Back when I was a maturing teenager and knew it all, we called him “Uncle Walter.”
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The evening news on TV was a half-hour before the local news took over the tube at 6 p.m. Despite marketing demographics, that seldom was the supper hour for us growing up on the farm. But as I approached eligibility for the military draft in the waning years of Vietnam, I found myself paying increasing notice. Walter Cronkite and news footage brought what I was reading about the Vietnam war to life.
Vietnam wasn’t the top news story journalist and anchorman Walter Cronkite covered during his long professional career. Cronkite pointed to space exploration, when America put a man on the moon, for that distinction. Cronkite covered so many “big events.”
The iconic moment for many Americans who trusted Mr. Cronkite for their news was his handling of news coverage on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. That moment is well documented, when Cronkite’s lip quivered and his emotions nearly took over his professionalism with so much of the world watching.
I was just a school boy at that time, sad at the news I didn’t really understand because of how my fourth grade teacher reacted. Just like Cronkite, our elementary school principal interrupted normal activities by announcing the shooting of JFK over the classroom intercom. My teacher, Mrs. Alumbaugh, laid down her head on her desk and cried. So, if only because of her, we all cried.
So it was with Walter Cronkite’s news bulletin.
“As The World Turns” was airing on CBS the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963, when Cronkite broke in with an audio bulletin to shock the nation with the news. It was an abrupt interruption. Programming then went back to the soap opera — but not for long. Amid rotary telephone and wire machines, Cronkite held up photographs mounted on card board in a video bulletin and eventually issued his now famous announcement …blinking back tears, yet dutifully making his report.
Cronkite took great pride in objective reporting and eventually became known as “The Most Trusted Man in America.” Only twice during his long career did he stray from that mantra. The Kennedy assassination was unforeseen; the other time he strayed from professional objectivity was quite deliberate.
Following his second trip to Vietnam, Cronkite voiced his opinion as the controversy over continuing the U.S. involvement in the war climaxed. I personally remember was Cronkite reporting on the escalation of the war, when the U.S. bombed Cambodia. In my mind’s eye I still can see him pointing to the map while explaining, then cutting away to Sec. of State Robert McNamara.
As a 15-year-old male, what was happening in Vietnam described by Uncle Walter seemed set to become very, very personal. That’s what I remember.
Most Americans remember later when Cronkite, in measured words and in that voice so soothingly familiar, finally expressed his opinion. Cronkite concluded that the conflict in Southeast Asia was “simply not a winnable war.”
Some claim that President Lyndon Johnson immediately reacted, “If I’ve lost Walter Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” Several weeks later, Johnson announced he would not seek reelection due to his declining health and growing public criticism.
Cronkite, as managing editor at CBS News, kept Vietnam stories alive by covering the war like no one else. And yet, the leading news team of that time was NBC’s Huntley-Brinkley Report, the evening news featuring Chet Huntley in New York City and David Brinkley in Washington, D.C., which operated from 1956 to 1970.
Whenever Cronkite was reminded about the business side of broadcast journalism — the ratings race in attracting TV viewers — Cronkite would playfully quip how such comparisons were unfair since essentially it was “two against one.” Then he’d go back to work.
Walter Cronkite captured so many historic memories for us. If you’re a greybeard like me, a visit to his memorial at St. Joseph is a trip down memory lane. If you’re of a younger generation, a visit to Missouri Western is a “must do” educational opportunity (see more on page 13).
I miss Walter Cronkite. It’s not a yearning for retro black-n-white telecasts. It’s not about returning to shorter news reports (national TV news was only 15 minutes when Cronkite first began). It’s not nostalgia about simpler times …when the choice for broadcast national news was only CBS, NBC or ABC networks.
No, it’s about professional credibility. Walter Cronkite is revered for setting such high journalistic standards, with integrity so lacking in today’s digital world laced with social media and news sources pushing their own agendas.
There is so much entertainment parading as news today. Objectivity doesn’t sell nearly as well as farcical opinion dressed up as facts. I can only speculate how Cronkite might shudder, having to report on national affairs making today’s headlines.
I wonder if anyone would listen if Cronkite should uncharacteristically opine about of digital world today. What would be his take be about the uninformed leading the blind while expertly creating their own world on social media? Or what would he say about obviously biased news sources creating some version of reality they want to promote?
America needs more journalists — more leaders — willing to tell us like it is …not just telling us what we want to hear.
Fewer and fewer journalists on our national media level are qualified to signoff a report with Cronkite’s simple “And that’s the way it is…” But, thankfully, there are still those who strive to achieve the right to do so.