Cronkite

by Douglas Brinkley

  600 It proved to be a watershed moment in the campaign: Author interview with Bernard Shaw, June 9, 2011.

  600 “Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered”: Tom Wicker, George Herbert Walker Bush (New York: Penguin, 2004), p. 95.

  601 “The temptation is rather great at his point to digress into the defense”: “Walter Cronkite Speech in Defense of Liberalism, Just Days After ’88 Election,” People for the American Way, http://www.pfaw.org/video/c3/walter-cronkite-speech-defense-of-liberalism-just-days-after-88-election (accessed October 3, 2011).

  602 “On television, I tried to absolutely hew to the middle”: Jeremy Gerard, “Walter Cronkite Speaks His Mind Instead of Just News,” New York Times, January 8, 1989.

  603 “Nowadays, you see more people, more houses”: Walter Cronkite speech to Natural Resources Defense Council in North Carolina, March 11, 1989, File: NRDC, Box: 2M615, WCP-UTA.

  603 “I could drown in the nostalgia tonight”: Mark Carreau, “Memories Key Gala That Flies Crowd to Moon,” Houston Chronicle, July 22, 1989.

  603 to Cronkite it was worth every damn penny: Ibid.

  603 going to Mars would remain a pipe dream: Ibid.

  604 “The New York Times was reporting the build-up on the border”: Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life, p. 357.

  604 Cronkite, a war skeptic: Robert Wiener, Live from Baghdad: Gathering News at Ground Zero (New York: Doubleday, 1992), p. 3.

  605 “The telegraph at the other networks went dead”: Author interview with Tom Johnson, May 24, 2011.

  605 “The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated”: Bernard Shaw, “Baghdad Report,” January 16, 1991, CNN Archives, Atlanta, GA.

  605 “why don’t you tell the president yourself on CNN”: Author interview with Tom Johnson, May 24, 2011.

  606 no U.S. planes had been “lost in the first wave of attacks”: James A. Baker III, The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War, and Peace, 1989–1992 (New York: Putnam, 1995), p. 384.

  606 “There are Americans dying”: Tom Shales, “Television, Eyewitness on the Front Line,” Washington Post, January 17, 1991.

  606 “there comes a point where it becomes foolhardy”: Wiener, Live from Baghdad, p. 13.

  606 “The historical irony of Walter and me covering a war together”: Author interview with Bernard Shaw, June 10, 2011.

  606 “Bush said we were fighting the Iraqi leadership”: Herb Caen, “Manhattan Merry-Go-Round,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 6, 1991.

  606 was among the finest TV reporters since Murrow: Author interview with Andy Rooney, March 15, 2011.

  607 “I’m so very proud of you”: Author interview with Bob Simon, January 12, 2012.

  608 Victory in the Gulf War translated into President Bush garnering: Tom Wicker, George Herbert Walker Bush (New York: Viking Press, 2004), p. 166.

  608 “Sometimes we would go visit Tom Watson”: Author interview with Mike Ashford, June 5, 2011.

  608 “President Bush went to take the call”: Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life, p. 355.

  609 “We all ceremoniously hoisted our glasses”: Author interview with Mike Ashford, June 3, 2011.

  609 “nothing of any significance is going to be said in 9.8 seconds”: John Tierney, “Furor Grows over Shrinkage of Sound Bites on TV News,” New York Times, January 28, 1992.

  610 “I struggled for funding”: Author interview with John Hendricks, November 12, 2011.

  610 Hendricks paid Cronkite to do long-form interviews: Author interview with Dale Minor, August 18, 2011.

  610 there wouldn’t today be a Discovery Channel”: Author interview with John Hendricks, November 13, 2011.

  610 Cronkite continued circulating as the éminence grise: “Newsmakers,” Houston Chronicle, February 4, 1992; Neil Morgan, “Cronkite Turns Border Reporter,” San Diego Union-Tribune, March 3, 1992.

  610 “I greatly regret that President Bush and his campaign managers”: “President Bush, Harkin Say ‘No’ to Special on Discovery,” New York Daily News, March 7, 1992.

  610 Cronkite held a round table forum on journalism: Ray Richmond, “TV’s Selling Power Puts Perot in Race,” Orange County Register, July 5, 1992.

  611 “sound bites, shell games, handlers, and media stuntmen”: J. Michael Kennedy, “It’s a Thankless, Slimy Job; So Why Is Perot After It?” Los Angeles Times, April 19, 1992.

  611 “Perot can stumble into an answer that is meaningful”: Ibid.

  611 “Clinton has Carter’s intelligence”: Bill Zwecker, “As a Political Wit, Walter Cronkite Leaves ’Em Gasping,” Chicago Sun-Times, November 22, 1992.

  611 “There’s one more honor to be paid tonight”: Godfrey Sperlin, “Why Bush Lost,” Christian Science Monitor, December 22, 1992.

  611 President Bush got a long standing ovation: State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL), February 22, 1997.

  Thirty-Four: “The World’s Oldest Reporter”

  612 Los Angeles was in the midst of the Northridge earthquake: “The Magnitude 6.7 Northridge, California, Earthquake of 17 January 1994,” Science 266, no. 5184 (October 1994): 389.

  613 “He hadn’t lost his drive to own a news story”: Author interview with Bernard Shaw, June 10, 2011.

  613 “I think Walter was shaken by Northridge”: Author interview with Andy Rooney, March 15, 2011.

  614 “Walter was always open for business”: Author interview with Tom Brokaw, August 2, 2011.

  614 “People put their faith in what they see”: Gerard, “Walter Cronkite Speaks His Mind Instead of Just News.”

  615 “The fact that you can’t find a new Walter Cronkite on television”: Jack Fuller, What Is Happening to News: The Information Explosion and Crisis in Journalism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), p. 73.

  615 “How many of you”: Ted Koppel’s final Nightline broadcast, November 22, 2005, LexisNexis Academic transcript.

  616 “Eric was one of the best of that small number of news analysts”: “Eric Sevareid, Commentator for CBS-TV,” Los Angeles Times, July 10, 1992.

  616 “I couldn’t believe I got to hover in the same sphere”: Author interview with Brian Williams, September 2, 2011.

  616 When Cronkite spoke at a library lecture series: Bruce Lambert, “Richard Salant, 78, Who Headed CBS News in Expansion, Is Dead,” New York Times, February 23, 1993.

  617 “I was excited beyond belief”: Author interview with Brian Williams, September 2, 2011.

  617 “It became our running joke”: Ibid.

  617 “Doesn’t that man over there look like Walter Cronkite?”: Author interview with Michael Finley, March 1, 2010.

  618 “He would always ask everybody he met”: Author interview with Marlene Adler, December 9, 2011.

  618 “Get lost!”: Author interview with Andy Rooney, March 15, 2011.

  619 “It was shameless”: Ibid.

  619 he insisted that old-fashioned investigative journalism was a prerequisite: “Integration Never to Be Realized,” New York Amsterdam News, October 9, 1993.

  619 confounded Cronkite, Ward and Company in 1993: Terry Behrman, “Remembering My Former Boss Walter Cronkite,” July 21, 2009, New Lantern blog for business innovation.

  620 “Come on, Walter. It’s time to get to the orgy”: Ray Richmond, “Cronkite Report: America’s Most Trusted Man Still Sets Pace,” Los Angeles Daily News, May 26, 1993.

  620 “they used to say Walter Cronkite could get elected president”: Anne Gowen, “Down Home at the White House,” Washington Times, September 14, 1963.

  620 “Any question I had about the Battle of Normandy”: Author interview with Wolf Blitzer, September 7, 2011.

  621 “Let me give you three pieces of advice, Al”: Author interview with Al Ortiz, May 12, 2011.

  621 “I meant my martini”: Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life, pp. 15–16.

  621 “I wouldn’t have a problem with that”: Verne Gay, “Cronkite on Credibility,” Buffalo News, March 10, 1996.

  622 “Walter sent us his notes and a long oral
history”: Author interview with Shirley Wershba, August 31, 2011.

  623 “I thought that we Americans overreacted to the Soviets”: Walter Cronkite, “The Cold War,” Discovery Channel, January 16, 1997.

  623 “With newscasters like Mr. Cronkite, Who Needs Pravda?”: Washington Times, June 25, 1997.

  623 an anti-Cronkite website titled “Walter Cronkite Spit in My Food”: “Cronkite Not Amused by His Online Spitting Image,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 29, 1997.

  623 “wrapping their harsh right-wing views in the banner”: “Cronkite Attacks Religious Right,” Dayton Daily News, March 6, 1997.

  623 underwent quadruple bypass surgery on April 1, 1997: John Carmody, “The TV Column,” Washington Post, April 3, 1997.

  624 “The music seemed to heal his soul”: Author interview with Chip Cronkite, July 3, 2011.

  624 “I took one look at you”: Author interview with Joanna Simon, January 13, 2012.

  624 “It must be terrible leaving with so many family memories”: Author interview with Tom Brokaw, August 2, 2011.

  625 Cronkite sent a note to the White House inviting them to go sailing: Author interview with Sandy Socolow, October 16, 2011.

  625 “At that time I could have done with a picture with Walter Cronkite”: President Clinton Speech at Cronkite’s Memorial, 2009, Lincoln Center, New York.

  626 No leaks about the discussion occurred: Peter Johnson, “Cronkite Refuses to Talk,” USA Today, August 2, 1998.

  626 “Bill and Hillary didn’t speak to each other the entire time”: Author interview with Sandy Socolow, July 8, 2011.

  626 “historic opportunity for young Walter”: Author interview with Walter Cronkite IV, December 5, 2011.

  626 “President Clinton was in awe of Cronkite”: Author interview with Dee Dee Myers, July 23, 2011.

  627 “Or I could go with him, play canasta up there”: David Kronke, “Cronkite—A Look Upward at Space, Downward at the Demise of Television,” Los Angeles Daily News, October 21, 1999.

  627 Johnson asked Cronkite—still under contract with CBS News—to co-anchor: “Walter Cronkite to Co-Anchor CNN’s Coverage,” CNN transcript, July 29, 1998.

  627 “Gosh, we wish we’d thought of it”: “CNN Beat CBS to the Punch,” San Jose Mercury News, October 14, 1998.

  627 Cronkite, in an effort to allay CBS concerns about him: 60 Minutes, October 18, 1998.

  627 “John Glenn going back into Space is serving the purpose”: Dave Walker, “Cronkite Suits to Cover Glenn Trek,” Arizona Republic, October 23, 1998.

  628 “Mike, if they want the questions in advance”: Author interview with Mike Freedman, November 20, 2011.

  628 the “Cronkite School of Broadcasting and Space” on CNN: Bob Betcher, “Cronkite Tells Flight the Way It Is,” Vero Beach Press Journal, October 30, 1998.

  628 “Walter waved me to sit next to him”: Author interview with Jimmy Buffett, July 18, 2011.

  629 “I had people from our affiliate stations around the country calling”: Interview with Michael Freedman, February 27, 2011.

  630 Trump claimed Cronkite was a “totally preposterous” man: “This Just In: Cronkite Slams Trump Project,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 20, 1999.

  630 “Walter, it is soooooooo good to see you again!”: Sandy Socolow to Douglas Brinkley, December 13, 2011.

  630 spent a week at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena: Kronke, “Walter Cronkite—A Look Upward at Space.”

  630 the notion of “unlimited national sovereignty”: Myron M. Kronisch, “Toward a Democratic World Government,” Newark Star-Ledger, January 14, 2000.

  631 “Any attempt to achieve world order before that time must”: Walter Cronkite, “Speech Before the World Federalist Association” (transcript), October 19, 1999, WCP-UTA. Also see “Cronkite Champions World Government,” Washington Times, December 3, 1999.

  631 “I don’t understand the need for speed”: “Cronkite Sees Good, Bad in News Gathering,” Charleston (WV) Gazette, November 26, 2000.

  632 Uncle Walter was “irreplaceable”: Jeannie Williams, “No Kennedy Gala for Cronkite,” USA Today, November 30, 2000.

  632 “I had to think more about the millennium than anyone”: “Names in the News,” AP, May 16, 2000.

  Thirty-Five: The New Millennium

  634 “I suggested that he stay out of New York for a while”: Author interview with Chip Cronkite, July 3, 2011.

  634 “He had to see Ground Zero for himself”: Author interview with Marlene Adler, December 19, 2011.

  634 Instead of canceling his La Sapienza speech: “Cronkite Praises U.S. Broadcast Coverage,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 15, 2001.

  635 “This is your Kennedy”: Aaron Brown, “On Walter Cronkite,” Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, http://cronkite.asu.edu/node/689 (accessed July 9, 2011).

  635 to “get even, for heaven’s sake”: Walter Cronkite on Late Night with David Letterman, September 20, 2001 (video transcription).

  635 Cronkite: “Well, how do you think it felt”: Ibid.

  636 “I was hot under the collar about Bush overreacting”: Author interview with Andy Rooney, March 15, 2011.

  636 “if [Falwell and Robertson] are worshipping the same God”: “Falwell = Terrorists, Says Cronkite,” New York Post, September 28, 2011.

  636 he saw his public role as championing: Kirkus Reviews, review of Around America: A Tour of Our Magnificent Coastline, by Walter Cronkite, May 15, 2001, http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/walter-cronkite/around-america/#review.

  637 “Somehow knowing that Walter was still around”: Author interview with Katie Couric, September 22, 2009.

  637 “ideological eunuch”: Gerard, “Walter Cronkite Speaks His Mind Instead of Just News.”

  637 Refusing to be intimidated by Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity: Author interview with Marlene Adler, June 4, 2011.

  638 “No longer was he trying to be Mr. Center”: Author interview with Katie Couric, September 22, 2009.

  638 Democrats engaged in silly fights: Richard Zoglin, “10 Questions for Walter Cronkite,” Time, October 26, 2003.

  638 “Walter liked being in the ring”: Author interview with Dale Minor, August 18, 2011.

  639 “Bush is setting an example”: “Cronkite Condemns Decision to Go to War,” St. Louis Dispatch, October 11, 2003.

  639 “At the networks, Cronkite’s heirs were not even practicing journalism”: Frank Rich, “And That’s Not the Way It Was,” New York Times, July 26, 2009.

  639 “We met in the restaurant of the Mark Hotel in Manhattan”: Christiane Amanpour to Douglas Brinkley, January 17, 2012.

  640 “If 1988 taught us anything”: Walter Cronkite, “Senator Kerry Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Admitting He’s a Liberal,” Ventura County Star, March 18, 2004, from King Features Syndicate.

  641 “This was an error made in good faith”: Josh Getlin, Elizabeth Jensen, and Matea Gold, “CBS Apologizes for Its Story on Bush Memos,” Los Angeles Times, September 21, 2004.

  642 “There’s nothing there”: Howard Kurtz, “Osama Who?” Washington Post, January 24, 2005.

  642 “But that ol’ boy danced a jig when Dan went down”: Author interview with Andy Rooney, March 15, 2011.

  642 What surprised him wasn’t Memogate: Sidney Blumenthal, “Dan Rather Stands by His Story,” Salon.com, September 27, 2007.

  642 “that they tolerated his being there for so long”: Walter Cronkite remarks on American Morning, CNN transcript, March 8, 2005.

  642 Team Rather had “myopic zeal”: “CBS Ousts Four for Roles in Bush Guard Story,” AP, January 10, 2005.

  642 To Moonves, it was a “black mark”: Author interview with Les Moonves, June 10, 2011.

  643 “We know it as the battle of the bathroom”: Author interview with Jeff Fager, January 10, 2012.

  643 “I just want you to know you did the right thing”: Author interview with Les Moonves, June 10, 2011.

  644 “You’ll nev
er know what that meant to me”: Ibid.

  644 with what Barbara Walters called her “wry and acidic” bluntness: Author interview with Barbara Walters, August 24, 2011.

  644 “They didn’t poll my wife”: Walter Cronkite remarks at roast in Phoenix, Arizona, November 15, 1985.

  644 “Betsy was the glue that held him together”: Author interview with Deborah Rush, February 21, 2012.

  645 “Walter was bereft and lost”: Author interview with Joanna Simon, January 13, 2012.

  645 “All I do is puddle up and cry from morning to night”: Author interview with William Small, March 22, 2011.

  645 “It’s not a bad idea”: Ibid.

  645 “I could talk to Walter about anything”: Author interview with Aaron Brown, September 7, 2011.

  645 “Dan didn’t have many friends”: Author interview with Jeff Fager, January 9, 2012.

  646 “was overjoyed”: Author interview with Roger Mudd, November 14, 2011.

  646 “I’ve got a new girlfriend”: Author interview with Jimmy Buffett, September 18, 2011.

  646 Just months after Betsy died, Cronkite began dating Joanna Simon: Kate Nocera and Erin Durkin, “Girlfriend Recalls the Way Walter Cronkite Was: As a Journalist Impartial, As a Human Passionate,” New York Daily News, July 20 2009.

  646 “casserole ladies”: Author interview with Marlene Adler, December 9, 2011.

  647 “gal pal”: Author interview with Joanna Simon, January 13, 2012.

  647 “Walter didn’t wait very long to strike”: Nocera and Durkin, “Girlfriend Recalls the Way Cronkite Was.”

  647 he proposed to her: Carol Ross Joynt, Innocent Spouse: A Memoir (New York: Crown, 2011), p. 258.

  647 “It was like I was reunited with my grandfather”: Beverly Keel to Douglas Brinkley, May 19, 2011.

  648 “As long as I’m your King of Hearts”: Author interview with Joanna Simon, January 13, 2012.

  648 “beyond anything I could have ever believed”: “NASA Honors Veteran Journalist Walter Cronkite,” NASA.gov, February 28, 2006, http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/cronkite_ambassador_of_exploration.html.

  648 he donated it to the University of Texas’s Dolph Briscoe Center: “The Briscoe Center for American History: The Walter Cronkite Papers,” www.cah.utexas.edu/collections/news_media_cronkite.php (accessed July 30, 2011).