This Day in History: 1916-11-04

Walter Cronkite, a leading US television news anchor, is born on this day in 1916. His friendly, professional style and relatively neutral politics made him “the most trusted man in America”  from the 1950s through his retirement in 1981. His work spanned front line radio coverage of World War II and television news from the Vietnam War to the space program and the new challenges of the environment. Cronkite grew up in Missouri, worked for newspapers and radio stations in the Midwest in the 1930s before joining CBS radio news in 1938. He was one of eight journalists selected by the United States Army Air Forces to fly bombing raids over Germany in a B-17 Flying Fortress as part of group called The Writing 69th.   As the anchor at CBS news, Cronkite covered most of the important events of the 1950s through the 1970s. Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, he said: “If in the search of our conscience we find a new dedication to the American concepts that brought no political, sectional, religious or racial divisions, then maybe it may yet be possible to say that John Fitzgerald Kennedy did not die in vain.” In his 1968 coverage of the Vietnam war, he said: “It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.”  Cronkite was also devoted to science and technology reporting, with the NASA space program one main focus but, increasingly, environmental science, both in a science TV program “Universe” and as an active advisory board member for the Society of Environmental Journalists.