Walter Cronkite died today, age 92 - 1916 to 2009

[keljonma]

He was always a gentleman newscaster. "And that's the way it is..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30988078/ns/entertainment-television/?GT1=43001

Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the networks golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called the most trusted man in America, died Friday. He was 92.

Cronkites longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said the cause of death was cerebral vascular disease.

Adler said, I have to go now before breaking down into what sounded like a sob. She said she had no further comment.

Cronkite was the face of the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981, when stories ranged from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to racial and anti-war riots, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis.

It was Cronkite who read the bulletins coming from Dallas when Kennedy was shot Nov. 22, 1963, interrupting a live CBS-TV broadcast of the soap opera As the World Turns.

Cronkite was the broadcaster to whom the title anchorman was first applied, and he came so identified in that role that eventually his own name became the term for the job in other languages (Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters; in Holland, they are Cronkiters).

He was a great broadcaster and a gentleman whose experience, honesty, professionalism and style defined the role of anchor and commentator, CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves said in a statement.

His 1968 editorial declaring the United States was mired in stalemate in Vietnam was seen by some as a turning point in U.S. opinion of the war. He also helped broker the 1977 invitation that took Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem, the breakthrough to Egypts peace treaty with Israel.

He followed the 1960s space race with open fascination, anchoring marathon broadcasts of major flights from the first suborbital shot to the first moon landing, exclaiming, Look at those pictures, wow! as Neil Armstrong stepped on the moons surface in 1969. In 1998, for CNN, he went back to Cape Canaveral to cover John Glenns return to space after 36 years.

It is impossible to imagine CBS News, journalism or indeed America without Walter Cronkite, CBS News president Sean McManus said in a statement. More than just the best and most trusted anchor in history, he guided America through our crises, tragedies and also our victories and greatest moments.

He had been scheduled to speak last January for the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., but ill health prevented his appearance.

edited for typo

 

[Henrietta23]

I don't think any newscaster will ever compare IMO. He was such a part of my childhood. I would sit on the floor at my father's feet while he watched the news every night. Always Walter Cronkite. I know he was 92; I knew this coming. It's still sad.

 

[keljonma]

Yeah, H23, I know what you mean. We were allowed to stay up late and watch the "event news" when Walter was on.

I will never forget coming home from school to find my parents watching him say John Kennedy had been assassinated.

 

[Henrietta23]

Yeah, H23, I know what you mean. We were allowed to stay up late and watch the "event news" when Walter was on.

I will never forget coming home from school to find my parents watching him say John Kennedy had been assassinated.

Okay, that I don't remember! (I was 4 months old!) but I do remember other tense times, especially during Vietnam. I was pretty young but my parents let me watch some.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Wow, now there is someone who will be missed. He sure played an important part in our history. Think the media will make as much fuss over him as they did MJ?
Personally I think they should.

 

[keljonma]

Yeah, H23, I know what you mean. We were allowed to stay up late and watch the "event news" when Walter was on.

I will never forget coming home from school to find my parents watching him say John Kennedy had been assassinated.

Okay, that I don't remember! (I was 4 months old!) but I do remember other tense times, especially during Vietnam. I was pretty young but my parents let me watch some.

You are two months younger than my "baby" sister.

 

[keljonma]

Wow, now there is someone who will be missed. He sure played an important part in our history. Think the media will make as much fuss over him as they did MJ?
Personally I think they should.

I wholeheartedly agree, FD! We will not see the likes of him again, as my granddad would have said.

 

[Henrietta23]

Wow, now there is someone who will be missed. He sure played an important part in our history. Think the media will make as much fuss over him as they did MJ?
Personally I think they should.

I agree. I was just reading the thread on his death on BYC. Apparently not everyone thinks he was so great. I was too young to know his politics and even if I had my father probably agreed with him. I just remember that reassuring voice. Somehow, no matter how bad the news might be, it was going to be all right.

 

[Henrietta23]

My husband was just recalling how excited Walter got at the launch of Apollo 11 and that today is the 40th anniversary of the launch. (I haven't checked his facts. Forgive me if he's got them wrong!)

 

[keljonma]

Well, personally, when I watch the news I am interested in the news - not the person who is reading it. Today's news readers are all the same - same haircuts, same voice - same boring celebrity news reader.

edited to say: Most of my news is from the internet or radio these days, as we haven't had tv for over 7 years. But I can still get the channels on the net and I don't like 90% of the news readers on tv. They are all trying to BE someone, if ya know what I mean. And how much of what they read is really news?