The Most Trusted Man In America

When you think of newscasters who you trust to deliver the complete, accurate story, with occasional commentary that is identified as such, who do you think of? Katie Couric? Brian Williams? Anderson Cooper? Wolf Blitzer? Any of another twenty whose names you don’t know?

If fifty-something Boomers are asked that question, they are likely to say, without a moment’s hesitation, Walter Cronkite.




He hasn’t anchored a newscast on CBS in 26 years, but the 90-year-old is still revered enough for CBS to produce a prime-time special about his career. It airs Friday night.

Cronkite started his journalism career in newspapers in the 1930s, then moved to radio in the 40s and ultimately to the new medium of television in the 1950s. He began a two-decade run as anchor of the nightly CBS news just a year before the assassination of President Kennedy, a tragedy that many Americans first heard about from him on that day. Some say his calm, measured delivery of the unfolding story helped soothe the shocked nation.

He covered some of the most intense news of the 20th century, including the Cold War, the Viet Nam conflict, the civil rights movement and Watergate. He is also remembered for his marathon coverage of political conventions and early space flights.

During most of Cronkite’s anchor tenure there were only three TV networks so it was easier for a journalist to become a star. But he outlasted most of his competitors and continues to appear in television specials.

His reputation today is as rock-solid as it was on the night of March 6, 1981, when we watched him say for the last time, “and that’s the way it is.”