Walter cronkite education

By Andy Lewis. This story first appeared in the June 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Written with the cooperation of his family and using personal papers and interviews including every major living network newscaster , Douglas Brinkley transforms that two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional person in his sterling new biography.

The Cronkite who emerges is ambitious — a true news hound — mindful of the responsibility that came with being a network anchor, politically engaged but careful not to appear partisan, quick to grasp that TV required an emotional connection with the audience. But he was no saint, capable of astonishing journalistic lapses — bugging hotel rooms at the Republican convention or retaping his side of an interview with Lyndon Johnson to enhance his responses — and more caught up in the ratings chase than is acknowledged.

Cronkite is the model anchor and a reminder that the golden age of network news was not so different from our era. He invented the modern news anchor at that moment.

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Cronkite also was a space junkie and became the go-to anchor during the moon race. His special report on Vietnam is widely credited with turning public opinion against the war. The network had an informal age 65 retirement policy, and there was a sense the newscast needed to be jazzed up to stay competitive. Succumbing to the implicit pressure, he retired at 64 in , with Evening News first in the ratings — as it had been since When Rather discovered the switch, he refused to sit, even though the program was seconds from starting.

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Instead, he opened his tenure as anchor perched awkwardly on a typewriter table. Without Evening News , Cronkite mostly disappeared from public view. Brinkley points the finger at CBS for its shabby treatment that kept the icon out of Election Night coverage, most breaking news and generally off Evening News evidently under pressure from an insecure Rather as a major reason for his low profile and an ongoing source of frustration for Cronkite.

Only in retirement does Brinkley flesh out the private Cronkite, especially his growing political activism on everything from the environment to marijuana. Thompson and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.