Walter Cronkite (1916-2009)

[Helene]

I know that Walter Cronkite was not in the arts, but he was too important a figure for his death on Friday to go un-noted.

From the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...mp;hpid=topnews

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...id=opinionsbox1

From The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/us/18cro...tml?_r=1&hp

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/arts/tel...praisal.html?hp

Rest in peace, Mr. Cronkite.

[leonid17]

I know that Walter Cronkite was not in the arts, but he was too important a figure for his death on Friday to go un-noted.

From the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...mp;hpid=topnews

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...id=opinionsbox1

From The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/us/18cro...tml?_r=1&hp

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/arts/tel...praisal.html?hp

Rest in peace, Mr. Cronkite.

Mr Cronkite was much more a representative of thinking America to alert Brits than almost all the American Presidents we heard on Radio and television. His distinctive voice, the content and the sense of gravitas he projected cushioned many of the irritations we thought were representative of American culture.

There are not many that have followed in his footsteps.

PS You may be surprised to know I am one of probably tens of thousands of Brits who daily read the Times on line. We have always been interest in the welfare of our American cousins and I can remember when I was a teenager being startled at a newspaper vendor in Piccadilly Circus some 50 years ago was selling the Trib and the Times .

[carbro]

Last night, one of our local tv stations got a few words from (surprise!) Sen. Chuck Schumer. Schumer noted that Cronkite's time was one when calm voices prevailed, and today it's the shrill voices that prevail.

In this 1996 interview by C-SPAN's Brian Lamb, Cronkite cites the high standards he set for tv journalism and bemoans their decay, but also wonders whether, if he were still doing daily newscasts today, he'd be immune to the pressures his younger colleagues are bending to to popularize the news.

Here's a link to the hour-long interview: http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/inde...ucts_id=81241-1

I hate to say it, but I've been cringing at every use of the word "icon" to describe him, and there have been many. Yes, he was a giant in the industry, but bypassing his humanity pays him no honor.

I know that Walter Cronkite was not in the arts, ...

Wasn't he, though, after all those years of hosting the Kennedy Center Honors?

[sandik]

I know that Walter Cronkite was not in the arts, ...

Wasn't he, though, after all those years of hosting the Kennedy Center Honors?

And his hosting those New Year's broadcasts from the Vienna Philharmonic.

It's ironic to read all the obits of him at the same time that we're marking the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing -- one of the things that marked Cronkhite's work was the sense that a well-rounded individual was informed about a wide variety of things: scientific, literary, artistic, political and everything in between. He was both knowledgeable about science and struck with wonder by it -- his response to the lunar landing is an example of that. He could explain how it worked, and why we went, but when it came down to it, he was as enchanted as us all.

[PeggyR]

What I'll never forget about Walter Cronkite is his reaction to Kennedy's assassination. At a moment when no one knew for sure what was happening or how to react to it, Cronkite's public and unashamed grief stripped away everything but the essential fact that a human being had been dreadfully murdered. He made it possible for all of us, regardless of political beliefs, to cry with him.

Peace, Mr. Cronkite.

[Helene]

It's ironic to read all the obits of him at the same time that we're marking the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing -- one of the things that marked Cronkhite's work was the sense that a well-rounded individual was informed about a wide variety of things: scientific, literary, artistic, political and everything in between. He was both knowledgeable about science and struck with wonder by it -- his response to the lunar landing is an example of that. He could explain how it worked, and why we went, but when it came down to it, he was as enchanted as us all.

That is the finest tribute to him that I've heard or read.

[bart]

It's ironic to read all the obits of him at the same time that we're marking the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing -- one of the things that marked Cronkhite's work was the sense that a well-rounded individual was informed about a wide variety of things: scientific, literary, artistic, political and everything in between. He was both knowledgeable about science and struck with wonder by it -- his response to the lunar landing is an example of that. He could explain how it worked, and why we went, but when it came down to it, he was as enchanted as us all.

What a wonderful word picture of this man. I can't think of anyone in the U.S. media today of whom this could be said. Even if they ARE like this, they are rarely given the opportunity to take air time to share it with us.

I know he was long in retirement, but I feel a sense of personal loss. He was a good human being. It's especially depressing that US mass media is unlikely to give a national platform to someone like him in the forseeable future.

P.S.: Thanks, leonid, for a perspective from outside the United States.

[carbro]

This personal remembrance pays homage to Cronkite's professional stature and, even more and touchingly, the mensch he was.