Walter Leland Cronkit Jr. is an American television journalist and television personality. Permanent anchor of the evening news program on the CBS television channel for 10 years from 1962 to 1981. According to numerous opinion polls conducted in the 1970s and 1980s, Kronkit was the man most trusted by Americans. Ordinary Americans called him "Uncle Walter."
Biography and personal life
Walter Leland Cronkit Jr. was born on November 4, 1916 in St. Joseph, Kansas City County, Missouri. Father is a dentist, mother is a housewife. In 1926, the Cronkit family moved to Houston, Texas.
As a child, Walter was an active Boy Scout, edited the school newspaper, attended a Texas high school. After graduation, he was educated at the University of Texas, where he also ran the student newspaper The Daily Texan.
In 1936, Cronkit met his future wife Mary Elizabeth Maxwell (1916-2005). They got married in 1940 and lived happily together their entire lives. Walter affectionately called his wife "Betsy." During the marriage, the couple acquired three children and four grandchildren. In 2005, Mary Elizabeth Cronkit passed away from cancer.
Walter was an avid radio amateur. His personal callsign was KB2GSD.
In 1997, Cronkite published his autobiography, The Life of a Reporter, which became a bestseller.
On July 17, 2009, Walter Cronkit passed away in New York at the age of 92 after a long illness. The funeral took place on 23 July.
Career
Without graduating from university, Walter in 1935 began to collaborate with local newspapers, making reports for them.
In the mid-1930s, Walter Cronkit began his career at radio station WKY as a sports commentator in Oklahoma and Missouri.
In 1937 he joined the American news agency United Press. Was among the leading reporters during the Second World War, covering the course of hostilities in Europe and North Africa.
Conducted reports from the first bombing of "flying fortresses" on Germany, covered D-Deir's landings and parachuting of allied forces in the Netherlands. In 1944-1945 he covered the Battle of the Ardennes. In 1945-1946 he reported from the Nuremberg Trials.
From 1946 to 1948 he worked in Moscow, first as a reporter and then as head of the United Press bureau. Covered the beginning of the Cold War, growing tensions between West and East. From 1948 to 1950 he returned to the United States and worked as a reporter in Washington.
In 1950, he joined the CBS television channel, and from 1951 to 1962 he broadcast the evening news on this channel. It was then that the terms "announcer" and "TV presenter" appeared.
In 1952, for the first time, he broadcast live reports from the congresses of the Democratic and Republican parties, from the presidential elections. Constantly covered all party congresses and presidential elections until 1964.
In 1960, he hosted the very first live broadcast of the Winter Olympics.
On April 16, 1962, he became a regular anchor of the CBS Evening News on CBS. This work quickly made him the most famous person on American television. Throughout his further career, he broadcast live on the most important events in the United States and in the world:
- interviewed President John F. Kennedy;
- covered the assassination and funeral of John F. Kennedy, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy;
- reported on Lyndon Johnson's presidential oath;
- introduced the British rock group The Baetles to the Americans;
- from 1964 to 1973 he covered the course of the Vietnam War and the fall of Saigon;
- reported during the riots at the Democratic convention in Chicago;
- reported on the Apollo 11 landing on the moon;
- announced the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
Walter's experience as a war correspondent has helped CBS News build a reputation for being an accurate and impartial journalistic point of coverage. As a result, by the late 1960s, CBS's evening news broadcasts began to attract more viewers than their NBS competitors.
Cronkit learned to speak more slowly than most Americans. This technique did not give the viewer the opportunity to doubt that this or that event actually happened.
On March 6, 1981, Walter Cronkit announced his retirement and ceased broadcasting. Dan Rather became the new news anchor.
Despite Walter's departure for a well-deserved rest, he was on the staff of the television company until the last day of his life and periodically made special reports and reports. For example, in 1982, Kronkit covered the UK parliamentary elections and interviewed the country's newly victorious Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for ITV.
In 1998 he supported Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. In 2003, he sharply criticized the government's decision to send troops to Iraq. In 2006, he called on US President George W. Bush to withdraw US troops from Iraq.
Achievements
It was Cronkit, as a news presenter, who first informed the Americans about the most important events in the United States and in the world. It was "Uncle Walter" who was the first to say:
- about the Cuban crisis (1962);
- the assassination of President Kennedy (1963);
- Martin Luther King Jr.'s fight for racial equality;
- the assassination of Robert Kennedy (at the time, Cronkit nearly fainted on the air);
- the landing of astronauts on the moon (1969);
- the Watergate scandal (1972);
- on the seizure of American hostages in Iran (1979).
After visiting Vietnam during the Vietnam War, Cronkite made a documentary about the conflict (shown on February 27, 1968) and advocated an end to the carnage. Having thus made a huge impact on public opinion, the policy of continuing the war has sharply lost its relevance among Americans. President Johnson, a supporter of the continuation of the conflict, refused to run for a second term, saying at the time: "By losing Croncright, I have lost the majority of Americans."
Cronkit was one of the first to advocate free television time for all political parties to protect the rights of minority candidates. In his speech, he noted that the United States is one of seven countries in the world that does not give all candidates the opportunity to speak on TV for free.
"Uncle Walter" was remembered by Americans for his light and calm style of presenting carefully written, objective news, as well as for always ending his news with the words "This is the way things are."
Walter Cronkite has won numerous prestigious journalism awards. His professional methods have been taught to journalism students in many countries around the world, including the USSR.
