And That's the Way He Was

Walter Cronkite, a man who pioneered the role of a television journalist with such ease and grace that he was known to many viewers as the most trusted man in America, passed away today at the age of 92, according to CBS News.

For nearly 2 decades, viewers were comforted by Cronkite's straightforward delivery of some of the biggest news stories of a generation — the Civil Rights movement, Watergate, and, perhaps most memorably, the Vietnam War. But the talented reporter was a reluctant star and desperately clung to the journalist's creed of objectivity as strongly as he could.

“I am a news presenter, a news broadcaster, an anchorman, a managing editor — not a commentator or analyst,” he said in an interview with The Christian Science Monitor in 1973. “I feel no compulsion to be a pundit.”

But it was that undying devotion to a lack of bias that made his opinion so powerful and so valued by many. I'm sure millions will never forget his exclamation of "Oh boy!" when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon in 1969, when he shed a tear while reporting President John F. Kennedy's death, or when he stepped out from behind his desk, pointed to the map of Vietnam and said the war was clearly not working.

Sadly, I was born too late to experience the wonder of his nightly news broadcasts. Nonetheless, he'll be fondly remembered by us J-Schoolers as Uncle Cronkite and as one of the best examples of an honest-to-God reporter.