Friday, July 17, 2009

RIP - Walter Cronkite

He talked to me during the civil rights movement.

He talked me through the space race.

He talked me through the moon landing.

He talked me through the Vietnam war.

He talked me through the assassination of John Kennedy.

He talked me through Richard Nixon.

He talked me through most of my life and I trusted him.

Television news has been going down hill ever since he left.

Walter Cronkite...the most trusted man in America has died. Here is the story from the CBS News :

Walter Cronkite, who personified television journalism for more than a generation as anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News,” has died Friday night in his New York home following a long illness, surrounded by family. He was 92.

Known for his steady and straightforward delivery, his trim moustache, and his iconic sign-off line -”That’s the way it is” – Cronkite dominated the television news industry during one of the most volatile periods of American history. He broke the news of the Kennedy assassination, reported extensively on Vietnam and Civil Rights and Watergate, and seemed to be the very embodiment of TV journalism.

Walter Leland Cronkite was born in St. Joseph, Missouri on November 4, 1916, the only child of a dentist father and homemaker mother. When he was still young, his family moved to Texas. One day, he read an article in “Boys Life” magazine about the adventures of reporters working around the world – and young Cronkite was hooked. He began working on his high school newspaper and yearbook and, in 1933, he entered the University of Texas at Austin to study political science, economic and journalism. He never graduated. He took a part time job at the Houston Post, left college to do what he loved: report.

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