465 Cronkite was given a clean bill of health: Les Brown, “Study at American University Disputes President on ‘Distorted’ Newscasts,” New York Times, March 26, 1974.
465 “I have watched Nixon spend a morning designing Walter Cronkite’s lead”: John Ehrlichman, Witness to Power: The Nixon Years (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982), p. 266.
465 “by fiat, by assumption, and by intimidation and harassment”: Walter Rugaber, “Cronkite and Professor Differ on Press Freedom,” New York Times, October 1, 1971.
465 On December 10, 1971, Dick Salant, just in time for Christmas, promoted: Richard S. Salant to CBS News Division, December 10, 1971, CBS News Archives, New York.
466 Nixon: “Cronkite is one of the worst offenders”: OVAL 854-17, February 13, 1972, White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Yorba Linda, CA.
467 the added notation “absolutely not”: Author interview with Stanley Karnow, September 11, 2011.
467 The Nixon trip became the inverse of the Enemies List: “87 Newsmen Selected for Nixon’s China Trip,” Washington Post, February 8, 1972.
468 “Suddenly, into the picture swaggered Walter Cronkite”: Henry Kissinger, White House Years (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979), p. 1082.
468 Cronkite had his physician inject him with gamma globulin: “Cronkite’s Pre-China Plans,” Waters/Watson, Barbi/Media, February 10, 1972, Newsweek clipping file, WCP-UTA.
468 “It was very much like landing on the moon”: Cronkite and Carleton, Conversations with Cronkite, p. 251.
469 “Cronkite spent a lot of free time with Sevareid”: Author interview with Izzy Bleckman, February 14, 2011.
470 “I’m a very quiet fellow in New York”: Herb Caen, “Cronkite on the Town,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 17, 1972 (Newsmaker-Roeder wire report), WCP-UTA.
470 “On a sexism scale of one-to-ten”: Ellen Goodman, “Cronkite ‘Simply Cannot Interview Women,’ ” Boston Globe, August 30, 1976.
471 George Herman of CBS News’ Face the Nation deserves credit: Louis Liebovich, Richard Nixon, Watergate, and the Press: A Historical Retrospective (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003), p. 51.
471 CBS News won an Emmy: Albin Krebs, “C.B.S. Wins Major 1972 Emmys for News,” New York Times, May 23, 1973.
471 “We were pinching virtually everything”: Author interview with Stanhope Gould, November 9, 2011.
472 “The program might well be called ‘Cronkite and His Friends’ ”: William V. Shannon, “The Media Mob: ‘Now Back to Walter . . .’ ” New York Times, August 16, 1972.
472 “We had conversations about this”: Author interview with Warren Beatty, March 14, 2011.
472 “I didn’t really give it serious thought”: Author interview with George McGovern, June 27, 2011.
472 “If we had picked Cronkite, I could have avoided”: Ibid.
473 “You keep showing the wind-downs”: Author interview with Daniel Ellsberg, January 23, 2012.
474 the Nixon administration’s deal to allow the sale of wheat: John J. O’Connor, “TV: C.B.S. Details the U.S. Soviet Wheat Deal,” New York Times, October 12, 1972.
474 “Walter decided the Russian wheat deal”: Author interview with Stanhope Gould, November 9, 2011.
474 “the most encouraging development in electronic journalism”: O’Connor, “TV: C.B.S. Details the U.S.-Soviet Wheat Deal.”
475 “Everybody from Walter down wanted to make this look different”: Ron Bonn to Douglas Brinkley, January 1, 2012.
475 “I’m going to save your ass in this Watergate thing”: Benjamin Bradlee, A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), p. 341.
475 Cronkite was aware that the Post was under increasing pressure: Stanley Kutler, The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon (New York: Knopf, 1990), p. 380.
475 the FCC tried denying licenses to Post-owned stations: Bradlee, A Good Life, p. 344.
475 Dick Salant was taking a huge risk: Buzenberg and Buzenberg, Salant, CBS and the Battle for the Soul of Broadcast Journalism, pp. 100–101.
476 “Most of what is known as the Watergate affair has emerged”: Ibid., p.101.
476 “There was great excitement in the bureau”: Lesley Stahl, Reporting Live (New York: Touchstone, 1999), pp. 18–19.
477 “The broadcast troubled me”: Paley, As It Happened, p. 340.
477 “We’ll bring you to your knees”: Tebbel and Watts, The Press and the Presidency, p. 512.
477 “I had called Paley on Nixon’s behalf”: Author interview with Charles Colson, September 6, 2011.
478 “Walter Cronkite,” Salant recalled, “did not participate”: Buzenberg and Buzenberg, Salant, CBS, and the Battle for the Soul of Broadcast Journalism, p. 107.
478 “If I thought [Salant] was responding to White House pressure”: Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life, p. 312.
478 “The Nixon administration calls these allegations false”: Buzenberg and Buzenberg, Salant, CBS, and the Battle for the Soul of Broadcast Journalism, p. 103.
478 “When Cronkite aired the Watergate bits, the sun came out for me”: Author interview with Ben Bradlee, January 18, 2012.
479 “Somehow the Great White Father, Walter Cronkite”: Bradlee, A Good Life, p. 342.
479 “I think if Bradlee ever left the Georgetown cocktail circuit”: Ibid., pp. 342–43.
479 Colson: “I talked to Paley yesterday”: WHITE HOUSE 34-92, December 15, 1972, White House Tapes.
480 Nixon pejoratively deemed “intellectual people” who were against: OVAL 837-4, January 10, 1973, White House Tapes.
480 “Nixon wasn’t wrong about the liberal media”: Author interview with Charles Colson, September 6, 2011.
480 everybody knew it was Cronkite who decided what flickered blue: Eric Pace, “Burton Benjamin, 70, Dies; Former Head of CBS News,” New York Times, September 19, 1998.
480 When he took time off around Thanksgiving 1972: “Cronkite Is Recovering After Surgery on Throat,” New York Times, November 21, 1972.
480 Only NASA launches, Cronkite said, would warrant him leaving: “Periscope,” Newsweek, March 9, 1973.
481 “But he tried to be fair to me”: Author interview with Henry Kissinger, January 31, 2012.
481 “I’ll be glad to wear the crown”: James Endrst, “Could Cronkite End Up at Large? It Depends on CBS,” Hartford Courant, June 12, 1988.
481 “it wasn’t mere anchoring. It was addressing the nation”: Author interview with Brian Williams, September 2, 2011.
481 “I was always offended by the fact that he put out an Enemies List”: Cronkite and Carleton, Conversations with Cronkite, p. 249.
Twenty-Eight: Fan Clubs, Stalkers, and Political Good-byes
482 “We had Cronkite on the set”: Author interview with Bernard Shaw, June 10, 2011.
483 “I was convinced he wouldn’t show up”: Ibid.
484 was “pivotal . . . seminal . . . inspirational . . . educational”: Bernard Shaw acceptance speech for the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism and Telecommunications, November 16, 1994, Shaw Papers, Takoma Park, MD.
484 “My goal was to be at CBS working with Cronkite”: Author interview with Bernard Shaw, June 10, 2011.
484 CBS also had a stable of correspondents whom Martin Luther King Jr. embraced: Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life, pp. 292–293.
484 “I’ll never forget the first story I did”: Author interview with Bernard Shaw, June 10, 2011.
484 “We are a long way from perfection”: Walter Cronkite to Bernard Shaw, October 29, 1971, Shaw Papers, Takoma Park, MD.
485 “I said I wanted a no-asshole staff”: Author interview with Connie Chung, July 28, 2011.
486 “marvelous extemporaneous style”: Walter Cronkite interview with Orville Schell, September 12, 1996, San Francisco Chronicle Herb Caen Lecture Series pamphlet.
486 “Betsy was proof that you could be”: Author interview with Tom Brokaw, August 3, 2011.
486 “I was a Cronkite groupie by the age of six”: Author interview with Brian Williams, September 3, 2011.
486 “I grew up in a CBS household”: Ibid.
487 “My guys were Tom Snyder and Howard Cosell”: Author interview with Bill O’Reilly, September 23, 2011.
487 “Pictures plus words plus personality equals believability”: “Walter Cronkite: The Electronic Front Page,” Time, October 14, 1966.
488 he had created a fan club in the anchorman’s honor: Robert Feder, “Cronkite Was Hero, Role Model, Friend,” Chicago Sun-Times, July 17, 2009.
488 “I personally am appreciative of your loyalty”: Walter Cronkite to Robert Feder, May 18, 1972, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.
488 Correspondence continued between Cronkite and Feder: Walter Cronkite to Robert Feder, December 19, 1972, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.
488 “I don’t go on a low-residue diet. I just don’t feel fatigue”: Walter Cronkite Fan Club National Headquarters, January 1975, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.
488 Cronkite had become part of the popular culture: “Walter Cronkite Fan Club Newsletter,” September 1973, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.
489 “the thirty-sixth president of the United States died this afternoon”: CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, January 23, 1973 (transcript), CBS News Archives, New York.
489 “What always impressed me about that moment”: Author interview with Scott Pelley, May 11, 2011.
489 “Walter loved the challenge of broadcasting Johnson’s death”: Author interview with Brian Williams, September 3, 2011.
489 Then it was CBS News’ turn: Author interview with Tom Johnson, May 24, 2011.
490 “Cronkite had just been with LBJ at the ranch”: Ibid.
490 Cronkite had been at the LBJ ranch only ten days earlier: Jay Sharbutt, “Equal Rights Topic of Program,” AP, February 1, 1973.
490 While the five-part series wasn’t dramatic: John J. O’Connor, “TV: Johnson Interview,” New York Times, February 1, 1973.
491 “Johnson was mad as hell”: Author interview with Bob Hardesty, January 24, 2012.
491 “It burned the hell out of the president”: Author interview with Harry Middleton, July 20, 2011.
491 “It was reprehensible”: Tom Johnson to Douglas Brinkley, January 3, 2012.
492 “Walter got the first roll”: Author interview with Bill Felling, July 6, 2011.
492 “He had simply conditioned himself to be the UP guy”: Tom Johnson to Douglas Brinkley, January 3, 2012.
492 “Walter had been right after all. I dismissed him”: Author interview with Sandy Socolow, July 8, 2011.
493 “These POWs were dressed in striped pajamas”: Author interview with David Kennerly, May 28, 2011.
493 “a victim of a deliberate [media] campaign”: Don and Val Hymes, “Target: The News Media,” Frederick (MD) News-Post, October 12, 1973.
493 “I first met Spiro Agnew in 1967 and I liked him”: Jay Sharbutt, “Radio and Television,” AP, October 12, 1973.
494 Mark Allan Segal interrupted a Cronkite broadcast: “Gay Raiders Invade Cronkite News Show,” New York Times, December 12, 1973.
494 “I sat on Cronkite’s desk directly in front of him”: Joe Openshaw, “Walter Cronkite and the Gay Rights Movement,” Birmingham Gay Community Examiner, July 27, 2009, http//www.examiner.com/gay-community-in-birmingham/walter-cronkite-and-the-gay-rights-movement (accessed August 18, 2011).
495 “The police were called”: Author interview with Mark Segal, August 21, 2011.
495 “the happiest check I ever wrote”: Ibid.
496 “Network news was never the same after that”: “Mark Segal, the Gay Raiders, and Walter Cronkite: That’s the Way It Was,” Philebrity.com, July 20, 2009.
496 “The homosexual men and women have organized”: Edward Alwood, Straight News: Gays, Lesbians, and the News Media (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), pp. 146–47.
496 he boasted about being a champion of LGBTQ issues: Segal, “Mark Segal, the Gay Raiders, and Walter Cronkite.”
496 “if there is any criticism of President Nixon”: Arthur Unger, “ ‘Vicious’ TV Reporting? What the Anchormen Say,” Christian Science Monitor service, January 2, 1974.
497 “Walter liked presidents”: Author interview with Dan Rather, February 18, 2011.
497 Cronkite’s fans and admirers, private and corporate, would send: Author interview with Kathy Cronkite, March 22, 2011.
497 “The Lenny Bruce cult certainly was (is) a strong one”: Walter Cronkite to Lyle Stuart, August 22, 1966, Box: 2M644, Folder: 1960, WCP-UTA.
497 “There’s something in Walter’s style”: “Walter Cronkite Fan Club Newsletter,” June–July 1973, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.
498 “Why do you feel Mr. Cronkite has risen to the high position”: Doug James interview with John Chancellor, December 18, 1974 (transcript), James Archive, Mobile, AL.
499 Brian Williams and Diane Sawyer took a page from the Cronkite-Moore collaboration: Alessandra Stanley, “An Anchor Loosens His Tie, Along with His Persona,” New York Times, November 1, 2011.
499 “I love The Mary Tyler Moore Show”: Quoted in the “Walter Cronkite Fan Club Newsletter,” August 1974, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.
500 “You watched Cronkite on Kennedy’s death”: Author interview with Linda Mason, April 30, 2011.
500 “I thought I had arrived”: Ibid.
500 He bought a summer house in Edgartown: Clifford Terry, “Cronkite with Candor,” Chicago Tribune Magazine, March 15, 1981.
501 Friends considered him a “lunatic sailor”: James, Walter Cronkite, p. 218.
501 The 4,330-square-foot home also allowed Cronkite: Sarah Kershaw, “Where a Media Icon Once Went to Play,” New York Times, October 24, 2010.
501 “San Clemente or San Quentin”: “The Walter Cronkite Fan Club Newsletter,” June 1974, Feder Papers, Chicago, IL.
501 “The Chief Justice himself said he was simply following the dictates”: “CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite” (transcript), August 7, 1974, Box: 2M644, Folder: Warren, WCP-UTA.
502 “magnanimous”: Mudd, The Place to Be, pp. 328–29.
502 “Did they consort in advance”: Tom Braden, “Only Roger Mudd Saved the Day,” Modesto Bee (California), August 19, 1974.
503 “We should declare a honeymoon”: “The Walter Cronkite Fan Club Newsletter,” November 1974, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.
503 “It’s quite cozy,” he said. “All of you are in a friendly circle”: Stahl, Reporting Live, p. 48.
503 “I thought he wanted to suck me dry of all my hard work”: Author interview with Lesley Stahl, April 11, 2011.
503 “He played all the roles in his stories”: Stahl, Reporting Live, p. 48.
504 Stahl also learned what a hoot Betsy Cronkite was: Ibid.
504 “He was very protective of his seat of power”: Author interview with Tom Brokaw, August 2, 2011.
Twenty-Nine: A Time to Heal
505 Schorr, who had won Emmys for reporting in each of the Watergate years: Alan Greenblat, “Journalism Legend Daniel Schorr Dies at 93,” NPR, July 23, 2010.
505 whore: Judy Flander, “CBS Rift Comes Out in the Open,” Washington Star, July 14, 1975.
505 At issue was Schorr’s charge: Daniel Schorr, Clearing the Air, p. 117.
506 “sweetness and light”: Ibid.
506 Brian Lamb, who later founded C-SPAN, was the publisher: Author interview with Brian Lamb, May 30, 2011.
506 “that executive orders at CBS News were handed down”: Daniel Schorr, Clearing the Air, p. 117.
506 “Oh, that the son of a bitch had done it again”: Cronkite and Carleton, Conversations with Cronkite, pp. 262–63.
506 Cronkite believed the feud began when Schorr was excluded: Flander, “CBS Rift Comes Out in the Open.”
506 “There was always a Schorr version”: Cronkite and Carleton, Conversations with Cronkite, pp. 262–63.
/> 506 “I think the circumstances required a sort of decency”: Walter Cronkite oral history interview, WCP-UTA.
507 “Our reporters would have to ad-lib all night”: Buzenberg and Buzenberg, Salant, CBS, and the Battle for the Soul of Broadcast Journalism, p. 115.
508 “It is as wrong [for the media] to take on the role of nation-healers”: Schorr, Clearing the Air, p. 116.
508 The Washington Post also declined a victory lap: Douglas Brinkley, Gerald Ford (New York: Times Books, 2007), pp. 1–3.
508 “Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee issued a ‘don’t gloat’ order”: Author interview with Bob Woodward, May 26, 2011.
508 praising the ex-president’s “overtures in international politics”: Barbara Haddad Ryan, “Cronkite Proves Adept on the Other Side of Question-Answer Sessions,” Denver Post, July 18, 1972.
509 he was “behind” Schorr “all the way”: Walter Cronkite to Robert Feder, May 31, 1976, Feder Papers, Chicago, IL.
509 “that his only boss was his wife, Betsy”: Leonard, In the Storm of the Eye, p. 15.
510 “assured,” “unflappable,” and “perfectly aimed”: Rather, The Camera Never Blinks Twice, p. 247.
510 “God help us if NBC had a good story”: Ron Bonn to Douglas Brinkley, June 7, 2011.
510 “But as a managing editor, he was brutal”: Author interview with Morley Safer, September 9, 2011.
510 knew they could get their stories on the Cronkite newscast: Roger Mudd to Douglas Brinkley, March 3, 2012.
511 “Most newsmen have spent some time covering the seamier side”: Powers, “Walter Cronkite: A Candid Conversation.”
511 One of his favorite phrases was “Find the facts”: Ibid.
511 “Walter Wants”: Schieffer, This Just In, p. 270.
511 “He took nothing for granted”: Don Hewitt, Tell Me a Story, p. 74.
512 “He was that kind of guy”: “Ed Bradley, the Award-Winning Television Journalist Who Broke Racial Barriers,” Associated Press, November 11, 2006.
512 Cronkite interviewed Ford from the Blue Room: Gerald Ford interview with Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, and Bob Schieffer of CBS News (transcript), April 21, 1975, the American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid =4855#axzz1jHKBIJlR.
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