RIP: Walter Cronkite dead at age 92

I met him when I was a kid. One of the last true Newsmen we had.

 

There has been many efforts to replace him over the past 40 years and none successful.

 

I watched live when Walter shed a tear announcing the death of President Kennedy, went thru the Vietnam War, was there for ALL the Space Shots, in fact, THE, piviotal moment in my life was 40 yeas ago Monday when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, and I watched it live. I was a Senior in High Shool, and my choice of career's was, well, I had NO CLUE what I was going to do with my life! I saw that LIVE television transmission from the Moon, and I KNEW I had to work at a Television Network that brought that kind of info into the home.
It's been over 30 years at ABC Network for me, but even though Walter worked for the competition, he is one of the main reasons I work in TV!! Between ABC Sports, ABCNEWS, and ABC Studo Operations, I have had a great gig... and still going strong!!!

I am just sorry our paths never crossed!
I would have loved saying "Thank You", in person!

Thank You Walter!!!

 

One modification to the NYT obit headline -- he was a journalist, more than "anchorman."

Can you believe that I've heard the term "news-reader" more than once?! That's probably a more accurate term for many contemporary happy-talk morons.

Back to Walter -- Much has been said of his taking the CBS anchor position in 1962, but who preceded him? Was there such a position?

 

According to Wikipedia the Wikipedia article on the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Evening_News"]article[/ame], it was Douglas Edwards.

I'll miss Uncle Walter, too. He's a big reason I'm so interested in Politics.

 

While I cannot claim to have "met" him, I did see him in the flesh once. There was a forest fire in CA and we pulled off the road to get out and look, and he was doing a broadcast from the scene. This would have to have been before 1970 when I moved away from CA, but was more likely a decade before that.

That was when the purpose of the news was to inform the public, before the news became entertainment to generate advertising revenue.