On Cronkite
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On Cronkite
Don Hewitt
On Cronkite's coverage of JFK's assassination:
"It was a very frightened country. Walter became not only everybody's anchorman, he was everybody's minister, priest and rabbi. He calmed America down."
Morley Safer
On Cronkite's coverage of Vietnam:
"It is...remarkable that one anchorman, one reporter, one journalist, whatever could really affect the political fate of the country...But, they didn't call Walter the most trusted man in America for nothing."
President Barack Obama
On Cronkite as an American icon:
"He brought us all those stories large and small which would come to define the 20th Century. That's why we love Walter, because in an era before blogs and e/mail cell phones and cable, he was the news. Walter invited us to believe in him, and he never let us down."
Robin Williams
On Cronkite's "other" side:
"The best time to be with Walter is when he was with [his late wife] Betsy. You know, and one cocktail...because then they both get kind of won-- wonderfully salty and kind of funny."
Diane Sawyer
On the "most trusted man in America:"
"I think all you could do is say to them there was a time when someone, one person could say, 'that's the way it is'...and we all trusted it was true."
Ted Koppel
On Cronkite's manner:
"America ate to Walter Cronkite. They sat on the couch to Walter Cronkite...and Walter gave it to them in as comfortable a way as you could pass on some of that bad news that he was passing on."
Mike Wallace
On the man:
"He took the job seriously. He took the responsibility seriously. And it's hard to say that he didn't take himself seriously. But you never felt that he was taking himself all that seriously."
Barbara Walters
On Cronkite's competitors:
"There were others and they were very good but they were not Walter. No one has that voice today. No one has that power today...and maybe that's not the worst thing."
Brian Williams
On Cronkite's retirement:
"I couldn't shake the feeling when he retired that something more than one man was leaving the chair."
George Clooney
On Cronkite chronicling history:
"I'm the son of a newsman, and it's a huge part of my life, I grew up in a newsroom. I know Walter very well... It's fun to be around somebody who's actually been part of real historical events. You know, the guy who held our hands through some of the biggest changes in our country's history."
Spike Lee
On Cronkite's coverage of the civil rights movement:
"Walter was one of the few people in power positions that got behind that and pushed the story."
Dan Rather
On Cronkite setting the standard:
"I think the day President Kennedy died was the day that television news as we now know it was born, for all intents and purposes. And Walter Cronkite was a very important part of making it so."
Katie Couric
On Cronkite's coverage of the space program:
"Here was something everyone could rally around, and I think Walter Cronkite's embrace of that program gave people American heroes at a time when they really needed them."
President Bill Clinton
On Cronkite as a journalist:
"To me, he represents the best of the First Amendment, the best of the freedom of the press."
Mickey Hart
On a surprising Cronkite moment:
"I invited him to a Grateful Dead show...There was Walter Cronkite at the soundboard at Madison Square Garden. And he came back halftime...and he said, 'I was thinking of a thousand reasons to leave early,' he said. 'But I can't think of one now!' He said, 'you guys really get to somebody. I love your music.'"
(Photo: Grateful Dead band members Mickey Hart, left, and Bob Weir.)