R.I.P. Uncle Walter

This isn’t about soccer, but it is about journalism, which is what this blog is about.

We lost a good one last night with the passing of former CBS News anchorman, Walter Cronkite. It marks another lost symbol of my youth, from the days when I was an idealistic young reporter (before I became an idealistic young lawyer).

When I was in college, and later on in graduate school and was covering the 1972 Florida primary election and later the '72 Democratic National Convention, Mr. Cronkite was held in a reverence among journalists – and for the most part the general public – usually reserved for the Lord. And in many ways he was the Lord when it came to the news business.

He anchored the CBS Evening news from 1962 until March 6, 1981, when he delivered his famous line, “And that’s the way it is” for the last time. During his tenure he, and by association CBS News, was the gold standard of broadcast news. He held such sway with the American public that in 1968 when he delivered a report critical of the war in Vietnam, President Lyndon Johnson said, “If I’ve lost Walter Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” In 1972 a poll named Mr. Cronkite the most trusted person in America.

Today’s Inquirer wrote, “To the end, Uncle Walter lived up to his description by the National Review: "A legend, a national father figure, a symbol of decency and good character."’ President Obama said that in that era, "He was the news." And perhaps Mr. Cronkite's successor in the anchor chair, Dan Rather, put it best: "One does not replace Walter Cronkite. I succeeded him. I did not replace him."

And that's the way it is.