Walter Cronkite
American broadcast journalism came into its own as a public institution across the middle decades of the twentieth century, when radio and then television transformed how citizens encountered the news. Walter Cronkite was born on November 4, 1916, in St. Joseph, Missouri, and would become one of the defining figures of that transformation.
Cronkite attended Ella J. Baker Montessori School and San Jacinto High School before going on to study at the Moody College of Communication. He worked as a journalist and also as a speaker throughout his career, operating in the English language within a media landscape that was still negotiating the responsibilities of broadcast news. His work placed him within a tradition of American journalism that treated the evening report as a civic obligation rather than mere entertainment.
The honors Cronkite accumulated over the course of his life reflected the breadth of recognition his journalism received. He was awarded two Peabody Awards and a George Polk Award, among the most serious distinctions in American journalism. He also received the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech. International acknowledgment came in the form of the Great Silver Medal of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria and the Ischia International Journalism Award. Further distinctions included the Trustees Award, the Evelyn F. Burkey Award, the Award of Honor of the National Cartoonists Society, and the Nierenberg Prize. He was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame, named a Library of Congress Living Legend, and elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Cronkite died on July 17, 2009, in New York City, at the age of ninety-two. The constellation of honors attached to his name — from the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Library of Congress Living Legend designation — reflects the degree to which his journalism was formally recognized across institutional, governmental, and international spheres during his lifetime and in the years that followed.
Quotes by Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite's insights on:
I did not believe that the public was sophisticated enough to understand that a newsman could wear several hats and that we had the ability to turn off - nearly, you can't say perfectly, but nearly - all of our prejudices and biases.
All through my life, I have never disguised my sentiments about politics in general.
There's no story that breaks, including a five-alarm fire in Brooklyn, that I don't wish I were covering.
I can't go into a mob scene and sense the mood and the attitude of the crowd. I can't conduct man-on-the-street interviews or even get reactions that I can be sure are honest, because they know who I am.
I suppose popularity is measured by ratings. If a broadcaster is known as the leader because of ratings, then that's where people most want to be seen and heard, so there's no question that there's an advantage.
Anybody who's spent thirteen or fourteen years in print journalism has a lot of stories he thinks were inwardly satisfying as far as preparation, understanding, and diligence.