[image-1]And that’s the way it was — for space launches, political conventions, election nights and, sorry to say, a number of political assassinations. He delivered a lot of bad news.
He was an artist of journalism.
He was also part of the last generation of broadcast journalists to come from a newspaper background. He got into broadcasting after making fun of friends who worked in radio. When put-up-or-shut-up time came along, Cronkite was up to the challenge.
He was one of those people who defined the medium. The “super” — super-imposition of an identifying name over an image onscreen — was invented during Cronkite’s coverage of the 1952 Democratic convention. Producer Don Hewitt recognized that Cronkite’s reporting and its deep background would be disrupted if he had to stop when every new shot appeared on screen in order to identify the person in the picture. Having lunch at a diner, Hewitt noticed the ‘today’s special’ sign and bought it from the manager. He experimented with putting letters on the black background of the board, dropping out the black, and leaving white letters to pop up on the black-and-white screen. It was a great breakthrough, and it all started at a greasy spoon in Chicago.
Another thing Cronkite brought into being: longer newscasts, with room for feature pieces, such as Charles Kuralt’s “On the Road” vignettes. Back in the early 1960s, network newscasts were 15 minutes long — nothing more than a headline service, really — until Cronkite said he wouldn’t do the job unless CBS expanded its news broadcast to a half hour.
It took a while for someone to try to define what Cronkite — and Chet Huntley and David Brinkley — did. Eventually, they were called anchorman. But Cronkite insisted on being called managing editor of CBS News. It was a tradition he carried over from his newspaper and wire service career and it indicated the sort of care and precision that he brought to the profession. Sad to say, much of that grace and professionalism has been lost.
I met him once at a dinner in Arizona. In fact, that evening was a trifecta of journalism greatness. I shook hands with Cronkite, was the butt of a characteristically snide comment from Andy Rooney and squeezed into a buffet line with Bill Mauldin. Rooney was laughing when he made the joke at my expense, and no offense was taken. Mauldin was a little embarrassed to squeeze in front of me in line. But meeting Walter — well, it was a little like shaking hands with Mount Rushmore.
SOME CRONKLINKS:
We know he's really dead because the New York Times wrote this great obit.
How Walter would've fared in the blogosphere.
Cronkite coverage to make Walter cringe.
William McKeen is chairman of the University of Florida’s Department of Journalism and author of several books, including the acclaimed Hunter S. Thompson biography Outlaw Journalist, now available in paperback.
