Cronkite Quotations

Everybody trusted Cronkite because he reminded them of their favorite uncle or trusted family physician. Being square in the age of the Beatles made Cronkite retro cool.

As Walter Cronkite would say, that's the way it is.

Walter Cronkite was a personally decent and convivial man, who literally couldn't kill a fly, was kind to his children, generally helpful to juniors, authentically curious about the news, and, in his time, an energetic reporter.

My 40 years with CBS News have been a fascinating voyage of discovery. Thirty-seven years with '60 Minutes' have given me the chance to travel the globe, meet and report on world issues, and broadcast what I've learned to an audience at home that had long trusted CBS News reporters like Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid.

We're seeing the end of an era many of us grew up with and the beginning of a new era where people get their news from many different sources. The days of the uber-analyst like Walter Cronkite and Peter Jennings... are gone.

That story was something I've never had occasion to discuss publicly, ... I assigned it because I was interested in this question: Here is a network that was once iconic in American broadcasting, that was traditionally, in the years of Cronkite and his predecessors, identified as being on the forefront of social policy reporting and coverage of the civil rights movement. Now it's basically at the mercy of the Masters, and what does that say about what had happened at CBS? What did it say about CBS's relationship with the Masters, and what did it say about CBS's relationship with its sponsors? That was the story that I was pressing to get.

Walter Cronkite is still Walter Cronkite, and when he tells you a story, you just are going to listen. I wanted to make sure his voice is heard, since he was there. I just think he's got a powerful story to tell.

Walter Cronkite was the last newsman everyone trusted in the same way that the Beatles were the last music everyone loved and Marilyn was the last star everyone concurred was worthy of the word.

This is Texas. We don't have Walter Cronkite and Ted Kennedy whining about their back yards,

Oh, man, there was this screening the other night. One of the special nights of your life where you feel ... I mean, this was at the Warner Bros. screening room and you had Dan Rather there and Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams, Andy Rooney ... Walter Cronkite gave a speech at the party afterward. And everyone seemed to like it ... Bill O'Reilly ...

I walked home to my apartment to find my wife sitting before our small black and white TV, in tears. Confused images on the screen - a caravan, a sniper or snipers...Then Walter Cronkite removing his glasses to announce that the President was dead.

Although Cronkite had once crash landed in a Dutch potato field under enemy fire, he chose instead to focus on celebrating the liberation of the Netherlands at the hands of the Free Dutch.