History of TV News - Part 2

Culture

Walter Cronkite’s coverage of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal change public perceptions, leading one president to not run for re-election and the resignation of another.

Author:

By Mark R. Gould

The era of the highly rated news anchors may be fading, but their fascinating personal stories are available @ your library

The public’s perception of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal would soon be influenced in part by Cronkite’s broadcasts. The network news shows were pretty uncritical in their reporting of the Vietnam war for several years. But CBS’ television correspondents such as Dan Rather, Charles Kuralt, and Morely Safer started to report a different story—a less optimistic one with troubling body counts—from the frontlines. The country was badly divided.

After spending two weeks in Vietnam and talking to many experts, Cronkite told his television audience: “We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest cloud.... For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.... And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster. To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past.... But 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.”

Bill Moyers reported that President Lyndon B. Johnson said, “If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America.” He soon announced he would not run for another term.

Several years later, in the early 1970s, his coverage of Watergate helped the public better understand the complicated matter, and kept the story alive following the extensive investigative reports by the Washington Post and later the New York Times.

Ben Bradlee, the former Washington Post editor, said that a lot of “Washington people, people who followed national stories—a lot of them who had not decided that we were right changed their minds because of Walter.”

Bradlee told Newsweek: “In October 1972, Cronkite devoted two segments, back to back, to the Watergate story. The first was 14 minutes, the second eight. I think that second night was curtailed by CBS chairman William S. Paley because Paley was scared of it. The fact that Cronkite did Watergate at all (let alone at that length) gave the story a kind of blessing, which is exactly what we needed—and exactly what the Washington Post lacked. It was a political year, and everyone was saying, ‘Well, it's just politics, and here's the Post trying to screw Nixon.’ We were the second-biggest newspaper in the country trying to scramble for a good story—whereas Cronkite was the reigning dean of television journalists. When he did the Watergate story, everyone said, ‘My God, Cronkite's with them.’”

Cronkite was also influencing foreign policy, according to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, “as evidenced in an l977 interview with Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat, in which he asked Sadat if he would go to Jerusalem to confer with the Israelis. A day after Sadat agreed to such a visit and the invitation came from Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. It was a step that would eventually pave the way for the Camp David accords and an Israeli-Egyptian Peace treaty.”

Cronkite's trademark was ending the CBS Evening News with the phrase “...And that's the way it is,” followed by the date. So, in that avuncular style, he signed off for the final time on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

“This is my last broadcast as the anchorman of The CBS Evening News; for me, it's a moment for which I long have planned, but which, nevertheless, comes with some sadness. For almost two decades, after all, we've been meeting like this in the evenings, and I'll miss that. But those who have made anything of this departure, I'm afraid have made too much. This is but a transition, a passing of the baton. A great broadcaster and gentleman, Doug Edwards, preceded me in this job, and another, Dan Rather, will follow. And anyway, the person who sits here is but the most conspicuous member of a superb team of journalists; writers, reporters, editors, producers, and none of that will change. Furthermore, I'm not even going away! I'll be back from time to time with special news reports and documentaries, and, beginning in June, every week, with our science program, Universe. Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away; they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is: Friday, March 6, 1981. I'll be away on assignment, and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good night.”

And that was the way it was for a while. Many believed he had quit much too early. His later years were very productive. He produced many CBS, CNN and PBS TV specials, hosted the annual Kennedy Center Awards, made personal appearances, and did a great deal writing. He remained a popular and respected figure. Walter Cronkite died at age 92 in 2009.

Part 3 of this article looks at the decline of network news, and Part 4 revisits how the networks covered the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Part 1 provides a background on the history of broadcast journalism.

Resources

Variety: Top ten highlights of Walter Cronkite’s career

Life Magazine: Remembering Walter Cronkite

The Atlantic: David Halberstam on Cronkite

A Reporter's Life
by Walter Cronkite

This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV
by Bob Schieffer

Good Night, Chet: A Biography of Chet Huntley
by Lyle Johnston

Anchors: Brokaw, Jennings, Rather and the Evening News
by Robert Goldberg and Gerald Jay Goldberg

Friendlyvision: Fred Friendly and the Rise and Fall of Television Journalism
By Ralph Engelman

Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control
by Fred W. Friendly