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I'm sure we've all heard by now, an icon in journalism passed away yesterday. Walter Cronkite, a man to whom the term "anchor" was coined, died on July 17. He was 92.
Watching the news yesterday, I heard a snippet about the term "news anchor" and it was a term given to Cronkite when he covered a political convention for CBS.
Cronkite's last broadcast on CBS was in 1981, to be succeeded by Dan Rather. So, for me, the only real knowledge I had about him was from what I heard from my parents and others. I was aware of the broadcast in 1963 when he announced the death of JFK. Matter of fact, I watched a five minute segment of that very broadcast on YouTube recently.
On the numerous newscasts last night, it was mentioned that the early bulletins of the JFK assassination were audio only, and the first broadcast interruption was during "As The World Turns" - which to me seemed ironic. The reason that the first bulletins were audio only is because they were waiting for a camera to warm up.
I was in high school when first I started hearing a great deal about Cronkite. I think he, and his legacy were just a couple of the many reasons I gained an interest in broadcasting and journalism.
Matter of fact, when I first started Brown College for broadcasting, I tried to think of my "hook." The phrase that I would use to close my mock broadcasts. I almost thought about using Uncle Walter's: "And that's the way it is." I didn't - that was his trademark. I needed to find something else. And on his last broadcast in 1981, he closed with, "And that's the way it will be."
The world of journalism has lost a true icon. Other anchors will come and go - but in my opinion, none will quite match the integrity that Mr. Cronkite brought to the TV medium.
