Walter Cronkite
Sat., July 18, 10:25 AM
More than forty years ago, when Husband and I were still newlyweds, the evening news format for New York and Connecticut stations was such that we could watch NBC first and CBS afterwards. Or vice versa. We usually watched “The Huntley-Brinkley Report” at six-thirty and “The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite” at seven.
All three men were highly respected journalists — when the term still meant something — and I listened for different nuances between the same stories. Sometimes a single word could change the commentary from liberal to conservative. Having worked in corporate communications, where our “house organs” were often belittled as being controlled rather than real news, I could laugh that “real” newscasters did it too.
When the formats changed so that the two programs were televised at the same time, we usually chose CBS, because somehow it was a little easier to follow. My respect for Walter Cronkite grew. He had the background and education to explain and comment, which is probably why people trusted him. He told it the way it was. Nowadays you only hear what a talking head feels like saying.
When he retired — he quipped that he could go sailing and stop using the “greasy kid stuff” on his hair — I had two vivid memories of his reporting. “…some thirty-eight minutes ago,” reporting the death of President Kennedy and doing his best to keep his voice calm. And a jubilant “hot dog!” when Neil Armstrong announced that the Eagle had landed. (I felt that way myself!)
My dad used to laugh that Krankheit means sickness; in many countries today, “Cronkiter” is the term for a news anchor.
Walter Cronkite lived a long life and, if his writings are any indication, enjoyed most of it very much. We miss him, but we should have no reason to mourn. What we are mourning, perhaps, is that, that is no longer “the way it is.”
It’s strange that the following cartoon should have appeared on Sunday. It is so appropriate to this particular post.
