Last Friday I wrote a column making note of the 40th anniversary of Neal Armstrong's first step on the moon, which I planned to post this week. Then Saturday morning I awoke to the news that Walter Cronkite had died. There is a resonance in these two events. First because Cronkite was so closely associated with the manned space program. And second, because as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News, Cronkite was certainly familiar with those days when a late breaking news event forced a change in plans and a race to make a deadline.

You cannot appreciate Walter Cronkite's unique position in the history of journalism unless you appreciate how different the environment was during the prime of his career. There was no Internet. There were no cable news channels blabbing away 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Network television news meant a dinner time broadcast from CBS, NBC and ABC, which ran just 15 minutes when Cronkite took over the CBS anchor desk in 1962. There were no lightweight electronic cameras, so "live" reports from location were rare events. Most field reports came in on film.

In this environment Cronkite at CBS, and Chet Huntley and David Brinkley at NBC, occupied far more important positions than the news anchors of today. And their audiences were much larger. ABC's evening newscast ran a distant third and went through a series of anchor changes during these years. PBS' MacNeil /Lehrer Report didn't appear until 1975.

So the major events of the turbulent 60's and 70's were covered on television by only a handful of anchors and reporters. These reporters truly believed it was their job to report, so the viewers could decide. Even that simple mantra has been perverted in the din of media today, where so-called "anchors" and "reporters" seem to believe it is their mission to give us their opinion on everything. Where Cronkite did his homework, spoke with authority and earned our trust, the bobble heads on the 24/7 gabfests shoot from the hip and tell us how they see it without letting the "facts", if they are even aware of them, get in the way.

It brings to mind the wonderful 1987 film, Broadcast News. William Hurt played an up and coming reporter being groomed for greater things because he was handsome and affable even though lacking in experience and reportorial skill. Thrown into the anchor chair for a special broadcast about a developing military crisis in the Middle East, he performs well mainly because producers and fellow reporters (Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks) are feeding him information through his earpiece. Reaching the end of the program he tosses out an ad-lib to the effect that, "I think we're going to be alright" at which point we cut to the control room where the irascible Washington bureau chief (Robert Prosky) mutters only half under his breath, "Who the hell cares what you think?"

We rarely knew what Cronkite thought. This is why so much is being made of one time he made his thoughts loud and clear. It is easy to forget that the war in Viet Nam was popular at first. Cronkite admits he did not think to question the wisdom of that action until the mood of the country, especially among young people, had turned.
Reporter that he was, Cronkite decided to go and see for himself. He returned with a firsthand view, and ended his report with his personal conclusion that the war could not be won and that America should seek to negotiate an honorable way out. It is said that President Lyndon Johnson, seeing this, announced that if he had lost Cronkite he had lost Middle America, and that meant he had lost the war.

In 1985 I was a news writer and producer at WBBM-TV, the CBS owned station in Chicago. For the 10th anniversary of the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese, I was assigned to create a five part series reviewing the war. I was not an on-air reporter in those days. I performed the reporting and writing functions and the local anchors supplied the face and voice. I decided that one part of the series should consider when and why the mood of the nation regarding the war had changed. For that, Cronkite was an obvious source. He had left the anchor desk in 1981, but was on the CBS Board of Directors, which just happened to be coming to Chicago for an annual meeting. I made my pitch.

I have to tell you, at this point in my career, ten years out of school, I had already interviewed politicians, entertainers, sports stars, you name it. Nobody had yet made me nervous. For Cronkite I was nervous. And not because of anything he did. On the contrary, he was polite, generous with his time and modest in response to my obvious star struck demeanor. In what I understand was his usual self-effacing manner in these situations he said he didn't know if he had really had such a dramatic impact on the President of the United States, but that he understood his stepping out of character would have a significant impact on the nation. He said he thought it was his duty to make his analysis public about a war that would eventually result in the deaths of 58,000 Americans, and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese.

While he kept most of his opinions to himself, Cronkite was not afraid to show emotion, most famously as he reported on the assassinations of President John Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and in a happier moment, on the moon landing. For Cronkite, the race to the moon was a special passion. He trained with the astronauts, studied with the astronauts and was considered by the astronauts to be a member of the family. And when Neal Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon, Cronkite followed Armstrong's obviously well planned words about "A giant leap for mankind" with, "Oh, jeez . . . Oh, boy . . . Whew . . . Boy . . . Oh, boy."

In his retirement, Cronkite became more outspoken. We know he did not approve of what he called "opinion journalism." We know he did not see much value in blogs, because he thought the public is better served by writing which is carefully reported and edited for accuracy. And we know he was disappointed that the space program so quickly fell back to earth after the Apollo missions.

Cronkite was called, "The most trusted man in America" at a time when America needed someone to trust. It was a characterization he never sought but certainly earned. In the face of the tumultuous events of his time, he helped maintain the calm, and he retained an unbridled optimism about America and its people. He set a standard for journalism which some journalists are still trying to meet. He will be missed, and that's just the way it is.