The Burrall Blog – Walter Cronkite, 1916-2009

7/17/09 – 11:22 PM

OK, so how do I sum up Walter Cronkite?  Well, I had to think of that for quite a few minutes before I wrote this blog entry.

I could have written about him being the “most trusted man in America,” or of his glee about man on the moon 40 years ago, or of his brutally honest assessment that we couldn’t win in Vietnam, or of his fleeting loss of composure on announcing President Kennedy’s death, followed closely by his calm, if saddened, approach through those dark days.

But then, the subject became clear as could be: Walter Cronkite was among the best, not only in the history of journalism, but in the history of mankind, of taking advantage of his curiosity.

Dan Rather, who succeded Cronkite as CBS Evening News anchor, said it best tonight on MSNBC.  Rather, knowing that many just remember Cronkite as an anchorman, correctly stated, “He was one hell of a reporter.”

And to be one hell of a reporter, you have to be beyond curious.  You always have to know more.  Walter Cronkite, to his own dismay, dropped out of the University of Texas, but covered the complexities of wars.  He flunked basic physics, yet was so studious about the space program that he knew nearly as much as many at NASA.

Walter Cronkite always sought to find out all he could, so we could do the same.  He never thought of himself as an enormous star or celebrity, though he was both.  Cronkite just wanted to find out what was going on; he just wanted to be a good newsman.  In these days where some think journalism is making the most outlandish statements possible or shouting louder than the other guy, good newsmen seem to be hard to locate.  Walter Cronkite was a great newsman, and more to the point of all this, curious to no end.  That’s what I’ve always admired about him, and that’s what I’ll miss about him the most.