Walter Cronkite Is Gone

On Friday, the great newsman Walter Cronkite died. He was 92 years old. Cronkite was born in St. Joseph, Missouri on November 4, 1916. His family moved to Houston when he was 10 years old. He attended college at the University of Texas, but dropped out after getting a job as a newspaper reporter in 1935.

He was a war correspondent during the Second World War, covered the Nuremberg Trials and opened UP's Moscow bureau after the war. In 1950, he went to work for CBS covering the national conventions and also the space race. In 1962, he took over the CBS Evening News, and in 1963 expanded the 15-minute show to a 30-minute show. He was the most watched newsman in America until his retirement and became known as "the most trusted man in America".

He was trusted because he gave America the news without taking sides. He said, "Our job is only to hold up the mirror -- to tell and show the public what has happened." And he did that as well as anyone ever has.

I'm an older guy, so I remember Cronkite from his beginning with CBS. It was Cronkite that told me of John Kennedy's death and showed me his funeral. I remember his wonderment when man first stepped on the moon, and all he could think to say was "Oh boy!" I remember his rage when the Chicago police beat his reporters during the 1968 convention. And I remember his coverage of the Vietnam War. For 19 years, he told us what was happening in America and the world.

Even after his retirement, Cronkite was not afraid to tell us the truth. He said about Iraq, "Indeed, we are in another Vietnam. Almost play by play. It's a terrible mistake that we're in Iraq, and it's a terrible mistake to insist on staying there."

I believe Walter Cronkite was the last of the truly great newsmen. Speaking of modern news programs, he said, "The nation whose population depends on the explosively compressed headline service of television news can expect to be exploited by the demagogues and dictators who prey upon the semi-informed." He was right.

As Cronkite used to say when signing off, "And that's the way it is."