HISTORY's Moment in Media: Walter Cronkite Was the Most Trusted Man in News

As anchorman of the CBS Evening News for two decades he brought the tumultuous decades of the 1960s and 1970s into American homes He went to Vietnam after the Tet Offensive marveled when our first astronaut took steps on the moon and most famously tearfully announced John F Kennedy39s assassination No wonder he was considered according to at least one opinion poll quotthe most trusted man in AmericaquotThe Missouriborn boy did not have an auspicious start in news In fact Cronkite began as a sportscaster But World War II would change all that when he joined United Press International and headed to Europe to cover the battles He got his first big scoop when he was able to hitch a helicopter ride to return to the States before his competition and be the first to report on Operation Torch the Allied invasion of North AfricaCronkite was recruited for network TV in 1950 and served as anchor for a 15minute Sunday evening newscast and then as the host of You Are There which reenacted historical events He also served a brief stint as the anchor of a shortlived morning newscastOn April 16 1962 however he was given the biggest seat anchor of CBS Evening News Cronkite did not have an easy start He trailed competitors in the ratings He wasn39t known as much of an investigator But he had trained himself to talk slowly just 124 words a minute as opposed to the average American speed of 165 per minute and it won him trust and converts in the American heartlandThen on November 22 1963 Cronkite was standing over the newswire machine when a bulletin broke announcing that President Kennedy had been shot The network was 10 minutes into a live broadcast of a soap opera but at Cronkite39s insistence the news division broke in with audio updates By the top of the hour Cronkite was live broadcasting updates about the president39s deteriorating state At 238 pm Cronkite wept on air when he made the official announcement that President John F Kennedy was deadBreaking the Kennedy assassination may have been Cronkite39s most famous moment but he built an entire career reporting on pivotal events In 1968 he went to Vietnam in the wake of the Tet Offensive and pioneered the concept of having anchors step out from behind the desk and go into the field in this case with a helmet and flak jacket He interviewed troops extensively on the ground and came away convinced that America could not win the war He reiterated this opinion to Americans in a broadcast upon his return home intoning quotTo say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic yet unsatisfactory conclusionquotThis reportedly led President Lyndon B Johnson to lament quotIf I39ve lost Cronkite I39ve lost Middle AmericaquotCronkite was also a real enthusiast for the United States space program His coverage of major events like the 1969 Apollo moon landing and Neil Armstrong39s first steps on the lunar surface were marked not by profundity but rather by something more akin to geewhiz enthusiasm For the former he remarked quotWhew amp8230boyquot and for the latter quotBy golly I am speechlessquotHis plainspoken accessible style made Cronkite an icon By 1981 he had been in the top chair for nearly two decades He might have stayed there forever too if it weren39t for the network39s mandatory retirement age of 65 Cronkite ended his last broadcast with a promise to return for special assignments and with his now signature signoff quotOld anchormen you see don39t fade away they just keep coming back for more And that39s the way it is Friday March 6 1981quotClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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HISTORY's Moment in Media: Walter Cronkite Was the Most Trusted Man in News

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HISTORY's Moment in Media: Walter Cronkite Was the Most Trusted Man in News

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