Starting here, he changed the world

Erin Mulvaney & Benjamin Wermund, Daily Texan Staff

Published: Monday, July 20, 2009

Updated: Monday, July 20, 2009

Former CBS anchorman and Daily Texan staffer Walter Cronkite died Friday evening at the age of 92, leaving behind the echo of a voice that defined the broadcast news era and represented the University.

Cronkite attended UT from 1933 to 1935, and worked at The Daily Texan as a copy editor and reporter. He eventually became managing editor of “The CBS Evening News,” where he earned recognition as “the most trusted man in America.” Although he did not graduate from the University, his ties remained strong, making several visits, teaching an honors course and even becoming the voice of UT to millions across the nation.

“Is there a rallying cry for the thinkers and doers of tomorrow?” Cronkite’s voice echoed in a UT advertisement. “A motto that sums up their passion for creativity and the pursuit of discovery? Sure there is: Hook ‘em Horns. What starts here changes the world.”

Cronkite contributed his voice for free in the UT advertisements that were originally part of the “We’re Texas” campaign. The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History on UT campus has archived his clippings and personal goods, collected by Cronkite throughout his life and donated to the University.

“We have lost one of our most treasured, honored and accomplished native sons,” said UT President William Powers.

Cronkite returned to Austin in April 2007 to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for the 2007 Texas Medal of Arts Awards and said Texas was an influence on his life.

“Growing up and living in Texas has shaped my entire existence and who I am. I haven’t regretted that a bit,” Cronkite said. “Ever since my family moved to Houston from Kansas City when I was 10, I’ve been a Texan, and I’ve been proud of that ever since.”

Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. with his family in New York, having suffered from cerebrovascular disease, his family said. He will be buried next to his wife, Betsey, in Kansas City, Mo, Thursday after a funeral service at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan.

A trusted anchor

Throughout his time as an anchor for “The CBS Evening News,” from 1962 until 1981, Cronkite kept viewers informed through some of the nation’s most turbulent times — from the Civil Rights movement to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War to the Watergate scandal and the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

His voice was one of the most trusted in news. His in-depth coverage and critical stance on the Vietnam War prompted President Lyndon B. Johnson to say, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.”

As anchor, his exclamation of “Oh boy!” when man first walked on the moon and his show of emotion after President Kennedy was shot, echoed Americans’ sentiments at that time.

At a United States Bicentennial celebration at UT in 1975, Cronkite spoke of a stronger nation emerging from the turbulence he had covered.

“[The country is now] considerably healthier in almost every respect after putting Watergate behind us and, sort of accidentally, putting Vietnam behind us,” he said. “I don’t object at all to getting involved in looking at our past with some patriotic fervor, as long as it’s not blind.” 

Michael R. Whitney, UT adjunct journalism professor and former CBS producer, worked with Cronkite at CBS News, but also said he was part of the generation who watched as the trusted anchorman reported the news nightly.

“For people of my generation, he was like the guy who told us everything,” Whitney said. “That’s where we learned 40 years ago that man landed on the moon. It’s where we learned Kennedy had been killed. You can’t imagine what that meant at that stage. He was such a huge influence in America because he was so trusted.”

Whitney, who started working at CBS in 1973, said he worked with Cronkite when the anchorman was in his prime.

“He was just such a huge deal and such a huge presence in the organization,” Whitney said. “He was the symbol of the place, and back in the ’70s, it was like the heyday of CBS news. To be a young person in journalism and to get a job there was the pinnacle, and it was partly because of him.”

Cronkite’s reputation at CBS became a touchstone for competition throughout the industry, as he brought the TV-news generation into prominence.

“He was a really tough hard-news man,” Whitney said. “He loved being first and getting scoops and relished the whole idea of news, so his influence was huge in the industry. He was a gruff, tough guy, and he wanted stuff to be good. He didn’t hesitate to edit it.”

Despite his tough personality and hard work ethic, Whitney said Cronkite was famous around the newsroom for taking time off.

“He was friends with Johnny Carson, and they had a friendly competition to see who could take the most vacation time and get away with it,” Whitney said. “One legendary thing about him was he had like 13 weeks off in his contract. It would be summer and he’d be gone — it became a huge joke.”

The man behind the mic

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr, was born in St. Joseph, Mo. in 1916. His family moved to Texas when he was 10 years old, and he later attended UT, studying political science and journalism, when he worked as the Capitol beat reporter for the Texan.

“I always wanted to participate,” Cronkite once told a reporter. “Covering the State Capitol was a lot more exciting than studying political science at school. Besides, I never went to classes, so I got awful grades.”

He dropped out after two years in 1935 to pursue his journalism and broadcast interests. Before joining the CBS News team, he worked for the Houston Press, as a sports announcer for a radio station in Oklahoma City and for United Press International in 1937.

He married his wife, Betsey, in 1940, whom he met while they worked together at a radio station in Kansas City, Mo. He is survived by his three children: Nancy, Mary Kathleen and Walter, along with four grandsons. Betsey Cronkite died in March 2005 at the age of 89.

An example of adaptation

Rod Hart, UT Communication School dean, who holds the Walter Cronkite Regents Chair, taught an honors class with Cronkite in 1988. The class met intensively for a week and went through a montage of Cronkite’s coverage, he said.

“He was wonderful, generous with his time, answered great questions,” Hart said, remembering the class.

As the news industry evolves to keep up with rapidly changing technology, Hart said media professionals and journalism students can learn from the news legend’s example.

“In some ways, he was ahead of his time, and he would be excited about the changes that are happening right now,” Hart said.

He said Cronkite helped to transition reporting from print, newspaper journalism to televised broadcasting.

“He was a print guy, trained as a print reporter, and he really opened up what would then be new media — televised journalism. He set the rules of how televised journalism would be,” Hart said. “He wrote the book of the new media, as far as journalism is concerned.”

Hart said with news outlets and Internet sites filled with opinionated language, Cronkite provided an antidote to the emptiness of the modern world of journalism.

“I think there are so many outlets both on the Web and the airwaves that go by the name of news that aren’t really news at all,” he said. “Cronkite’s legacy is his own that way. Trust is something that someone like Bill O’Reilly or people like him will never have.” 

An old-time journalist

Even though Arizona State University’s School of Journalism bears Cronkite’s name, Tracy Dahlby, director of the UT School of Journalism, said having Cronkite as a “non-graduate” of the journalism school is like “standing in the shoes of giants.”

Dahlby said going forward, Cronkite’s passing gives journalism professionals several things to think about.

“Today, we are in the midst of a digital revolution, and the world has changed. It is increasingly less clear who or what shapes the news, or where we will go in this more fractured media environment to find those trusted figures that you can take to the bank,” Dahlby said. “How do we, as journalists today, maintain the trust that Cronkite had with his audience?”

He said Cronkite rarely inserted his own opinion into his news reporting, but when he did, such as when he expressed his views about the Vietnam War in 1968, people trusted him despite his bias.

“He was an example of the old-time journalistic values — the kind of values that we are trying to hang onto as we head into a digital age,” Dahlby said. “We are trying to maintain good values while trying to apply them to new technologies.”

Cronkite’s simple trademark sign-off on the evening news remains a clear and lasting reminder of maintaining trust by sticking to the facts in the face of a rapidly changing industry.

“And that’s the way it is.”

Used with permission from The Daily Texan. View the original article.