Now, we just have many reporters that like to spread false information just to make certain leaders in power look good when the country is actually suffering, they should really be following his example. Cronkite also refused to report stories until they were validated. It was a different time. In 1968 the Communist forces in South Vietnam, facing defeat, staged massive kamikaze attacks on U.S. positions in Saigon. Additionally, I enjoy partaking in various on-campus and non-profit organizations. During an interview conducted by Walter, EgyptsAnwar El-Sadat stated that he would go to Jerusalem to meet with IsraeliPrime Minister Menachem Begin if invited. Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was born Nov. 4, 1916, in . It isn't enough to say that he was the "most trusted man in America," as. Accessibility | He claimed, I built my reputation on honest, straightforward reporting. Forty years ago, a man walked on the Moon. Walter Cronkite became the first significant news anchor on American television, an achievement that he handled with innate modesty. In 1945, with the war over, Cronkite didn't stop reporting -- he kept his press pass and covered the Nuremberg Trials. It is nice to know that at one point we had a news reporter who cared about honest straightforward reporting and avoided involving his own political views about events that were occurring in America and outside the country. No one said it better than Cronkite, the CBS Evening News anchor from 1962 to '81: We all have our likes and our dislikes. He had a beer gut. Its telling that Walter Cronkite, The most trusted man in America, held objectivity as the most vital quality for journalists. | If Cronkite reported it thats really the way it was. I feel like nowadays we let our political views get in the way of each and every news story that it almost seems biased now. Despite the fact that there was less scrutiny on the media during Cronkites time than today, he approached his career as a broadcaster with integrity and with a sense of responsibility to his viewers. He kept his opinions, like his emotions, largely to himself. He was 92 and had homes in New York and Martha's Vineyard, Mass. Veronique de Rugy The decade ended with one of mankinds most incredible accomplishments putting a man on the moon. He hears one thing from the generals, and then he walks around and talks to GIs and Vietnamese, and he realizes theres a disconnect.. Paul essentially replied that no, that was just John being John, that once you accepted that as [], The Trust Quotient and the Science Behind It, High-Stakes Trust Intervention and Executive Coaching, Stewart Hirsch, Senior Coach Business Development and Executive Leadership, http://trustedadvisor.com/public/trusted_advisor1.png, Why Walter Cronkite Was the Most Trusted Man in America. As the world saw a boot finally touch lunar dust, words briefly failed Walter Cronkite. I also didnt know that he had traveled to Vietnam to report on the war, I think that was very brave of him. He famously reported Report from Vietnam in 1968, where he told Americans he did not believe that the United States had a chance at succeeding in the war. He helped shape the way much of the nation viewed the world but he spoke to all of America in a time when Americans were united by. Send your reasons for Cronkitian distrust to slate.pressbox@gmail.com and subscribe to my untrustworthy Twitter feed. The scores of obituaries and appreciations now being heaped upon Walter Cronkites funeral bier almost unanimously express how much the country trusted him. Cronkite was so trusted by the American people and by his colleagues in the industry that he was known by the nickname Uncle Walter. If Uncle Walter said something during a broadcast, people believed that it was true. He was 92. The decade of the sixties was tumultuous including social unrest, the civil rights movement, Vietnam and the assassinations ofMartin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Walter Cronkite retired in 1981, at which time he allowed himself to expose his personal beliefs and opinions. He was an example of what an exemplary journalist should be like. So I stepped outside for a few moments for a smoke. Your email address will not be published. Then he exclaimed, "Armstrong is on the moon -- Neil Armstrong, 38-year-old American, standing on the surface of the moon." document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Walter covered significant events of the war, including the bombing of Germany and D-Day. Soon he would be named host of the Morning Show on CBS. He was an inspiration because he was one of the first household name reporters to have come out of television. Very nice article! Essays by over 30 trust experts. If so, you owe something to Walter CronkiteAmericas uncle and the most influential broadcast journalist of all time. My dad was one of those people. Fortunately, the show expanded to 30 minutes in September of 1963. While in college, he worked as a part-time journalist for the Houston newspaper. Advertising Notice If you live honestly with integrity with the historical version and then dramatize it, he said in an interview with the Archive of American Television, you are not committing any sin at all., One of his anchor jobs included interviewing a puppet named Charlemagne. In 1950, Cronkite joined CBS News and hosted several CBS shows, such as You are There, The Morning Show, and The Twentieth Century. Joseph Stromberg was previously a digital reporter for Smithsonian. That his passing coincided with the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing is less a surprise than a cosmic alignment. He was one of several reporters assigned to the European theater to cover World War II (WWII). On the contrary, he kept that passion in check until the time was right. And this security guard just will not let me back into the building." Trust Inc. Strategies for Building Your Company's Most Valuable Asset. Tracy Oppenheimer is a producer at Reason TV. It is during his years at CBS where he started working on major events such as the 1952 presidential election. Cronkite famously reported in 1968 that the government was not being truthful to the American people about the Vietnam War after he went to Vietnam and observed the situation there for himself. Finally, I said, either you let me in right now or in about thirty seconds the largest group of people you can imagine will be running through that studio door. I cant add much to the list of eloquent obituaries for Walter Cronkite, other than to say I agree with them. If Cronkite were alive today, he would tearfully lament the political tribalism that permeates through news organizations. But those who worked . His voice. Its the fact that hes a firmly established, mainstream, church-going, centrist, respectable person that matters.. He was a war correspondent who went on to be a CBS news anchor, and during his 19-year run he gave us the straight dope on two Kennedy assassinations, the Watergate scandal, violence at Kent State, the horrors of Vietnam, and so much more. The times that Cronkite directly engaged controversy can be counted on one handhis 1968 special, in which he called the Vietnam War a stalemate and called for negotiations, and a pair of 1972 broadcasts about the Watergate scandal, both of which are cited in his New York Times obituary. Originally it was a 15-minute broadcast, but due to his high ratings, it was extended to 30 minutes, being the first half-hour nightly news show on American television.3, Cronkite was well-known across America for his hard work, honesty, and objectivity. Newsman Walter Cronkite, who died at the age of 92, was so thoroughly and uniquely linked with the word "trust" that it is tempting to say that the word should be buried with him. Walter Cronkite, often referred to as Uncle Walter, delivered hard news to a nation for two decades. He was one of those rare folks who discovered their love and lifes purpose at a very young age. Cronkite was born on November 4, 1916, in Saint Joseph, Missouri. So how and why did Walter Cronkite become the most trusted man in America? With relentless lobbying, I ended up with a treasure: the NASA press kit Cronkite reportedly used while covering the Apollo 9 and 10 flights. As we mourn "the most trusted man in America" we also mourn the kind of television news that no longer exists. He began his career with a commitment to journalism as well. Integrity would not allow that. Track my errors: This hand-built RSS feed will ring every time Slate runs a Press Box correction. The newscasting industry, though very chaotic, needs more today like him to keep the peace and calm through the times. All rights reserved. As I said in my obituary of Walter Cronkite, in person, he could come off as formal, stiff and even somewhat self-important. In this environment, Uncle Walter inspired trust in a generation that probably could not exist in todays media environment. If the nostalgia for Cronkitian news values were genuine, youd expect PBSs soporific News Hour would be drawing huge and growing numbers of viewers. This story is about the most trusted man in America. Legendary television news anchor Walter Cronkite died Friday night at the age of 92. Ever genial and humble, Walter Cronkite laughed. | For more than a month, his close friends and family made it clear the former CBS News anchorman was gravely ill and would not recover. He says CBS then used the survey results to promote the network. LBJ, a great judge of politics, said, "If Ive lost Cronkite, Ive lost middle America." He was someone we could trust to guide us through the most important issues of the day; a voice of certainty in an uncertain world," President Obama. As Lulu Guadalupe said, he truly laid out the foundation of what great newscasters should be like but alas, they are not. As consumers shifted consumption of news from newsprint to television in the 1960s, consumers shifted whom and what they trusted, too. July 18, 2009 -- One day after legendary reporter and anchorman Walter Cronkite died, colleagues and admirers are mourning the loss of "the most trusted" voice that led America through 40 years of . 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