Damn it, now Walter Cronkite is dead.

[System Error]

The most trusted man in America is now the most recently deceased celebrity in America. Just heard about this on the news, but it hasn't been posted on CNN or MSNBC yet (actually, CNN just posted their headline, but not the article). CBS is doing a retrospective right now. I'll put a news article in this post when it comes up.

He was 92.

EDIT: CNN's video report

 

[Eredar Warlock]

Dammit, you beat me to the post. *Grumble*

 

[GrnMarvl14]

Source.

NEW YORK (CBS) Former TV news anchor Walter Cronkite and opera singer Joanna Simon arrives at The Metropolitan Opera's Opening Night at Lincoln Center Sept. 24, 2007, in New York City.

His family had issued a statement weeks ago after conflicting reports on Cronkite's status had started to emerge. The family revealed that Cronkite had been suffering for some years with cerebrovascular disease. The statement also said Cronkite had not expected to recuperate.

Cronkite, 92, joined CBS as a television correspondent in 1950. He anchored "CBS Evening News" for 19 years, from 1962 to 1981.

During his long career, Cronkite reported on several pivotal stories, including the Nuremberg trials, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Apollo moon landings and the Watergate scandal.

Cronkite, nicknamed the most trusted man in America, would close his evening news broadcast by saying "And that's the way it is."

Cronkite is the recipient of a Peabody Award, the William White Award for Journalistic Merit, an Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the George Polk Journalism Award and a Gold Medal from the International Radio and Television Society. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981, the highest honor a U.S. civilian can receive.

Cronkite was born in St. Joseph, Mo., on Nov. 14, 1916. His wife, Mary Elizabeth "Betsy" Maxwell, passed away on March 16, 2005. The couple had three children.

First article I've found on it.

 

[Hassel]

Who? Well, atleast he was old.

 

[Musashi]

Who? Well, atleast he was old.

...

I'll let that pass because you're not American. But seriously, those who don't know seriously need to look it up.

I'm extremely saddened by this. He was the model for all how news should be told. As long as he was alive it felt like there was still some integrity left. Now it feels like journalism is nothing but tabloid trash.

 

[RavenKingSage]

...Walter Cronkite is... dead?
At least it wasn't in June, when five celebrities died in two weeks.

 

[PockyAddict]

I am so saddened really, I'm just shocked. I liked the guy. :'(

This is a depressing year, and I am afraid that next year will be worst.

 

[Archaic]

And that's the way it was...

 

[Jukain]

^That's what I was going to say.

 

[Eredar Warlock]

They're saying that he was politically impartial in his reporting. What I wouldn't give for more of that from all the networks.

 

[Phoenicks]

Pity really. Someone else had to go, and I guess it was Cronkite. But no one try to connect this to the June thing, I mean, celebrities die regularly. June was a freak coincidence unrelated to Walter Cronkite.

 

[Nicoleta01]

I see no one mourning the Hot Dog King's passing >.> But still shame, none-the-less. D= At least he lived a long life.

 

[PockyAddict]

They're saying that he was politically impartial in his reporting. What I wouldn't give for more of that from all the networks.

I wish networks these days were like that too instead of being so biased all the time.

And It's not connected to the celeb deaths in the last two weeks of June. June was just a odd thing that happened.

 

[capsfan19]

RIP Walter Cronkite.

Yahoo has a good article up right now if you guys are interested, gives a ice sum up of his life and accomplishments.

"If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."

 

[ShinyFlareon]

It was people like him that kept me from laughing out loud in people's faces when they suggested I go into journalism. Now, the only person lending any credibility to the field anymore is gone. This saddens me so much...RIP

 

[Misty]

unfortunately, cronkite hails from a different era, back before journalism was deregulated and then taken over by businesses who realized that opinion journalism was far more popular than actual journalism...

 

[Insanish Danish]

Heh, I actually heard about this from my grandma.

Seriously, though...this is really sad. I thought he was pretty awesome, and he's a reminder of what the news should be...what a shame. :[

 

[C7CACorncas12]

Cronkite was the broadcaster to whom the title "anchorman" was first applied, and he came so identified in that role that eventually his own name became the term for the job in other languages. (Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters; In Holland, they are Cronkiters.)

Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the U.S. networks' golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called "the most trusted man in America," died Friday. He was 92.

Cronkite's longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said the cause of death was cerebral vascular disease.

Adler said, "I have to go now" before breaking down into what sounded like a sob. She said she had no further comment.

Cronkite was the face of the "CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981, when stories ranged from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to racial and anti-war riots, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis.

It was Cronkite who read the bulletins coming from Dallas when Kennedy was shot Nov. 22, 1963, interrupting a live CBS-TV broadcast of the soap opera "As the World Turns."

Cronkite was the broadcaster to whom the title "anchorman" was first applied, and he came so identified in that role that eventually his own name became the term for the job in other languages (Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters; in Holland, they are Cronkiters).

"He was a great broadcaster and a gentleman whose experience, honesty, professionalism and style defined the role of anchor and commentator," CBS Corp. chief executive Leslie Moonves said in a statement.

His 1968 editorial declaring the United States was "mired in stalemate" in Vietnam was seen by some as a turning point in U.S. opinion of the war. He also helped broker the 1977 invitation that took Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem, the breakthrough to Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

He followed the 1960s space race with open fascination, anchoring marathon broadcasts of major flights from the first suborbital shot to the first moon landing, exclaiming, "Look at those pictures, wow!" as Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon's surface in 1969. In 1998, for CNN, he went back to Cape Canaveral to cover John Glenn's return to space after 36 years.

"It is impossible to imagine CBS News, journalism or indeed America without Walter Cronkite," CBS News president Sean McManus 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."

He had been scheduled to speak last January for the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, but ill health prevented his appearance.

A former wire service reporter and war correspondent, he valued accuracy, objectivity and understated compassion. He expressed liberal views in more recent writings but said he had always aimed to be fair and professional in his judgments on the air.

Off camera, his stamina and admittedly demanding ways brought him the nickname "Old Ironpants." But to viewers, he was "Uncle Walter," with his jowls and grainy baritone, his warm, direct expression and his trim mustache.

When he summed up the news each evening by stating, "And THAT's the way it is," millions agreed. His reputation survived accusations of bias by Richard Nixon's vice president, Spiro Agnew, and being labeled a "pinko" in the tirades of a fictional icon, Archie Bunker of CBS's "All in the Family."

Two polls pronounced Cronkite the "most trusted man in America": a 1972 "trust index" survey in which he finished No. 1, about 15 points higher than leading politicians, and a 1974 survey in which people chose him as the most trusted television newscaster.

Like fellow Midwesterner Johnny Carson, Cronkite seemed to embody the nation's mainstream. When he broke down as he announced Kennedy's death, removing his glasses and fighting back tears, the times seemed to break down with him.

And when Cronkite took sides, he helped shape the times. After the 1968 Tet offensive, he visited Vietnam and wrote and narrated a "speculative, personal" report advocating negotiations leading to the withdrawal of American troops.

"We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds," he said, and concluded, "We are mired in stalemate."

After the broadcast, President Johnson reportedly said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."

In the fall of 1972, responding to reports in The Washington Post, Cronkite aired a two-part series on Watergate that helped ensure national attention to the then-emerging scandal.

"When the news is bad, Walter hurts," the late CBS president Fred Friendly once said. "When the news embarrasses America, Walter is embarrassed. When the news is humorous, Walter smiles with understanding."

More recently, in a syndicated column, Cronkite defended the liberal record of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and criticized the Iraq war and other Bush administration policies.

But when asked by CNN's Larry King if that column was evidence of media bias, Cronkite set forth the distinction between opinion and reporting. "We all have prejudices," he said of his fellow journalists, "but we also understand how to set them aside when we do the job."

Cronkite was the top newsman during the peak era for the networks, when the nightly broadcasts grew to a half-hour and 24-hour cable and the Internet were still well in the future.

As many as 18 million households tuned in to Cronkite's top-rated program each evening. Twice that number watched his final show, on March 6, 1981, compared with fewer than 10 million in 2005 for the departure of Dan Rather, Cronkite's successor.

A vigorous 64 years old, Cronkite had stepped down with the assurance that other duties awaited him at CBS News, but found little demand there for his services. He hosted the shortlived science magazine series "Walter Cronkite's Universe" and was retained by the network as a consultant, although, as he was known to state wistfully, he was never consulted.

He also sailed his beloved boat, the Wyntje, hosted or narrated specials on public and cable TV, and issued his columns and the best-selling "Walter Cronkite: A Reporter's Life."

For 24 years he served as on-site host for New Year's Day telecasts by the Vienna Philharmonic, ending that cherished tradition only in 2009.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Cronkite was selected to introduce the postponed Emmy awards show. He told the audience that in its coverage of the attack and its aftermath, "television, the great common denominator, has lifted our common vision as never before."

Cronkite joined CBS in 1950, after a decade with United Press, during which he covered World War II and the Nuremberg trials, and a brief stint with a regional radio group.

At CBS he found a respected radio-news organization dipping its toe into TV, and it put him in front of the camera. He was named anchor for CBS's coverage of the 1952 political conventions, the first year the presidential nominations got wide TV coverage.

On April 16, 1962, he replaced Douglas Edwards as anchor of the network's "Evening News."

"I never asked them why," Cronkite recalled in a 2006 TV portrait. "I was so pleased to get the job, I didn't want to endanger it by suggesting that I didn't know why I had it."

Cronkite won numerous Emmys and other awards for excellence in news coverage. In 1978, he and the evening news were the first anchorman and daily broadcast ever given a DuPont award. Other honors included the 1974 Gold Medal of the International Radio and Television Society, a 1974 George Polk journalism award and the 1969 William Allen White Award for Journalistic Merit, the first ever to a broadcaster.

His salary reportedly reaching seven figures, he was both anchorman and star — interviewed by Playboy, ham enough to appear as himself on an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." But Cronkite repeatedly condemned television practices that put entertainment values ahead of news judgment.

"Broadcast journalism is never going to substitute for print," he said. "We cannot cover in depth in a half hour many of the stories required to get a good understanding of the world."

Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was born Nov. 4, 1916, in St. Joseph, Missouri, the son and grandson of dentists. The family moved to Houston when he was 10.

He got a taste of journalism at The Houston Post, where he worked summers after high school and served as campus correspondent at the University of Texas.

Cronkite quit school after his junior year for a full-time job with the Houston Press. After a brief stint at KCMO in Kansas City, Missouri, he joined United Press in 1937. Dispatched to London early in World War II, Cronkite covered the battle of the North Atlantic, flew on a bombing mission over Germany and glided into Holland with the 101st Airborne Division. He was a chief correspondent at the postwar Nuremberg trials and spent his final two years with the news service managing its Moscow bureau.

Cronkite returned to the United States in 1948 and covered Washington for a group of Midwest radio stations. He then accepted Edward R. Murrow's invitation to join CBS in 1950.

In 1940, Cronkite married Mary Elizabeth "Betsy" Maxwell, whom he had met when they both worked at KCMO. They had three children, Nancy, Mary Kathleen and Walter Leland III. Betsy Cronkite died in 2005.

Fox News Channel: Famed CBS News Anchorman Walter Cronkite Dies at 92

A serious man Walter Cronkite was, at least according to my recollections. I couldn't help but chuckle a bit as I attempted to imagine his fascination at America's space program, culminating with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moon landing. American journalism may be taking a different form of seriousness nowadays, but perhaps the spirit that drove Mr. Cronkite's reporting will live on... and that's the way it is, to quote Cronkite himself.

 

[Rishi]

And that's the way it is. Seriously though, this is truly the end of an era. Thrive in Heaven, Walter Cronkite!

 

[nickstr]

It is quite sad for me to hear about his passing since he was not only one of the greatest journalists of all time but like myself a licensed amateur radio operator. He held the call KB2GSD and was quite active even in his retirement with the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) producing documentaries about the ARRL and also amateur radio in general. Another thing that he did was voice acting, he did the voice of Benjamin Franklin on the PBS show Liberty's Kids and in the segments where Ben did the "news" those famous words "And that's the way it is" were said at the end of every one of those segments.