“And That’s The Way It Is:” Walter Cronkite, Dead at 92!

“The most trusted man in America” has died.

Walter Cronkite, one of the most notable and admired journalists to have ever done it, died this evening in his home at the age of 92. Walter Cronkite was known for his calm and reliable style of reporting the news. Cronkite was the voice of CBS Nightly News from 1962 – 1981. For two decades, Americans depended on Walter Cronkite to bring world news into their living rooms each night.

To journalists, Walter Cronkite was the hallmark of professionalism and decorum. Students and collegues alike looked to Cronkite as the true benchmark as to what news reporting should be. Every reporter and journalist to ever pick up a pen or punch keys into a typewriter or computer owe their ambition and craft to the greatest journalist who made it all seem easy.

Walter Cronkite.

Here is just a sample of Cronkite’s work from November 22, 1962:

“Here is a bulletin from CBS News. Further details on an assassination attempt against President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. President Kennedy was shot as he drove from Dallas Airport to downtown Dallas; Governor Connally of Texas, in the car with him, was also shot. It is reported that three bullets rang out. A Secret Service man has been…was heard to shout from the car, “He’s dead.” Whether he referred to President Kennedy or not is not yet known. The President, cradled in the arms of his wife Mrs. Kennedy, was carried to an ambulance and the car rushed to Parkland Hospital outside Dallas, the President was taken to an emergency room in the hospital. Other White House officials were in doubt in the corridors of the hospital as to the condition of President Kennedy. Repeating this bulletin: President Kennedy shot while driving in an open car from the airport in Dallas, Texas, to downtown Dallas.”

Walter Cronkite delivered the news that fateful afternoon with grace and compassion.

The Kaleidoscope Factor salutes the journalist of all journalists, Walter Cronkite, dead at 92.