Once upon a time, there were three TV networks, three nightly newscasts, and, above all, one Walter Cronkite.
Cronkite, perhaps TV's most famed and influential news anchor, died today after a long illness. He was 92.
As anchor of the CBS Evening News from 1962-1981, the grandfatherly Cronkite--known as "Uncle Walter"--was a nightly dinnertime presence for the pre-wired, pre-cable nation, walking viewers through the tumult and triumphs of the time: the assassination of President Kennedy, the first-ever manned moon landing, the Vietnam War.
"Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away," Cronkite said on his final telecast. "They just keep coming back for more."
Beyond the TV news set, Cronkite mattered in a very real pop-culture way, topping public-opinion polls seeking "the most trusted man in America," and, per one popular historical take, turning public sentiment against Vietnam with one brief, but pointed observation in a 1968 telecast.
In a retirement that was anything but, Cronkite hosted, narrated and/or appeared in dozens of news specials and documentaries. He even returned to the CBS Evening News. Since 2006, when Katie Couric ascended to the anchor chair that, thanks to ratings attrition, no longer dropped much weight, Cronkite has been heard introducing the newscast.
In June 2009, Cronkite's family, responding to reports that the newsman was gravely ill, revealed the Cronkite had suffered for "some years" from cerebrovascular disease, a disorder of the blood vessels of the brain.