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| Thread: A truly great man has passed away | |
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mvassilev
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posted July 18, 2009 03:27 AM |
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A truly great man has passed away
Legendary CBS anchor Walter Cronkite dies at 92
NEW YORK – Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the networks' golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called "the most trusted man in America," died Friday. He was 92.
Cronkite's longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said the cause of death was cerebral vascular disease.
Adler said, "I have to go now" before breaking down into what sounded like a sob. She said she had no further comment.
Cronkite was the face of the "CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981, when stories ranged from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to racial and anti-war riots, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis.
It was Cronkite who read the bulletins coming from Dallas when Kennedy was shot Nov. 22, 1963, interrupting a live CBS-TV broadcast of the soap opera "As the World Turns."
Cronkite was the broadcaster to whom the title "anchorman" was first applied, and he came so identified in that role that eventually his own name became the term for the job in other languages. (Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters; In Holland, they are Cronkiters.)
"He was a great broadcaster and a gentleman whose experience, honesty, professionalism and style defined the role of anchor and commentator," CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves said in a statement.
His 1968 editorial declaring the United States was "mired in stalemate" in Vietnam was seen by some as a turning point in U.S. opinion of the war. He also helped broker the 1977 invitation that took Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem, the breakthrough to Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.
He followed the 1960s space race with open fascination, anchoring marathon broadcasts of major flights from the first suborbital shot to the first moon landing, exclaiming, "Look at those pictures, wow!" as Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon's surface in 1969. In 1998, for CNN, he went back to Cape Canaveral to cover John Glenn's return to space after 36 years.
"It is impossible to imagine CBS News, journalism or indeed America without Walter Cronkite," CBS News president Sean McManus said in a statement. "More than just the best and most trusted anchor in history, he guided America through our crises, tragedies and also our victories and greatest moments."
He had been scheduled to speak last January for the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., but ill health prevented his appearance.
A former wire service reporter and war correspondent, he valued accuracy, objectivity and understated compassion. He expressed liberal views in more recent writings but said he had always aimed to be fair and professional in his judgements on the air.
Off camera, his stamina and admittedly demanding ways brought him the nickname "Old Ironpants." But to viewers, he was "Uncle Walter," with his jowls and grainy baritone, his warm, direct expression and his trim mustache.
When he summed up the news each evening by stating, "And THAT's the way it is," millions agreed. His reputation survived accusations of bias by Richard Nixon's vice president, Spiro Agnew, and being labeled a "pinko" in the tirades of a fictional icon, Archie Bunker of CBS's "All in the Family."
Two polls pronounced Cronkite the "most trusted man in America": a 1972 "trust index" survey in which he finished No. 1, about 15 points higher than leading politicians, and a 1974 survey in which people chose him as the most trusted television newscaster.
Like fellow Midwesterner Johnny Carson, Cronkite seemed to embody the nation's mainstream. When he broke down as he announced Kennedy's death, removing his glasses and fighting back tears, the times seemed to break down with him.
And when Cronkite took sides, he helped shape the times. After the 1968 Tet offensive, he visited Vietnam and wrote and narrated a "speculative, personal" report advocating negotiations leading to the withdrawal of American troops.
"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," he said, and concluded, "We are mired in stalemate."
After the broadcast, President Johnson reportedly said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obit_walter_cronkite
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A great man.
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Eccentric Opinion
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Binabik
Responsible
Legendary Hero
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posted July 18, 2009 05:56 AM |
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Edited by Binabik at 05:59, 18 Jul 2009.
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I grew up watching Walter Cronkite. I was just a kid in his early days as an anchor, but the kid's impression I had was that he was one of the most important people in the world. I remember when Kennedy got shot I watched his funeral, the first state funeral I ever saw, and Cronkite was covering it. When I saw the flag covering the casket I asked my mom if Cronkite would get a flag on his casket when he died. In my mind he was as important, or more important than Kennedy. When I asked that, I don't think I had any concept of just how long it would be before he died, that was 46 years ago.
Cronkite broke a lot of new ground in news media. Television news and even television itself was still fairly new then. Through the first half of his career as anchor, most Americans still had black and white TV. My father was into tech toys, so we got color before most people. I watched most of Cronkite's coverage of Vietnam in color. Vietnam was always Cronkite's first news item. There was always a box up in the corner with a number in it. It was always two or three digits and was the number of Americans who got killed that day in Vietnam. Every single day for years.
As it said in the article:
"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," he said, and concluded, "We are mired in stalemate."
This was something new. It was the first time a news anchor expressed an opinion. The news media didn't used to have all the bias it does now, and they didn't editorialize. They didn't even do the little subtle editorializing, like shake their head or make a sad face. The "most trusted man in America" had broken rank and expressed an opinion that the war in Vietnam couldn't be won. Prior to that they simply reported what happened with no embellishment.
The reactions to this type of "reporting" were huge. The media was beginning to discover just how powerful television was, just how powerful it could be to shape the minds of the populous.
Bah, now I'm editorializing. 
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Elodin
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Free Thinker
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posted July 18, 2009 06:00 AM |
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That's sad.
And it is sad that he has had to see the network "news" turn into a propaganda bullhorn for the American socialist party (democrats.) He always separated his commentary from reporting the news.
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Aculias
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posted July 18, 2009 08:55 AM |
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He lived a long life. You cant live forever.
He had alot to live for & he fulfilled it the best he could.
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Dreaming of a Better World
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Mytical
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Chaos seeking Harmony
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posted July 20, 2009 12:24 PM |
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I never really knew Walter Cronkite, I tend to shy away from news (its too depressing). I figure we have the EBS if there is something I MUST know happening. However, even I heard of this legandary person, and even heard one or two of his broadcast.
So wherever he may be in the cosmos..I hope it is much better then this little mudball we call a planet.
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Message received.
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