Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (born November 4 1916) is a retired American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News (1962–81). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1970s and 1980s he was often cited in viewer opinion polls as "the most trusted man in America", because of his professional experience and avuncular demeanor.

Early life

Cronkite was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri to Walter Leland Cronkite and Helena Fritsch. He has remote Dutch ancestry on his father's side, the family surname originally being Krankheyt.

Cronkite moved to Kansas City, Missouri in 1917 and then to Houston, Texas in 1928. He attended junior high school at Lanier Junior High School (now Lanier Middle School) and high school at San Jacinto High School. He was a member of the Boy Scouts. He attended university at The University of Texas at Austin, where he became a member of the Nu chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity. He also was a member of the fraternal organization of young men known as DeMolay (a member of Houston Chapter).

Career

He dropped out of college his junior year in 1935 and began a series of newspaper reporting jobs covering news and sports.

He entered broadcasting as a radio announcer for WKY in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1936 he met his wife Mary Elizabeth Maxwell (known by her nickname "Betsy") while working as the sports announcer for KCMO (AM) in Kansas City, Missouri. His broadcast name was "Walter Wilcox.". 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. In Kansas City he joined the United Press in 1937. He became one of the top American reporters in World War II, covering battles in North Africa and Europe. After the war, he covered the Nuremberg trials, and served as the United Press main reporter in Moscow for two years.

Early years at CBS

In 1950, Cronkite joined CBS News in its young and growing television division, recruited by Edward R. Murrow, who had previously tried to hire Cronkite from UP during the war. Cronkite began working at WTOP-TV, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.. (The station was owned by the Washington Post Company.) [2]

On July 7, 1952, the term "anchor" was coined to describe Cronkite's role at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, which marked the first nationally-televised convention coverage. Cronkite anchored the network's coverage of the 1952 presidential election as well as later conventions, until in 1964 he was temporarily replaced by the team of Robert Trout and Roger Mudd. This proved to be a mistake, and Cronkite was returned to the anchor chair for future political conventions.

From 1953 to 1957, Cronkite hosted the CBS program You Are There, which reenacted historical events, using the format of a news report. 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." He also hosted The Twentieth Century, a documentary series about important historical events of the century which was made up almost exclusively of newsreel footage and interviews. It became a long-running hit. (Note: In the early 1970s, "You Are There", hosted by Walter Cronkite, was revived and redesigned to attract an audience of teenagers and young adults. It aired on Saturday mornings.)

The CBS Evening News

Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchorman of the CBS Evening News on April 16 1962, a job in which he became an American icon. The program expanded from 15 to 30 minutes on September 2 1963, making Cronkite the anchor of American network television's first nightly half-hour news program.

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 most of the 1960s, the Huntley-Brinkley Report had more viewers than Cronkite's broadcast. This began to change in the late 1960s, as RCA made a corporate decision not to fund NBC News at the levels CBS funded CBS News. Consequently, CBS News acquired a reputation for accuracy and depth in its broadcast journalism. This reputation meshed nicely with Cronkite's wire service experience, and in 1968 the CBS Evening News began to surpass The Huntley-Brinkley Report in viewership during the summer months.

In 1970, Walter Cronkite received a "Freedom of the Press" George Polk Award. That same year, the CBS Evening News finally achieved dominance of the American TV news viewing audience, when Huntley retired and corporate dithering on RCA's part crippled the selection of a successor anchor and format. Cronkite, however, aired an affectionate tribute to his colleague at the end of his newscast, which took place at the same time The Huntley-Brinkley Report breathed its last:.

Since he came out of the west to team with David Brinkley back in 1956, Chet Huntley has been our competitor - and what a competitor! - but he also is a colleague and a good friend. Tonight, over on that other network, as we say, he's saying good night to David for the last time on their evening newscast, returning to his native Montana to build a resort, and, I suspect, perhaps to get involved in politics. As he leaves the daily broadcast scene, a giant departs the stage. For journalism and for ourselves, we hate to see him go, but that's the way it is: Friday, July 31, 1970.

During this time, Cronkite's broadcast achieved a dominance that would continue during his tenure at the anchor desk. 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.

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 (keeping to standards of objective journalism, he omitted this phrase on nights when he ended the newscast with opinion or commentary). Beginning with January 161980, "Day 50" of the Iran hostage crisis, Cronkite added the length of the hostage's captivity to the show's closing to remind the audience of the unresolved situation, ending only on "Day 444", January 201981..

Currently, Walter Cronkite's voice can be heard announcing CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric at the beginning of the news broadcast.

For many years, Cronkite was considered one of the most trusted figures in the United States. Affectionately known as "Uncle Walter", he covered many of the important news events of the era so effectively that his image and voice are closely associated with the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the Watergate scandal.

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

Historic moments as anchor

Kennedy assassination

Cronkite is vividly remembered by many Americans as the first anchor to break the news of the death of President Kennedy on November 22 1963. The first bulletins broke into the live broadcast of the daytime soap opera As The World Turns. Those bulletins were audio only as CBS did not have a camera "warmed up" in the newsroom. Cronkite's first report came in at 1:40 p.m. EST:

"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. More details just arrived...these details about the same as previously, 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 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."

Once the camera was ready approximately 20 minutes later, Cronkite appeared on-air in shirt and tie but without his suit coat, given the "hurry up" nature of the story. For the next 35 minutes or so, the coverage alternated between Cronkite in the CBS newsroom (with CBS News employees keeping track of the AP news tickers in the background) and the Dallas Trade Mart with Eddie Barker of Dallas's CBS affiliate network, KRLD-TV. There were several unconfirmed reports given during that period that the President had died. At approximately 2:38 p.m. EST, after being handed (on camera) a piece of paper from the Associated Press wire machine, Cronkite put on his glasses, looked it over for a moment, took off his glasses, and told the viewing audience:

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

After the announcement, Cronkite paused briefly, put his glasses back on, bit his lip and swallowed hard, to maintain his composure. There was noticeable emotion and a quaver in his voice as he intoned the next sentence of the news report:

"Vice President Johnson 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."

Footage from this historic broadcast was featured in the opening scenes of Oliver Stone's film JFK.

In a 2006 TV interview with Nick Clooney, Cronkite confirmed, "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 ]."

Vietnam War

Following Cronkite's editorial report during the Tet Offensive that the Vietnam War was unwinnable, President Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said, "If I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." Contemporaneous NVA documentation shows that Cronkite (a college dropout with no military experience) was entirely mistaken about Tet, but his statements at the time helped lead to Lyndon Johnson's decision to drop out of the 1968 presidential race.

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 pushed to the floor (on camera) by security personnel, Cronkite commented, "I think we've got a bunch of thugs here, Dan."

Other historic events

Cronkite is also remembered for his coverage of the U.S. space program, and at times was visibly enthusiastic, rubbing his hands together on camera with a smile on July 20, 1969 when the Apollo 11 mission first landed man on the moon. Cronkite has criticized himself for being at a loss for journalistic words at that moment.

According to the 2006 PBS documentary on Cronkite, there was "nothing new" in his reports on the Watergate affair; 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. Cronkite had anchored the CBS coverage of Nixon's address, announcing his impending resignation, the night before.

Retirement

Cronkite announced that he intended to retire from The CBS Evening News on February 14 1980; at the time, CBS had a policy in place that called for mandatory retirement by age 65. [3] 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.

Cronkite's farewell statement [4]:

This is my last broadcast as the anchorman for 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 to those who have made anything of this departure, I'm afraid it 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. 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. 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.

Activities 1981 – present

• Cronkite has been a vocal advocate for free airtime for political candidates. He has worked with the Alliance for Better Campaigns and Common Cause, 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 has criticized the present system of campaign finance which allows elections to "be purchased" by special interests, and he has noted that all the European democracies "provide their candidates with extensive free airtime." "In fact", Cronkite has pointed out, "of all the major nations worldwide that profess to have democracies, only seven — just seven — do not offer free airtime", putting the United States on a list with Ecuador, Honduras, Malaysia, Taiwan, Tanzania, and Trinidad and Tobago. Cronkite concludes that "The failure to give free airtime for our political campaigns endangers our democracy." In the 2000 election year, 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."
• Cronkite wrote a syndicated opinion column for King Features Syndicate.
• Cronkite is the spokesman and honorary chairman of The Interfaith Alliance [5]. In 2006 he presented the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award to Actor and Activist George Clooney on behalf of The Interfaith Alliance at its annual dinnerin New York.
• He has continued to broadcast occasionally as a special correspondent for CBS, CNN, and NPR into the 21st century; one such occasion was Cronkite anchoring the second space flight by John Glenn in 1998 as he had Glenn's first in 1962.
• 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.[6]
• Cronkite was also considered to be a finalist for NASA's "Journalist in Space" program, which mirrored the Teacher in Space Project, but was dropped after the Challenger Disaster in 1986.
• He voiced a character based on Benjamin Franklin in the educational television cartoon Liberty's Kids, which included a news segment ending with "And that's the way it is on..."
• He holds amateur radio operator license KB2GSD and has narrated a 2003 American Radio Relay League documentary explaining amateur radio's role in disaster relief.
• In 1995 he made an appearance on Broadway, though not in the usual fashion — he provided the voice of the titular book in the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
• He has a school of journalism named after him — The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication, which is part of Arizona State University.
• Prior to 2004, he could also be seen in the opening movie in the Walt Disney World attraction, The Magic of Disney Animation, interviewing Robin Williams as if he is still on the CBS News channel, ending his on-camera time with his famous catchphrase. He also was shown inviting Disney guests and tourists to the Disney Classics Theater.
• 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.
• He recorded voice-overs for the 1995 film Apollo 13, modifying the script he was given to make it more "Cronkitian".
• He recorded the narrations for the University of Texas's We're Texas ad campaign. [7]
• For years, Cronkite has hosted the annual Vienna New Year's Concert on PBS. For many years, until 2005, he was also the host of the annual Kennedy Center Honors.
• On February 15 2005, he went into the studio at CBS to record narration for WCC Chatham Radio, a documentary about Guglielmo Marconi and his Chatham station, which became the busiest ship-to-shore wireless station in North America from 1914 to 1994. The documentary was directed by Christopher Seufert of Mooncusser Films and premiered at the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center in April 2005.
• Since May 2005, he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.
• On March 1 2006, Cronkite became the first non-astronaut to receive NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award. [8]

[9] Cronkite is a supporter of the anti-War on Drugs Drug Policy Alliance and the nonprofit world hunger organization Heifer International. His distinctive voice provides narration for the television ads of the University of Texas at Austin, his alma mater. Cronkite is also an avid sailor and a member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, with the honorary rank of commodore.

"Uncle Walter" has recently hosted a number of TV specials and been featured in interviews about the times and events that occurred during his career as America's "most trusted" man. 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 provides the voiceover introduction to Couric's CBS Evening News, which began on September 5 2006.

Outspoken commentary

Cronkite has spoken his mind on several topics since his retirement:

• Cronkite has been an eloquent advocate for requiring TV broadcast companies to provide free airtime to political candidates in the U.S. Cronkite claims that the U.S. political system is corrupted by the influence of campaign contributions, millions of dollars of which are spent on TV advertisements, many of which are negative political ads. Free airtime, according to Cronkite, would open up our public discourse and strengthen American democracy.
• On October 29 2004, Walter Cronkite appeared on CNN's Larry King Live television program, just four days before the 2004 presidential election. [10]
• In 2003, Cronkite, who owns 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 has repeatedly condemned President George W. Bush and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 1998, he supported President Bill Clinton during the impeachment trial. He has also been a proponent of world government, 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[11]:

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.

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

External links

• Walter Cronkite Honored by NASA with a Moon Rock as an Ambassador of Exploration
• Walter Cronkite Narration for Chatham Radio WCC documentary by Mooncusser Films
• Walter Cronkite: A Living Legend Still Loving Animals
• Biography on InterfaithAlliance
• Spacefacts biography of Walter Cronkite
• Walter Cronkite Fansite
• Amateur Radio Today (video)
• Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University
• University of Texas TV ads
• Cronkite's personal blog
• Cronkite's filmography on IMDB
• Walter Cronkite - last 2 minutes of final newscast (YouTube)
• Web ZIne from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University