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"President Kennedy died during 1 p.m. Central Standard Time." Walter Cronkite, Nov. 22, 1963.
"From Dallas, Texas. . . . " The haggard newsman has only been handed handle copy. He removes his glasses. He looks in to a camera as well as gives us a initial tough news which our young trainer will never grow old. He marks a time of death upon a newsroom clock as well as holds a impulse of silence.
CRONKITE
By Douglas Brinkley
Illustrated. 819 pp. Harper/HarperCollins Publishers. $ 34.99.
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Times Topic: Walter Cronkite
This was Walter Cronkite upon Nov. 22, 1963, announcing a death of John F. Kennedy.
It was consummate Cronkite unscripted, accurate as well as heartfelt. For nineteen years, a anchor of "The CBS Evening News" shared in our open pique as well as celebration. He was one of us, as well as Douglas Brinkley's "Cronkite" is a majestic autobiography of America's biggest as well as many beloved broadcast journalist.
"He was reassuringly permanent when so much was in flux," writes Brinkley, a historian as well as contributing editor during Vanity Fair. "Even when he was announcing comfortless news, he was himself a reminder which America would persevere."
Perseverance was a hallmark of Cronkite's surprisingly choppy career. He was buoyed by his ability to connect with an audience, a connection never more strong than during CBS's marathon coverage of a Kennedy assassination. Seventy million Americans as well as viewers in twenty-three countries tuned in. "CBS News became a! meeting hall, a cathedral, a dilemma bar as well as a locale square wherever people went when they longed for a recovering joy of a group," Brinkley writes, as well as Cronkite was a "impresario" of mourning, a unofficial national pique counselor.
Cronkite never shied divided from revelation tough truths. Recall his half-hour "Report From Vietnam" upon Feb. 27, 1968, in which he spoken a Vietnam War a "stalemate." It was a outcome a veteran fight match didn't relish delivering, but Cronkite, who had recently returned from stating upon a Tet offensive, right away believed which a fight was unwinnable as well as indefensible. He felt "conned" by Lyndon Johnson, Brinkley writes, as well as "sickened" which his network had swallowed a Pentagon's spin.
"The movement of Cronkite's reports was seismic," Brinkley adds. President Johnson reportedly said, "If I've mislaid Cronkite, I've mislaid a country."
How did Cronkite get a credentials to be taken during his word which an American fight could not be won?
Born in 1916 in St. Joseph, Mo., Cronkite dreamed of apropos a broadcaster. An unexcited student, he dropped out of a University of Texas after dual years as well as entered a journal business, covering a nightclub as well as church beats for The Houston Press.
At 19, he got his initial radio job during Kansas City's KCMO station, broadcasting college football games underneath a name Walter Wilcox (Cronkite sounded as well German). He read a plays off a handle ticker, afterwards re-enacted them for a audience as if he were during a game. "I didn't need any facts," he said. "I only used my imagination."
Cronkite's KCMO years were notable for dual events: He met as well as married Mary Elizabeth Maxwell, well known as Betsy, a KCMO advertising copywriter, as well as he was abruptly fired. He refused to report upon a glow during city gymnasium in which three firefighters had supposedly died. He defied his boss, insisting upon removing a second source before going upon ai! r. It wa s a standard which mattered: get a story right as well as then, first.
He landed upon his feet as a night editor during United Press. It was "his proving ground," Brinkley writes, a job which formed Cronkite as a journalist. He did everything from fact-checking to reporting, as well as in 1943 he covered a American bombing debate over Germany. He assimilated a cadre of correspondents together with Andy Rooney; they called themselves a "Writing Sixty-Ninth," as well as they were instructed by Hugh Baillie, trainer of U.P., to "get a smell of warm red blood in to their copy."
Chris Matthews is a horde of Hardball upon MSNBC as well as The Chris Matthews Show upon NBC. His many new book is Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero.
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