Sunday, July 19, 2009

Walter Cronkite: In Memorium


These days with things in Washington in pretty good hands with Barack Obama, and the many demands of our daily lives, it takes a lot to get the Thinking Women to come out of lurkdom and post.

But on Friday, our idol, the iconic journalist, Walter Cronkite, died after a long decline. We cannot let his passing go unremarked.

1964: It is Walter Cronkite's voice that solemnly shepherded us, as young children, through the events following the tragic assassination of President Kennedy, when our parents kept the television on almost constantly.

July 1969: And after listening to him comment with Wally Schirra on space launch after space launch, it was Walter Cronkite who choked up, perfectly capturing how we all felt as Neil Armstrong took his first step onto the surface of the moon.

1999: The Thinking Woman was an editor for the New Haven Register's Elm City Newpapers chain, and she saw Walter Cronkite talk about his career at Southern Connecticut State University. In person, he was grounded, humble, funny and sincere. Every bit the same Uncle Walter who had guided and informed us on the evening news.

It was Walter Cronkite who made the television news anchor a position of trust and integrity. He defined the role: In Sweden, news anchors are "Kronkiters;" in the Netherlands, "Cronkiters."

He worked hard to gain our trust, and worked hard to retain it. He kept his opinions to himself, putting, like a good newspaperman should, the facts ahead of the stories. He was, in a word, objective. But at the same time, he was proudly American. And in doing so, he reflected us. When we watched him, we saw the best of ourselves.

As we watch the rise of blogging and the news as immediate gratification, sometimes at the expense of finding the truth, we see slower news sources slip away. Newspapers, once a refuge for the hard-found truth, are disappearing. And yet, we see the desire for truth lingering in the network news. As they struggle for ratings, we hope that they will remember Walter Cronkite, and refuse to mindlessly compete with the knee-jerk reporting and opining too often found in the rapid-paced blogosphere. Walter would never let the truth get away.

So we raise a glass in toast to Uncle Walter. And we dedicate what we do here at The Thinking Woman to the pursuit of truth, no matter what we think of it. We will remember that our only job is to let people know, "that was the way it was." 

Just like a Cronkiter should.