FEATURE image: Walter Cronkite in November 1983 by photographer Bernard Gotfryd (1924-2016). Library of Congress. Public Domain.

By John P. Walsh, November 4, 2016.

INTRODUCTION

The date of November 4, 2016 is American newsman Walter Cronkite’s 100th birthday. The CBS News anchor died in 2009 at 92 years old. Employed with CBS News since 1950, Cronkite anchored the CBS Evening News from April 1962 to Friday, March 6, 1981. Walter Cronkite lived by professional journalistic standards that appear to be largely out of favor in 2016.

Working in times as exhilarating and turbulent as our own, the mustached newsman came nightly into Americans’ living rooms for decades and became lionized as “the most trusted man in America” in viewer polls. This was not, in Cronkite’s case, any hollow accolade. Because of its accuracy and in-depth reporting, Cronkite’s broadcast was, after 1967 until his retirement, the top-rated news program on television.

Since grade school I have been a news junkie and, along with Cronkite’s broadcast in those same years, I frequently tuned in the nightly newscasts of Howard K. Smith at ABC (originally at CBS) and John Chancellor at NBC. To quote Bob Dylan, this year’s Nobel laureate in Literature: The Times They Are a-Changin’. In 2016 there is an obvious conflation of journalism and partisan American politics at many important media outlets, including Cronkite’s own diverse and venerable CBS News.

What, if any, is or should be the line of advocacy and objectivity in journalism? The formula promulgated in and by the media today appears ill-fitted to Cronkite’s inveterate viewpoint for the journalistic duty to objective reporting. What would centenarian Walter Cronkite say about the spectrum of media bias as practiced in 2016?

In honor of Walter Cronkite’s 100th birthday, here are Cronkite quotations germane to the subject:

I am in a position to speak my mind. And that is what I propose to do.
SOURCE: UN Address (1999). “For many years, I did my best to report on the issues of the day in as objective a manner as possible. When I had my own strong opinions, as I often did, I tried not to communicate them to my audience. Now, however, my circumstances are different. I am in a position to speak my mind. And that is what I propose to do. Those of us who are living today can influence the future of civilization. We can influence whether our planet will drift into chaos and violence, or whether through a monumental educational and political effort we will achieve a world of peace under a system of law where individual violators of that law are brought to justice.”

Our job is only to hold up the mirror – to tell and show the public what has happened.
SOURCE: November 23, 2008. https://www.dictionary-quotes.com/our-job-is-only-to-hold-up-the-mirror-to-tell-and-show-the-public-what-has-happened-walter-cronkite/

In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story.
SOURCE:

There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free or you are not free.
SOURCE:

American military journalists undergoing combat flight training for bombing missions in 1943. Left to right: Gladwin Hill, William Wade, Robert Post, Walter Cronkite, Homer Bigart, and Paul Manning. Cronkite in 1943- This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer/employee of the U.S. Government as part of official duties under terms of Title 17 Chapter 1 Section 105 of the US Code.

Success is more permanent when you achieve it without destroying your principles.
SOURCE: Reader’s Digest, Quotable Quotes: Wit and Wisdom from the Greatest Minds of Our Time (2012).

I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that.
SOURCE: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106796633 John Nichols, The Nation: Walter Cronkite America’s Anchorman, July 20, 2009. “I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that,” Cronkite told me the last time we spoke about media issues.

Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.
SOURCE:

There’s a little more ego involved in these jobs than people might realize.
SOURCE:

I am neither a Republican nor Democrat. I am a registered independent because I find that I cast my votes not on the basis of party loyalty but on the issues of the moment and my assessment of the candidates.
SOURCE:

Walter Cronkite anchored the top-rated news broadcast from 1967 to 1981 when the mustached newsman retired. This is the title card for the “CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite” on April 4, 1968, the night Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Cronkite April 4, 1968 news card-fair use-

The photo bite was invented before the sound bite.
SOURCE: Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life, 1996.

I think that being liberal, in the true sense, is being non-doctrinaire, non-dogmatic, non-committed to a cause but examining each case on its merits. Being left of center is another thing; it’s a political position. I think most newspapermen by definition have to be liberal. If they’re not liberal, by my definition of it, then they can hardly be good newspapermen. If they’re preordained dogmatists for a cause, then they can’t be very good journalists.
SOURCE:

If that is what makes us liberals, so be it, just as long as in reporting the news we adhere to the first ideals of good journalism – that news reports must be fair, accurate and unbiased.
SOURCE:

It is not the reporter’s job to be a patriot or to presume to determine where patriotism lies. His job is to relate the facts.
SOURCE:

It is a seldom proffered argument as to the advantages of a free press that it has a major function in keeping the government itself informed as to what the government is doing.
SOURCE:

Breaking news of the assassination of President Kennedy on Friday, November 22, 1963. CBS News Bulletin card- This image consists only of simple geometric shapes or text. It does not meet the threshold of Originality needed for copyright protection, and is therefore in the public domain.  

CBS was ten minutes into its live broadcast of the soap opera As the World Turns when a “CBS News Bulletin” bumper slide abruptly broke into the broadcast at 1:40 pm, ten minutes after the assassination took place in Dallas.

Over this slide, Cronkite began reading what would be the first of three audio-only bulletins that were filed in the next twenty minutes: “Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting.”

Walter Cronkite in Vietnam to cover the Tet Offensive, 1968. Cronkite in Vietnam, February 20, 1968-Public Domain-NARA via WikiCommons. This image or file is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the U.S. Marine Corps. 

Vietnam. Walter Cronkite and a CBS Camera crew use a jeep for a dolly during an interview with the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, during the Battle of Hue City. Cronkite Vietnam interview-Public Domain- Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. U.S. Marine Corps.  National Archives at College Park.

Walter Cronkite was so known for his extensive coverage of the U.S. space program. Cronkite gets a taste for moon walking at the reduced gravity simulator at NASA’s Langley Research Center in August, 1968. Moon Walking-Public Domain-NASA.gov.

Walter Cronkite reporting on television a debate during the 1976 presidential election. Cronkite on television in 1976-This work is from the U.S. News & World Report collection at the Library of Congress. According to the library, there are no known copyright restrictions on the use of this work. See WikiCommons.

The ethic of the journalist is to recognize one’s prejudices, biases, and avoid getting them into print.
SOURCE:

By the 1956 campaign year the public’s fascination with television created a new phenomenon. The people frequently showed more interest in the television reporters than the candidates.
SOURCE: Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life, 1996.

Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.
SOURCE:

Walter Cronkite interviews President John F. Kennedy on Labor Day, September 2, 1963 in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. (Mrs. Cronkite is in the foreground). They appeared on a special program of the CBS Evening News. Kennedy and Cronkite- Public Domain-NARA record: 4538278)

Cronkite challenged the president about the “hot war” in Vietnam which already “seems to parallel other famous debacles.” President Kennedy, citing 47 personnel killed in Vietnam, agreed that the situation was “very ominous.” Kennedy went on to say that calls to withdraw from Vietnam were “wholly wrong.”

They also discussed civil rights, including school integration and the march on Washington only days before (August 28, 1963) and the movement’s potential impact on Kennedy’s re-election chances.

Cronkite asked Kennedy what he believed were the major issues of the 1964 presidential election campaign. Kennedy replied that they were national security, education, and jobs.

The president specifically cited chronic unemployment that he believed was addressed by his tax cut and various job training programs.  Also discussed was the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that the U.S. signed on august 5, 1963 with Great Britain and the U.S.S.R. The treaty which banned nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water was confirmed in the U.S. Senate afew weeks later and signed by kennedy on October 7, 1963.

Journalists pose with President Nixon on February 28, 1972, including Walter Cronkite, in Shanghai, China. (same image below, cropped).

Cronkite behind Nixon’s right shoulder in China. Nixon in China -Public Domain-NARA via WikiCommons.

Journalists Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, and Bob Schieffer interviewing President Gerald R. Ford in the Blue Room of the White House on April 21, 1975 for CBS News. Ford and Cronkite-photographer Unknown- Gerald R. Ford White House Photographs (NARA: 1756311).

Three days before Walter Cronkite’s retirement, on March 3, 1981, 65-year-old Cronkite greets 70-year-old President Ronald Reagan for an interview at the White House. There would be an assassination attempt on Reagan just a few weeks later, on March 30, 1981, in Washington, D.C. To preserve jis journalistic independence, one tactic Cronkite used was to have the journalist enter an interview from one side of a room and the interviewee (often a politician) to enter from the other. Reagan and Cronkite-Public Domain- Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library, PD as official government record.

The relationship that still exists between politics and television: a standoff between an attempt to manipulate the medium and the medium’s determination not to be manipulated.
SOURCE: Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life, 1996.

Putting it as strongly as I can, the failure to give free airtime for our political campaigns endangers our democracy.
SOURCE: Free the Airwaves! (November 4, 2002). “In our country, third-party candidates throughout the years have said there is not a dime’s worth of difference between the candidates from the major parties. Well, that is clearly a campaign canard. But it may appear to be true if the public’s knowledge of the important differences between candidates is limited to what the public sees and hears on television. Putting it as strongly as I can, the failure to give free airtime for our political campaigns endangers our democracy.”

I regret that, in our attempt to establish some standards, we didn’t make them stick. We couldn’t find a way to pass them on to another generation, really.
SOURCE:

We cannot defer this responsibility to posterity. Time will not wait.
SOURCE:

Walter Cronkite congratulates graduates via video on May 11, 2007 during the Sporing convocation at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Grady Memorial Auditorium). Walter Cronkite (November 4, 1916, Saint Joseph, MO – July 17, 2009, Manhattan, New York City). “2007 Spring Convocation” by ASU_Cronkite is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 .

CBS newsman Walter Cronkite speaks at a ceremony at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington celebrating the 35th anniversary of Apollo 11 in 2004. Cronkite at NASM in 2004 -This photograph is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that “NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted”.

And that’s the way it is…
SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/18/cronkite.thats.the.way.it.is/

“”In the absence of anything else, he came up with ‘That’s the way it is.'” But that too ruffled feathers, (Sanford “Sandy”) Socolow said. “(CBS News President Richard) Salant’s attitude was, ‘We’re not telling them that’s the way it is. We can’t do that in 15 minutes,’ which was the length of the show in those days. ‘That’s not the way it is.'”Still, Cronkite persisted and that’s the way it was from then on.”

SOURCES:

http://likesuccess.com/author/walter-cronkite

http://nlcatp.org/32-famous-walter-cronkite-quotes/

http://www.azquotes.com/author/3422-Walter_Cronkite

Photograph credits:
Cronkite at NASM in 2004 -This photograph is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that “NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted”.
Cronkite in 1943- This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer/employee of the U.S. Government as part of official duties under terms of Title 17 Chapter 1 Section 105 of the US Code.
Cronkite April 4, 1968 news card-fair use-
CBS News Bulletin card- This image consists only of simple geometric shapes or text. It does not meet the threshold of Originality needed for copyright protection, and is therefore in the public domain.  
Cronkite in Vietnam, February 20, 1968-Public Domain-NARA via WikiCommons. This image or file is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the U.S. Marine Corps. 
Cronkite Vietnam interview-Public Domain- Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. U.S. Marine Corps.  National Archives at College Park.
Moon Walking-Public Domain-NASA.gov.
Cronkite on television in 1976-This work is from the U.S. News & World Report collection at the Library of Congress. According to the library, there are no known copyright restrictions on the use of this work. See WikiCommons.
Kennedy and Cronkite- Public Domain-NARA record: 4538278)
Nixon in China -Public Domain-NARA via WikiCommons.
Ford and Cronkite-photographer Unknown- Gerald R. Ford White House Photographs (NARA: 1756311.
Reagan and Cronkite-Public Domain- Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library, PD as official government record.
“2007 Spring Convocation” by ASU_Cronkite is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 .
Cronkite at helm-Public Domain- Senior Chief Photographer’s Mate Terry A. Cosgrove – http://www.navy.mil/navydata/navy_legacy_hr.asp?id=243

Cronkite at helm-Public Domain- Senior Chief Photographer’s Mate Terry A. Cosgrove – http://www.navy.mil/navydata/navy_legacy_hr.asp?id=243

I don’t think people ought to believe only one news medium. They ought to read and they ought to go to opinion journals and all the rest of it. I think it’s terribly important that this be taught in the public schools, because otherwise, we’re gonna get to a situation because of economic pressures and other things where television’s all you’ve got left. And that would be disastrous. We can’t cover the news in a half-hour evening event. That’s ridiculous.
SOURCE:

They never change a man who’s leading in the ratings.
SOURCE: Conversations with Cronkite: Walter Cronkite and Don Carleton, University of Texas at Austin, 2010, p. 173.

The most important thing about the [Chet]Huntley-[David]Brinkley lead is that NBC’s very alert, strong public relations and press department sold the idea that they were just dominant in the news….That claim was vastly overdrawn in relation to the actual rating difference between NBC and CBS, which was, most of the time, within one point.
SOURCE: Conversations with Cronkite: Walter Cronkite and Don Carleton, University of Texas at Austin, 2010, p. 173.

FURTHER RESOURCES:

https://www.cah.utexas.edu/collections/news_media_cronkite.php

Introduction and captions ©John P. Walsh. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by an means, electronic  or mechanical, which includes but is not limited to facsimile transmission, photocopying, recording, rekeying, or using any information storage or retrieval system.