Walter Cronkite: Goodbye to a Voice of Reason

Each evening, as my father would sit in his easy chair and my mother in her usual spot at the end of the couch, both of them drinking their cups of hot, black coffee, even in the hottest of summer months, the local news would inform viewers of the weather, the local sporting events, and a few stories from the national news. Then, immediately thereafter, Walter Cronkite would grace the screen with thirty minutes of national and international news. It was one hour of each day that seemed exactly the same, scheduled, so to speak, as my parents would watch the news and periodically comment to one another about what had been reported.

I was only a child when Walter Cronkite was in his last decade in the anchor chair of the CBS evening news, yet I remember his face and, particularly, his voice with crystal clearness as if it were only yesterday. I remember, “Be quiet,” being said by my parents if something was said or done that interrupted them listening to a report. And, I remember a sense of stability in hearing that same voice at the same time coming through the television and entering a house that, for an hour each night, would undergo its own brief hour of stability and sameness.

Though only a child who did not truly understand the depth of importance of what was being reported, and, I must admit, too young not to be somewhat bored by any news program, I was drawn to the evening news. Walter Cronkite presented the news in a manner that seemed trustworthy, accurate, complete, and without the insertion of personal opinion through words or tones or facial expressions that is so common today amongst broadcasters. Yet, somehow, he also seemed quite human, as if he were really no different from anyone else with pride and awe at space exploration or grief and fear from having lost a President.

There was great upset in the house and across the nation when Walter Cronkite was no longer in that anchor chair each night, and, although unnecessary, great upset at Dan Rather simply because he was going to be sitting in that sacred chair. Dan Rather, when allowed the opportunity, would, in time, prove himself to be an intelligent, competent, and capable anchor, and it is shameful that he had to experience what seemed to be such a difficult transition, a time of proving himself above and beyond his ability. Looking back, however, I do not recall a single news report of Walter Cronkite ever having said anything negative about leaving the anchor chair or about Dan Rather. That’s professionalism; that’s class. And, in time, my parents came to view the evening news with Dan Rather as regularly as they had watched Walter Cronkite.

Walter Cronkite seemed to be a voice of reason, a reporter, a news anchor, who simply reported the news without trying to persuade any viewer which side to take on any particular issue or which candidate to vote for or what to believe. He simply reported the information, the facts, and left it to the viewer to decide how to feel about it.

We need more reporters, more anchors like Walter Cronkite who earned and deserved our trust. He set an incredible example; now, if others would only follow. During the time of Walter Cronkite, there were only three networks, but if he were anchoring a show today somewhere on one of the hundreds of channels we have now, I would most certainly tune in to his show as would, I suspect, millions of others.

Mr. Cronkite, thank you for bringing the news of the world into millions of individual homes each evening.

You will be missed, but you will not be forgotten. The example that you set in news broadcasting will live on in textbooks and on video and in the memories of a few generations who remember sitting down each evening, perhaps with a cup of coffee, eager to learn of the news of the day.

May you rest in peace.