Walter Cronkite
(born November 4, 1916, St. Joseph, Missouri, U.S.?died July 17, 2009,
New York
, New York) was an American journalist and pioneer of television news programming who became known as “the most trusted man in America.” He was the longtime anchor of the
CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
(1962?81), for which he reported on many of the most historic events of the latter half of the 20th century.
As a boy, Cronkite was an
avid
reader of books, magazines, and newspapers. In 1927 he moved with his family to Houston, where he worked on school newspapers in both middle school and
high school
. After graduating he studied
political science
at the
University of Texas
at
Austin
(1933?35) and, to help pay his tuition, worked as a correspondent for a Houston newspaper. In 1935 he left college to take a full-time position with the paper. In 1939 Cronkite became a news editor for United Press (UP;
see
United Press International
). When the
United States
entered
World War II
in 1941, UP elevated Cronkite to overseas war correspondent, assigning him to cover fighting in the North Atlantic. He was soon reassigned to London, where he reported on German bombing raids on the city. Cronkite also covered the invasion of
North Africa
. He flew in bombing raids over Germany and in 1944 reported on the
Allied
landing on the beaches of Normandy, France, on D-Day. After the war’s conclusion, he remained in Europe, covering the
Nurnberg trials
and helping set up numerous UP bureaus. Before returning to the United States, he served as UP bureau chief in Moscow (1946?48).
Cronkite attracted the attention of
Columbia Broadcasting System
(CBS) vice president
Edward R. Murrow
, who in 1950 hired him as a correspondent for the CBS television
affiliate
in Washington, D.C. Throughout the 1950s Cronkite hosted the CBS shows
You Are There
, an imaginary broadcast of historical events;
The Morning Show
, which he cohosted with a puppet named Charlemagne; and a documentary series,
The Twentieth Century
.
Working in a medium he initially knew little about, Cronkite helped shape the face of television news. He had an unflappable calmness and an uncanny ability to extemporize verbally, which made him ideal for hosting the political news show
Man of the Week
(1952?53) and for covering unpredictable events, as he did when reporting on the presidential conventions of 1952, 1956, and 1960.
In 1962 Cronkite
attained
the position he would become most famous for: anchorman of the
CBS Evening News
. Soon after Cronkite took over from his predecessor Douglas Edwards, the then 15-minute broadcast was expanded to 30 minutes, making it the first half-hour nightly news show on American network television. From the anchor chair of the
CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
, he reported on the most traumatic and triumphant moments of American life in the 1960s, from the
assassination
of U.S. Pres.
John F. Kennedy
in 1963 to the
Apollo 11
Moon
landing in 1969. The influence of Cronkite’s reporting is perhaps best illustrated by his commentary on the
Vietnam War
. In 1968 he left the anchor desk to report from Vietnam on the aftermath of the
Tet Offensive
. Upon his return Cronkite departed from his usual objectivity, declaring that the war could end only in a protracted stalemate. U.S. Pres.
Lyndon B. Johnson
told his staff, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America,” and some held that Johnson’s decision not to run for reelection that year was a direct result of Cronkite’s reporting.
Cronkite continued in his position at CBS through the 1970s, reporting on the decade’s most memorable events, including the
Watergate scandal
, the resignation of U.S. Pres.
Richard M. Nixon
, and the historic peace negotiations between Egyptian Pres.
Anwar Sadat
and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin
. His avuncular mien and
adherence
to journalistic integrity?exemplified by his sign-off line, “And that’s the way it is”?endeared him to the American public, and a 1972 poll named him “the most trusted man in America.”
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Cronkite covered nearly every American manned spaceflight from 1961 to 1981. Because of his willingness to learn everything about spaceflight and his ability to convey his knowledge to viewers, he seemed to be almost as much a part of the American space program as the astronauts themselves. His infectious enthusiasm for the space program was often revealed on the air, as when he yelled, “Go, baby, go!” while watching the launch of Apollo 11.
Although he resigned from the
CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
in 1981 after 19 years as the show’s anchor, he remained active in television. He hosted numerous documentaries for the
Public Broadcasting Service
and for various
cable television
networks; among these programs was
Cronkite Remembers
(1997), a miniseries chronicling the historic occasions on which he had reported. He also contributed essays to
National Public Radio
’s
All Things Considered
and occasionally served as a special correspondent for CBS. Cronkite published his autobiography,
A Reporter’s Life
, in 1996.
During his many decades of news broadcasting, Cronkite won several
Emmy Awards
and Peabody Awards and became the most famous and admired broadcast journalist in the world. In 1981 U.S. Pres.
Jimmy Carter
awarded Cronkite the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
.