Anchor

Back when I was growing up in the 1960's, when the Vietnam War raged, boys came home in boxes every week, college campuses were filled with protests, Watts burned and heroes were assassinated, there was one man nearly everybody in America turned to for a half-hour a night: CBS News Anchorman Walter Cronkite, the man for whom the title was invented covering the 1952 political conventions, who passed away today at age 92.



It's impossible to imagine today that one person on television was such a trusted authority and that our nation had the collective attention to turn to him like that. Maybe having only three broadcast networks pre-cable made it possible, but Cronkite was a unique guy. Smart, firm, well-read, aware, he seemed the most evenhanded man in America. Not cool, not hip, but not square. Not a source of much parody by the college kids of the time, save for his standard closing line, "And that's the way it is." Even in his terrific historical dramatization show, You Are There, but with the historical date appended.

He got his start on local radio in the 1930's but made his bones as a war correspondent in North Africa and Europe during World War II. He was recruited by legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow to join his pioneering television news team and went on to anchor the CBS Evening News for 19 years. Not only did Cronkite break the news to America of the President John F. Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King assassinations, but his courageous 1968 commentary on the Vietnam War after the Tet Offensive, where he told viewers that he has come to the conclusion that the U.S. could not win that war, was perhaps the major turning point in national public opinion.

Here's a man married to his wife for 65 years who kept faith with family and country. And enjoyed sailing -- I once saw him driving around Martha's Vineyard, where he was a longtime seasonal resident, during the summer I spent there in college. Couldn't wait to call the folks and tell them I had spotted a real legend, the goosebumps kind.

Take a look at this pivotal broadcast in television history, when Cronkite announced JFK's death, incidentally with Dan Rather on the scene making his name known for the very first time, later to succeed Cronkite as CBS News anchor. The confirmation of Kennedy's death begins around the 5:00 mark, with Cronkite uncharacteristically, albeit very briefly, cracking a little emotion:



Contrast to learning about Michael Jackson's death on Twitter.

And how much less coverage Cronkite's passing will receive in the media today.