Walter Cronkite, an iconic CBS News journalist who defined the role of anchorman for a generation of television viewers, died Friday at the age of 92, his family said.
“My father Walter Cronkite died,” his son Chip said just before 8 p.m. Eastern. CBS interrupted prime time programming to show an obituary for the man who defined the network’s news division.
Mr. Cronkite anchored the “CBS Evening News” from 1962 to 1981, at a time when television became the dominant medium of the United States. He figuratively held the hand of the American public during the civil rights movement, the space race, the Vietnam war, and the impeachment of Richard Nixon. During his tenure, network newscasts were expanded to 30 minutes from 15.
“It is impossible to imagine CBS News, journalism or indeed America without Walter Cronkite,” Sean McManus, the president of CBS News, said in a statement. “More than just the best and most trusted anchor in history, he guided America through our crises, tragedies and also our victories and greatest moments.”
4 comments:
We will not see his like again soon.
If ever sadly.
True. The role he and his personal integrity played in helping expose what was happening in Vietnam and bringing that conflict to an end...it is very hard to see any of today's journalists having the chops to do that.
The Contessa watches 360 and tonight I told her all of these cable folks aren't news people they are entertainers all of them. I said I know you like Cooper but that's what he is as well. You'd have never saw Cronkite fill in for Regis on Regis and Kelly.
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