I have to admit that to me, Walter Cronkite wasn't the anchor I grew up watching. Having left the CBS news desk in 1981, he actually was a little before my time as an actual newsman. However, he was a legend and a byword for excellent news journalism. The name "Walter Cronkite" had become synonymous with "news you can trust."
Lyndon Johnson once lamented, after Cronkite gave a devastating editorial on the Tet offensive, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." And because there were only three networks in those days, and Cronkite represented solid reporting since WWII and its aftermath in the Nuremberg Trials, his reporting had long come to not just be heard by--but matter to, a great many people.
In terms of the news media, things might have seemed simpler with fewer outlets and fewer contending voices on the scene, but the world itself was not simpler. What Cronkite represented was not just professionalism and honesty, but also an ability to respond to the need to call things as he saw them when he felt it was needed. His was a steady, clear voice, laying out the events of the day. He had a great impact.
He was one to learn from.
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