retrieved March 4 2016 Walter Cronkite Memorial Retrieved March 4 2016 Waltz Adam November 9 2015 New piece of Cronkite display opens St Joseph News Press Retrieved March 4 2016 Walter Cronkite Memorial receives state tourism award KQTV St Joseph Missouri October 10 2014 Archived from the original on April 20 2016 Retrieved March 4 2016 Further readingCronkite Walter 1971 Eye on the World New York Cowles Book Company ASIN B007RCFWFM Brinkley Douglas 2012 Cronkite New York Harper ISBN 978 0 06 137426 5 Menand Louis Seeing It Now Walter Cronkite and the legend of CBS News The New Yorker July 9 2012External links Wikiquote has quotations related to Walter Cronkite Walter Cronkite 92 Dies Trusted Voice of TV News The New York Times July 17 2009 Walter Cronkite at IMDb The Walter Cronkite Papers at the University of Texas at Austin Archived September 10 2019 at the Wayback Machine Walter Cronkite at The Interviews An Oral History of Television Appearances on C SPAN FBI Records The Vault Walter Leland Cronkite at vault fbi gov Walter Cronkite at Find a GraveMedia officesPreceded byDouglas Edwards CBS Evening News anchorApril 16 1962 March 6 1981 Succeeded byDan RatherPreceded byNone American television prime time anchor Winter Olympic Games1960 Succeeded byJim McKay Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Walter Cronkite amp oldid 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