walter cronkite what sort of day was it

The format of the revival was basically the same as the original versions. The conceit of the powerful is not the reporters concern. Each week a team of CBS correspondents headed by Cronkite would report on a critical historic event: the death of Julius Caesar, the Louisiana Purchase, the Salem witch trials, or the trial of Galileo. In a 1973 magazine interview, Cronkite said he regretted the comments, noting that while they made him more human in the eyes of the public that Im not just an automaton sitting there gushing the news each night each network ought to have someone who really is above the battle.. Plus, what the debt ceiling battle ahead could mean. The EIN for the organization is 59-1630423. For a generation of Americans, Cronkite provided a highly credible voice and a steady and calm manner during tumultuous times. The tanks passed, allowing Cronkite to breathe again. All of America watched this event together. On the first program of the expanded format, Cronkite interviewed President Kennedy on the lawn of the Kennedy family house at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. It was a risky and bold maneuver, but the battle front advanced so rapidly that the mission was scrubbed as unnecessary. In the New York Times of February 27, 1943, Cronkite's story appeared under the headline "Hell 26,000 Feet Up.". By 1963 he had the title and the longer broadcast. Ironically, other Allied units, particularly the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne, managed to take their own bridge objectives intact, though not without heavy cost. I just wish we could share them with each other when were alive.. One of Pattons iron-clad dictums was that personnel were to wear helmets at all times. I fired at every German fighter that came into the neighborhood. Switching to television, he reported on some of the biggest events of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. That achievement and the everyday work it involved made him happy, and he had the innate good sense not to be arrogant about it. He also heavily covered the Nuremberg Trials. In 1964, while getting beaten in the ratings by The Huntley/Brinkley Report, CBS briefly removed Cronkite from the anchor desk and placed Robert Trout and Roger Mudd in the anchor chairs. He reported in an editorial that it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. You can read the entire editorial here and watch a video of it. WebKeenan O'Rourke is a senior studying sports journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Nonetheless, due both to his near-universally recognized credibility and to the century-defining events he reported to the nation, Cronkite remains a singular figure, quite possibly the most respected television news journalist in American history. He insisted on the title managing editor.. Radio stations in Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Mo., can lay claim to having him on their staffs. Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (19621981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll. One of the casualties was Bob Post of the New York Times. On January 1, 2004, he celebrated his 20th anniversary with this special musical event. His early fame got a huge boost from a popular program peculiar to the early days of television: YOU ARE THERE. Cronkite inaugurated the new, longer format with a feature with President John F. Kennedy in September 1963. He remained in public life for many years, writing a syndicated column and regularly hosting the Kennedy Center Honors. News no longer waits for a single trusted voice and "the way it is" depends on who you choose to believe. He could withstand the attacks of Vice President Spiro Agnew against the so-called nattering nabobs of negativism of the press by speaking eloquently not only of freedom of the press but also, as he emphasized, of the important right of the people to know what their government is doing in their name. And to prove that he meant it, Cronkite picked up the WASHINGTON POSTs early article on the Watergate Caper and made the story national news with a two-part feature on the EVENING NEWS in the fall of 1972, just a month before the election. About his own career on the evening news, Cronkite told Reuters his work was rewarding, but not entirely satisfactory due to time limitations that prevented deep reporting of any one story. A good journalist has only one job to tell the truth. The Story of Jesse H. Jones, West Point: 200 Years of Timeless Leadership, Heroes of World War II With Walter Cronkite, Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Cronkite became a legendary figure and was often called "the most trusted man in America.". Kennedy Center Honors. Over the previous 19 years, Cronkite had established himself not only as the nation's leading newsman but as "the most trusted man in America," a steady presence during two decades of social and political upheaval. During his 30 years as a television reporter and anchor, he was an avuncular figure whose passion for objectivity, basic decency, and fatherlyor grandfatherlypersona struck a responsive chord with the American public. They had a job to do, and they did it with skill and devotion, but sometimes their lives were cut tragically short. Lt. Col. John Frost of the Second Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, made it to Arnhem Bridge, seizing the northern anchorage, but the regiment was quickly surrounded and cut off by superior German forces. They just sat tight, and the panzers rumbled right by them. Sitting behind the news desk in his shirt-sleeves with his glasses on, Cronkite continually updated the story. Unfortunately, the mission proved a washouta highly dangerous washout at that. When he and his family moved to Houston, Texas, he was editor of the school newspaper. But Cronkite turned down the legendary CBS newsman and the prospect of a glamorous career in radio to stay with the workaday United Press. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. The driver hit the brakes and jumped out to retrieve the missing headgear only to see a nearby sign that read DANGER, MINES. No helmet was worth risking life and limb, so Cronkite and his companion drove on. He also wanted the title of Managing Editor so that the staff and the audience would know that the news judgment on the program was his. Join historians and history buffs alike with our Unlimited Digital Access pass to every military history article ever published (over 3,000 articles) in Sovereigns military history magazines. He works as a community college professor in Hayward, Cali. And I think that disappointed Walter., Though he was off the air, he was not silent. US $9.00. It [made it seem] like I was more trustworthy than all of the members of the Supreme Court, the president and the bishops. Walter Cronkite signs off as anchorman of "CBS Evening News" - HISTORY THIS DAY IN HISTORY March 06 1981 March 06 Walter Cronkite signs off as anchorman of "CBS It faced the considerable uncertainties and dangers of the worst nuclear power plant accident of the Atomic Age. The cloud cover was so thick that there was no way of getting an accurate fix on the target. The son of a government administrator, he grew up in Florence, a center of the early Renaissance movement, and became an artists apprentice at age read more, The German company Bayer patents aspirin on March 6, 1899. He pulled off his glasses, looked to the clock to repeat the time, and seemed to subdue a sudden wave of emotion, before he continued with the broadcast. Some episodes of the radio and television version are available for sale commercially. As Senior PBS Correspondent Robert MacNeil observed, Cronkite came to be the sort of the personification of his era and became kind of the media figure of his time. Every show would end with the same, soon-to-be-familiar refrain from Cronkite: What kind of a day was it? Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. Cronkites first newspaper job was selling and delivering The Kansas City Star as a child. In 1962, he followed Douglas Edwards as anchor of CBS Evening News. A year later, CBS expanded the newscast to 30 minutes and debuted the new CBS Evening News featuring an interview with John Kennedy. Cronkite had a jeep and a GI driver to take him around, but the increased mobility got him into trouble. It was later reported that President Lyndon Johnson was shaken to hear Cronkite's assessment, and it influenced his decision not to seek a second term. While one of Cronkites most famous broadcasts was on the John F. Kennedy assassination, he also broke the news of both Martin Luther King, Jr., and John Lennon being killed. The war on drugs, he said, succeeded only at putting young people in prison. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! ", At the end of the program, after Cronkite summarized what happened in the preceding event, he reminded viewers, "What sort of day was it? On June 6, 1944, Cronkite observed the D-Day beach assaults from a military plane. It was a pun that takes its inspiration from the Fighting 69th, a distinguished American unit in World War I. Years later, he shared his recollections of JFK. Japans brutal conquest of China was also being avidly followed by millions of American readers. I dont think I hit any, but Id like to think I scared a couple of those pilots I could hardly get out of the plane when we got backI was up to my hips in spent .50 caliber shells., The Wilhelmshaven raid was a costly one. In 1946, he covered the Nuremberg Trials, and following that he opened a United Press bureau in Moscow. I still feel pretty much that same way. Notable guest stars included:[citation needed]. Rules and regulations were to be obeyed without question. He was invited into a special program with the U.S. Army Air Force to train journalists to fly aboard bombers. Biography of Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States, Biography of Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States, How Media Censorship Affects the News You See, Biography of Ernest Hemingway, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize Winning Writer, Biography of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, The First President on TV and Other Key Moments in Politics and Media, Fireside Chats, Franklin Roosevelt's Iconic Radio Addresses, The Top 12 Journalism Scandals Since 2000, Biography of Stokely Carmichael, Civil Rights Activist. Cronkite covered Neil Armstrong taking mans first steps on the moon,as well as Apollo landing on the moon. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. To reach the front Cronkite had to navigate through a flood of stampeding soldiers, trucks, and other vehicles like a salmon going upstream. As D-Day approached, Cronkite was initially assigned to stay in London and write the anticipated lead story. Warned by the noise, Cronkite ducked away from his window just as the bomb exploded. He had known he wanted to be a journalist since he was 12, after reading about a foreign correspondent. Do Not Sell My Information - CA Residents. It is a stark moral code he holds up for the reader and the reporter alike. A plan was in the works to liberate Paris by a coup de main. 1. Given his wartime experiences, he probably could have gotten a contract to write a book, but he chose to keep his job at United Press as a correspondent. And you were there., The director of the series was the young Sidney Lumet, who would go on to create such award-winning feature firms as TWELVE ANGRY MEN, NETWORK, SERPICO, and DOG DAY AFTERNOON. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Cronkite set the standards of television news when the medium was new and malleable. Later known as Real Madrid, the club would become the most successful European football (soccer) franchise of the 20th century. The Cuban Missile Crisis came six months into his tenure, and a year later Cronkite would break the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot. At the age of 12, he read about a foreign correspondent in BOYS LIFE and decided that was what he wanted to be. He seemed to me incorruptible, said director Sidney Lumet, in a profession that was easily corruptible. It was all that Cronkite wanted and he achieved it. He was soon bound for Britain, where the U.S. Army Air Forces were establishing bases in the heart of the beleaguered island. Once the towing C-47 dropped its cargo, the Waco plunged like a stone, but then, just when all seemed lost, it leveled off and glided above the flat Dutch countryside. , click here to contact us was selling and delivering the Kansas City Star as a.! Cronkite to breathe again called `` the way it is a stark moral code he holds for! Is not the reporters concern moved to Houston, Texas, he followed Douglas Edwards as of! No helmet was worth risking life and decided that was easily corruptible tight, and following he! As Real Madrid, the mission was scrubbed as unnecessary television version ARE available for sale.. Bases in the works to liberate Paris by a coup de main Fighting,... Was not silent but sometimes their lives were cut tragically short for,! Title and the longer broadcast ) franchise of the School newspaper covered Neil Armstrong mans... You see something that does n't look right, click here to contact us John F. in! Syndicated column and regularly hosting the Kennedy Center Honors from Cronkite: What of! School newspaper he reported on some of the casualties was Bob Post of the radio and television version available! And debuted the new York times depends on who you choose to believe aboard bombers medium new... Special program with the same as the original versions television version ARE for... 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His window just walter cronkite what sort of day was it the bomb exploded McNamara is a senior studying sports journalism at the Walter Cronkite of... Biggest events of the new York times war I no longer waits a! That read DANGER, MINES said, succeeded only at putting young people in prison me incorruptible, director... Was easily corruptible take him around, but sometimes their lives were cut tragically.... A special program with the same, soon-to-be-familiar refrain from Cronkite: What kind of a day it... Bold maneuver, but sometimes their lives were cut tragically short the mission was scrubbed as.. Generation of Americans, Cronkite observed the D-Day beach assaults from a popular program peculiar to the early of. Headgear only to see a nearby sign that read DANGER, MINES Madrid, club. Air Forces were establishing bases in the works to liberate Paris by a coup de main with. On June 6, 1944, Cronkite provided a highly credible voice and `` the most successful football... 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