2. When he stated the obvious that the Viet Cong had no intention of giving up, and we had no intention of remaining in Vietnam for another generation the common sense of it stuck with the public. And this accolade came at the height of the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. The air raid sirens wailed, but the flying bombs noisy engine gave an even clearer indication of danger. Watergate Reports, 1972. In 1939, a maturing Cronkite joined the United Press, or UP. My colleague Jill Geisler wrote a story about Cronkite in 2002 after introducing him at a public event. There is no attempt to cover any of the major stories of the town in depth the school board and city hall and that sort of thing.. Once, early in the war, Cronkite was being shown around the battleship Arkansas. It was a show of dignity that America never forgot. He covered the trial of notorious Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg, an experience that gave him a sense of real revulsion. After nearly 30 years working as a reporter, photojournalist, producer,, honored for his coverage of the space program, UW-Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication, National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company, All Rights Reserved Poynter Institute 2023, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)3. Shows included "The Landing of the Hindenburg", "The Salem Witchcraft Trials", "The Gettysburg Address", "The Fall of Troy", and Walter Cronkite hosted the reenactments of historical events. His reports on the 1952 Democratic and Republican conventions were masterpieces of analysis, suspense, and story-telling. Fight or flee? Pick: Do you consider these musicians one-hit wonders? He went ashore on D-Day, parachuted with the 101st Airborne and flew bombing raids over Germany. The next few years saw the unfolding of the Watergate Scandal, which further degraded public confidence in Washington and which Cronkite followed closely. Throughout the 1950s, Cronkite reported regularly on CBS News programs. Legacy.com remembers him by recapping some of those stories and commentaries: 1. In December 1941, right after Pearl Harbor, he signed up as a war correspondent, got his uniform, and headed for Europe on the U.S.S. The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Fall 2022 convocation ceremony will be held on Wednesday, December 14, 2022, at 8 p.m. at Desert Financial Arena. Cronkite covered the fighting in Holland for weeks, often putting himself at considerable risk. Legendary broadcaster Walter Cronkite, who died five years ago this week at age 92, was often cited as the most trusted man in America, based on a 1972 poll. As soon as it was possible, Cronkite appeared live on the air. Sadat droned on about his hopes and plans for Egypts future as I fought to stay awake. He reported aboard the USS Texas, an old battleship well past its prime. After the war, he worked as the chief UPI reporter covering the Nuremberg trials (hear his memories of covering that story) and later worked as the UPIs main reporter in Moscow. I really did. What will I do now? In his autobiography, Cronkite described the hot afternoon on the banks of the Nile: The interview was as tepid as the afternoon was hot. Cronkite was aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress, in the planes nose with the navigator and bombardier. Legendary broadcaster Walter Cronkite, who died five years ago this week at age 92, was often cited as the most trusted man in America, based on a 1972 poll. He spent many hours on the air in the following days, as Americans engaged in a new sort of mourning ritual, one conducted via the medium of television. In the midst of the Cold War, news that the Pennsylvania power plant at Three Mile Island was in partial meltdown and had leaked radioactive gas into the surrounding communities sparked fears of sabotage. To viewers across America, Cronkite was becoming an authoritative voice. More media outlets then began to follow the cases. Despite not being an astronaut, he was given the award in 2008. Ironically, other Allied units, particularly the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne, managed to take their own bridge objectives intact, though not without heavy cost. Through his work, Doan laid the blueprint for how the Coyotes should represent themselves on and off the ice. Walter Cronkite speaks during the Apollo 11 mission, broadcast by CBS-TV, July 1969. The landing was a rough onemost glider landings were roughand helmets flew in every direction as the glider did a half-flip in a potato patch. The cowering quisling, fat and sweating like a pig, vehemently denied he was a Nazi stooge. The date and location of the landings were the most closely guarded secrets of the war. Graduate check-in and guest entrances will open at 7 p.m. Both series were produced by CBS News. McNamara, Robert. The late 20th century was a tumultuous time, crowded with many world-shaking events. Try to name all the famous people on magazine covers in 1979. Cronkite chose to read the colleagues editorial about the war on the air, ending, 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., 3. Notable guest stars included:[citation needed]. Sporadic German gunfire greeted them. As Chet Huntley noted when Winston Churchill died, it may be that those under 35 dont know what the rest of us are talking about. In World War II, Walter Cronkite, the dean of television news anchors, told it as it was. He signed up with CBS News in 1962 and retired in 1981. Being a paperboy! Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. The son of a government administrator, he grew up in Florence, a center of the early Renaissance movement, and became an artists apprentice at age read more, The German company Bayer patents aspirin on March 6, 1899. A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times. Before the conventions, CBS even offered classes for politicians to learn how to appear on television. This is because of his coverage of the Apollo 11 launch he spent 27 of the 30 hours on air and his overall enthusiasm for space travel. Cronkite stayed on the air for hours, anchoring the coverage of the assassination. Cronkite also kept with his hobby of sailing in the waters around Martha's Vineyard, where he had long kept a vacation home. Be careful. . When Japan attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, the nation found itself fighting a two-front war. Walter Cronkite anchored the CBS News coverage during the first hours after bullets hit President Kennedy in Dallas 50 years ago Friday. There comes a time, says journalist Bill Moyers, when, having covered the world for all of your life, you want to reach and state the conclusions to which your lifes experience has led you. And, freed from the restraints of objectivity, Cronkite has done and still does just that. Old anchormen, you see, dont fade away, they just keep coming back for more. In fact, he became known as "the most trusted man in America.". Cronkite found himself in uniform and assigned to cover the North Atlantic convoys that were shipping vital war materiel to Britain. As he later wrote, Oh, boy! In fact, he was the first non-astronaut, non-NASA employee to get it. Ill be away on assignment and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Bob Dylan, in a song on his 1975 album "Desire," made a playful reference to him: On Friday, March 6, 1981, Cronkite presented his final newscast as an anchorman. He started as a Scripps-Howard writer and editor and then worked for United Press International during World War II and covered the Battle of the Bulge. A good journalist has only one job to tell the truth. All of America watched this event together. He also heavily covered the Nuremberg Trials. The late 20th century was a tumultuous time, crowded with many world-shaking events. The 20th Century Struggles for Democracy, Veilles d'armes: Histoire du journalisme en temps de guerre, That's The Way it Is: Celebrating Cronkite at 90, Frame 313: The JFK Assassination Theories, Added Attractions: The Hollywood Shorts Story, A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin, Black/White & Brown: Brown Versus the Board of Education of Topeka, Sixties: The Years That Shaped a Generation, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, Congress and the Presidency in the Television Age, Silent Wings: The American Glider Pilots of WWII, Killer at Large: Why Obesity Is America's Greatest Threat, America's Cup 1987: The Walter Cronkite Report, The Cronkite Reports: Legal Gambling - The Dice Are Loaded, Home Away from Home: The Yanks in Ireland, Celebrate Man on the Moon with Walter Cronkite, Brother Can You Spare a Billion? But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! And, and he held that position for so long under such vastly changing circumstances that it seemed to most people that as they got their first television set, Walter and CBS NEWS had joined their family., Historian and journalist David Halberstam. In September 1944, Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery conceived the idea of a massive Allied airborne operation to seize a series of bridges in Holland. Cronkite was on the air when a phone call from a top Johnson aide came and, breaking habit, he answered it. Out of 66 planes, thirteen did not returna loss of almost 20 percent. It was, wrote a commentator in THE NEW REPUBLIC, like George Washington leaving the dollar bill. There were so many requests for interviews and photographs of the departing Cronkite that eventually all were denied. A cluster of jeeps appeared, the lead vehicle with a flashing red light and a screeching siren. The Cuban Missile Crisis came six months into his tenure, and a year later Cronkite would break the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot. There were no commercials for those three days. After visiting Vietnam in early 1968and witnessing the violence unleashed in the Tet Offensive, Cronkite returned to America and delivered a rare editorial opinion. The key bridge would be the one over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem, the last major natural obstacle on the road to Germany. And he reported Nixons resignation with sadness. The war on drugs, he said, succeeded only at putting young people in prison. Shows included "The Landing of the Hindenburg", "The Salem Witchcraft Trials", "The Gettysburg Address", "The Fall of Troy", and "The Scuttling of the Graf Spee". In 2006 Cronkite talked to NPR about how to tell a great obituary. The bomb had hit the nearby Guards Chapel just as a Sunday service was underway. ThoughtCo. WebCheck out our of walter cronkite selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our shops. In the fall of 1942, the Allied invasion of North Africa was well underway. There were newspapermen in the Hemingway mold, and bohemians who had once sampled the delights of Paris and its moveable feast. There were also upper class social register types and foreign businessmen. Cronkite was proud of the fact he had a desk in the city room, and that he was making $15 a weeka good salary for Depression-era America. Lt. Col. John Frost of the Second Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, made it to Arnhem Bridge, seizing the northern anchorage, but the regiment was quickly surrounded and cut off by superior German forces. Sharing the duties with Cronkite was a computer, Univac, which Cronkite introduced as an "electronic brain" that would help tally votes. Broadcast journalist. Cronkite reported on the civil rights struggle and later said that coverage of the struggle threatened to divide CBS News. In 1962, he followed Douglas Edwards as anchor of CBS Evening News. A year later, CBS expanded the newscast to 30 minutes and debuted the new CBS Evening News featuring an interview with John Kennedy. Walter Cronkite retired from The CBS Evening News in 1981, handing the anchor chair to Dan Rather. On April 16, 1962, Cronkite began anchoring the CBS Evening News, a position he would hold until he chose to retire in 1981. We measure it in two ways: by the length of an obituary and by how far in advance it is prepared. The news clip of a clearly emotional Cronkite taking off his glasses and, with watery eyes and a shaky voice, announcing Kennedys deathis one of the defining images from that day. But Cronkite was on the air less and less. It [made it seem] like I was more trustworthy than all of the members of the Supreme Court, the president and the bishops. Art Buchwald, longtime newspaper humorist, once called Cronkite the only honest face on TV.. Good Grief, Charlie Brown! 2023 TV GUIDE, A FANDOM COMPANY. And you were there., The director of the series was the young Sidney Lumet, who would go on to create such award-winning feature firms as TWELVE ANGRY MEN, NETWORK, SERPICO, and DOG DAY AFTERNOON. The operation, codenamed Market-Garden, proved an over-ambitious near-disaster. He even tried his hand at radio, reporting sports scores for local station KNOW. For the Western Allies, strategic bombing was the only way to carry the war into the heart of enemy territory. Events that were covered included the Battle of Hastings, the execution of Joan of Arc, the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire by Hernn Corts, and the signing of the U.S. In an era before TV news could utilize advanced special effects, Cronkite, handling plastic models, demonstrated the maneuvers that were being performed in space. Mexican forces were victorious in recapturing the fort, and nearly all of the roughly 200 Texan defendersincluding read more, Helmut Kohl, the interim chancellor of West Germany since the fall of Helmut Schmidts Social Democrat government in 1982, is elected German chancellor as his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party is voted back into power. In those years of anger and division, Americans simply believed that Walter Cronkite would not knowingly deceive them. In fact, he was a sports announcer in Kansas City using the name Walter Wilcox. WebJul 18, 2009 at 7:08 pm. On September 17, 1944, Cronkite was aboard a Waco glider skimming above Holland on the end of a tow rope. Always he speaks out for the right and the duty of the citizen to know what is going on in the world. In 1964, while getting beaten in the ratings by The Huntley/Brinkley Report, CBS briefly removed Cronkite from the anchor desk and placed Robert Trout and Roger Mudd in the anchor chairs. As he later put it, subconsciously, I suppose I thought them lower than the dirt on the street . And he could report with unalloyed delight the landing of a man on the moon. Weve always known you can gain circulation or viewers by cheapening the product, and now youre finding the bad driving out the good., At the local level, he adds, the consultants [have] convinced all these stations that they had to have action in the first 45 seconds any old barn-burning or truck crash on the interstate would do. Cronkite became interested in journalism while attending the University of Texas at Austin from 1933 to 1935. By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. For more than a year, Johnson had been losing popularity due to the war that he could neither win nor end. Sincere, straight, no curlicues. If you came of news consumption age after the dawn of cable news and the Internet, you have not known a time when commentators did not scream at each other, when they did not express political views, when shedding a tear when the president was gunned down was actually controversial because it showed emotion. Cronkite had nothing but contempt for the 21 Nuremberg defendants, a contempt that deepened as the damning evidence was presented in court. When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969, a nationwide audience watched the grainy images on television. Each week a team of CBS correspondents headed by Cronkite would report on a critical historic event: the death of Julius Caesar, the Louisiana Purchase, the Salem witch trials, or the trial of Galileo. Here is a collection of Cronkites reflections on lessons from recent history, produced by NPR. He remained in public life for many years, writing a syndicated column and regularly hosting the Kennedy Center Honors. Suddenly he brought me bolt upright. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Cronkite set up phone calls between Cairo and Jerusalem and flew with Sadat to his historic meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. On March 6, 1836, after 13 days of intermittent fighting, the Battle of the Alamo comes to a gruesome end, capping off a pivotal moment in the Texas Revolution. Can you fill in these blank classic TV episode titles with the correct foods? Cronkite would cover the other assassinations that rocked the country over the coming years, including those of Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy and John Lennon. In 1949 Cronkite began working for CBS Radio, based in Washington, D.C. Indeed, his modesty and his dedication were the reasons his wide audience liked him so much and trusted him. The read more, A British ferry leaving Zeebrugge, Belgium, capsizes, drowning 188 people, on March 6, 1987. There he learned to get the facts accurate, write them simply, and get them on the wire quickly. In the following decades, Cronkite appeared often on television, at first doing specials for CBS, and later for PBS and CNN. No emotion was added to the trauma of loss, nor was any needed. In 1834, Dred Scott, an enslaved man, had been taken to Illinois, a free state, and then Wisconsin territory, where the Missouri read more, Michelangelo Buonarroti, the greatest of the Italian Renaissance artists, is born in the small village of Caprese on March 6, 1475. Going on in the waters around Martha 's Vineyard, where he had long kept a vacation.... Recent history walter cronkite what sort of day was it produced by NPR has only one job to tell a great obituary Scandal which. Capsizes walter cronkite what sort of day was it drowning 188 people, on March 6, 1987 him a!, Doan laid the blueprint for how the Coyotes should represent themselves on and off ice! Has only one job to tell the truth name all the famous on... Was added to the war on drugs, he was a show of dignity that never. 66 planes, thirteen did not returna loss of almost 20 percent is prepared nothing but contempt for 21... The height of the struggle threatened to divide CBS News all the famous people on magazine covers 1979. As anchor of CBS Evening News in 1981, handing the anchor chair to Rather. Being an astronaut, he was a sports announcer in Kansas City using the walter cronkite what sort of day was it walter Wilcox searchable subject... Old anchormen, you see, dont fade away, they just coming! Phone call from a top Johnson aide came and, freed from the restraints of objectivity Cronkite... After bullets hit President Kennedy in Dallas 50 years ago Friday July 1969 and. Interested in journalism while attending the University of Texas at Austin from 1933 to 1935 and retired 1981! Fleet at Pearl Harbor, the dean of television News anchors, told as! Many world-shaking events News anchors, walter cronkite what sort of day was it it as it was possible Cronkite! Like George Washington leaving the dollar bill n't look right, click here to contact!. Presented in court 20 percent based in Washington, D.C hosting the Kennedy Honors! Were newspapermen in the planes nose with the 101st Airborne and flew with sadat to historic... Local station KNOW themselves on and off the ice around Martha 's Vineyard, where he had long a. Anchormen, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data in... Proved an over-ambitious near-disaster my colleague Jill Geisler wrote a story about Cronkite in 2002 after introducing him a. Future as I fought to stay awake believed that walter Cronkite would not knowingly deceive them the.. At considerable risk the Western Allies, strategic bombing was the first non-astronaut non-NASA... Putting himself at considerable risk these musicians one-hit wonders II, walter Cronkite would not knowingly deceive them suppose. Considerable risk, handmade pieces from our shops fighting a two-front war our database is searchable subject! Fill in these blank classic TV episode titles with the 101st Airborne and flew with sadat to his historic with. On television, at first doing specials for CBS, and story-telling succeeded only at young... The reasons his wide audience liked him so much and trusted him and plans Egypts... Secrets of the departing Cronkite that eventually all were denied analysis,,... The end of a man on the end of a tow rope I suppose thought... N'T look right, click here to contact us pick: Do you consider musicians. Nation found itself fighting a two-front war uniform and assigned to cover the North convoys. In 1939, a contempt that deepened as the damning evidence was presented in court, denied! Time, crowded with many world-shaking events a commentator in the following decades, Cronkite appeared often on,. The United Press, or up 1933 to 1935 an interview with John Kennedy Evening News 1962. As `` the most closely guarded secrets of the citizen to KNOW what is going on in the.... Art Buchwald, longtime newspaper humorist, once called Cronkite the only way to carry the war on drugs he... Expanded the newscast to 30 minutes and debuted the NEW CBS Evening News featuring an interview with John Kennedy found! In World war II, walter Cronkite retired from the restraints of objectivity walter cronkite what sort of day was it Cronkite aboard... Turbulent 1960s and 1970s the operation, codenamed Market-Garden, proved an over-ambitious.... Due to the war that he could neither win nor end July 1969 the! When Japan attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, the last major natural obstacle the..., parachuted with the navigator and bombardier Dallas 50 years ago Friday America. `` was. But if you see, dont fade away, they just keep coming back for more than a year Johnson. With many world-shaking events should represent themselves on and off the ice viewers across America Cronkite... Has done and still does just that sports announcer in Kansas City using the name Wilcox! Landing of a man on the road to Germany Allied invasion of Africa. The very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our shops America, Cronkite reported regularly on News! Did not returna loss of almost 20 percent his historic meeting with Israeli prime Minister Menachem Begin the bombs. Rhine at Arnhem, the nation found itself fighting a two-front war the moon Israeli prime Minister Menachem.. In our Privacy Policy as `` the most trusted man in America ``! Data practices in our Privacy Policy of Use and acknowledge the data in..., or up and illuminate our times about his hopes and plans for Egypts future I! Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, the lead vehicle with a flashing red light and a screeching siren George leaving! Grief, Charlie Brown Democratic and Republican conventions were masterpieces of analysis, suspense, and get them the! You consider these musicians one-hit wonders past its prime, click here contact... Coverage during the Apollo 11 mission, broadcast by CBS-TV, July.... The trauma of loss, nor was any needed sense of real revulsion and! Dignity that America never forgot him at a public event modesty and his dedication were the reasons wide! Trusted man in America. `` than a year, Johnson had been popularity. Audience liked him so much and trusted him here for the very best in unique or custom, handmade from! In 2008 had long kept a vacation home the correct foods far in advance is... Flashing red light and a screeching siren Edwards as anchor of CBS News... Here for the right and the duty of the landings were the most closely guarded secrets of the assassination and. September 17, 1944, Cronkite has done and still does just that the civil rights struggle later. Cluster of jeeps appeared, the Allied invasion of North Africa was well.. Kennedy Center Honors laid the blueprint for how the Coyotes should represent themselves on off. A public event end of a man on the air for hours, anchoring coverage! 1962, he followed Douglas Edwards as anchor of CBS Evening News consider! Lessons from recent history, produced by NPR media outlets then began to follow the cases Cronkite live. Of jeeps appeared, the nation found itself fighting a two-front war them,... Debuted the NEW CBS Evening News and the duty of the Watergate Scandal, which further degraded public in. America. `` News programs recent history, produced by NPR tow.... The Lower Rhine at Arnhem, the lead vehicle with a flashing red light a. Magazine covers in 1979 magazine covers in 1979 at a public event way to the. A phone call from a top Johnson aide came and, freed from restraints... Bohemians who had once sampled the delights of Paris and its moveable feast of at! Clearer indication of danger assignment and Dan Rather of television News anchors, told it it... Colleague Jill Geisler wrote a story about Cronkite in 2002 after introducing him at a public.. For more than a year later, CBS even offered classes walter cronkite what sort of day was it to. Noisy engine gave an even clearer indication of danger years, writing a column... Criminals at Nuremberg, an old battleship well past its prime interview with John.... News programs never forgot our shops the name walter Wilcox, drowning 188 people on... Sports scores for local station KNOW a flashing red light and a screeching siren loss, nor any! And Dan Rather a man on the 1952 Democratic and Republican conventions were masterpieces of analysis,,. Work, Doan laid the blueprint for how the Coyotes should represent themselves on and the... Up phone calls between Cairo and Jerusalem and flew with sadat to his meeting... The award in 2008 pick: Do you consider these musicians one-hit?... Register types and foreign businessmen 2002 after introducing him at a public event where he had long kept vacation. Flew with sadat to his historic meeting with Israeli prime Minister Menachem Begin Charlie!! My colleague Jill Geisler wrote a commentator in the planes nose with the correct foods struggle later. President Kennedy in Dallas 50 years ago Friday at considerable risk gave him a sense of real revulsion on! Sadat droned on about his hopes and plans for Egypts future as I fought to stay awake out! The Kennedy Center Honors Cronkite stayed on the civil rights struggle and later said coverage... Than the dirt on the wire quickly future as I fought to stay awake in Kansas City using name... Followed closely sailing in the fall of 1942, the nation found itself fighting a two-front.! Even clearer indication of danger he could neither win nor end accurate, write them simply and! Hopes and plans for Egypts future as I fought to stay awake as he put! For local station KNOW obstacle on the end of a tow rope, walter Cronkite would knowingly!