Walter Cronkite

When I grew up in a small Tennessee town, every afternoon at 5:30 pm…the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite would grace our living room. I didn’t understand half the news he was talking about but I liked him. He didn’t scowl, growl, throw a fit, cry, or visibly pull for one thing or another. He was a newscaster who was for the most part unbiased (yes they did exist). 

Cronkite conveyed fairness and honesty with actual integrity. You felt like you could trust Uncle Walt with your news to have it fair and factual. He started off as a radio announcer and newspaper reporter in the Midwest. He joined United Press, where he became a war correspondent during World War II, covering battles in North Africa and Europe and witnessing historic moments such as the Normandy landings.

1962, Cronkite became the anchor of the CBS Evening News, which he led from a 15-minute to a 30-minute format in 1963. Cronkite took us through the Kennedy assassination, the Moon Landing, the Vietnam War, Watergate, Jimmy Carter, and finally ending as Ronald Reagan became our 40th president. 

He did have a moment where he did open up about something in a commentary. After his trip to Vietnam in early 1968, anchorman Walter Cronkite broadcasted his coverage of the Tet Offensive. Cronkite concluded his report with a personal commentary, voicing his skepticism of official assertions of military progress.

“To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of 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. . . . 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.”

Lyndon Baines Johnson (The then President): “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”

This wasn’t something he did regularly at all. He was human and I have no doubt that at times he might tilt one way or another on issues…but when I go back and watch some of his old newscasts…they stuck pretty much to the cold hard facts. That seems so hard to do today. 

And Thats the Way It Is…November 14, 2024.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

40 thoughts on “Walter Cronkite”

  1. We watched him overnight as well as after our local news ended my parents would turn the channel to CBS News…TV was of limits during local and world news for a hour everyday haha

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    1. I was asking obbverse last night if he saw him in New Zealand…I wasn’t sure if he appeared in other countries. Yep….I wish news would go back down to that…

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      1. Yeah back in the day we received the main networks and PBS from Duluth Minnesota.
        Years later they changed that we got our US Feeds from Detroit Rock City (see what I did there haha)

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  2. We so agree with you and were just telling my daughter about Walter Cronkite a day or two ago! He was a journalist of such integrity. My maternal grandmother would watch him religiously. It’s a beautiful memory for ne—remembering all the evenings I spent with her, watching Walter Cronkite.

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  3. I learned 20th century history from Walter Cronkite, watching “The 20th Century” between Green Bay Packer games and “The Ed Sullivan Show” (with “Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour” tucked in there somewhere). I watched more TV on Sundays than the rest of the week combined.

    It’s hard to believe now that a TV newscaster was The Most Trusted Man in America.

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      1. You mean “The 20th Century”? That was a weekly show for several years. Ted Mack’s show was sort of an earlier version of “America’s Got Talent”, though it started on radio and with a different host – before my time.

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  4. I remember my grandfather (Mother’s father) watching him faithfully every weeknight & reading his evening paper when my younger brother & I spent 2 of our 3 months off in the summers in Cincinnati as kids in the 70’s. He stopped what he was doing to be able to watch Walter Cronkite & read his evening paper on his couch. He wasn’t the only one I suspect. Different time that was than what the times are today Max.

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  7. I vaguely remember him, we’d sometimes watch US network news up north in Canada, and of course, when on vacation in Florida. He was as you suggest, a pillar of integrity. It was a better time actually when there were only 3 networks and each had reputable anchors and people could agree with what reality was, even if they differed in their interpretation of it was good or bad.

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    1. Yes it was much better at that time for news…not as much of it is one thing…and what you heard for the most part was fact based.

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  10. Different more caring trusting times indeed. I maintain the BBC news remains the least untarnished. The big American channels- I’m sure you know the two usual suspect(s)- are less news, more propaganda.

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    1. That is great dude I appreciate it. When I saw Robert Gordan’s name…I thought it woud be another one because of the skit…but that is really cool. Love the Cronkite lol.

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  14. I agree Walter Conkrite was an extraordinary anchor. While I don’t mind opinion journalism, it should be clearly indicated as such and separate from reporting the news in a factual manner. Unfortunately, nowadays where we live in a world of alternate facts that oftentimes is not the case.

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  15. Well said. Agree that all news these days is slanted with some worse the others. The one the bothers me most is NPR which is funded by the government. They are far from being impartial. Walter was the best.

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