It's funny how a guy that's 30 years older than me can feel like he's part of my generation. But, maybe it's because his career coincided with my generation's moving into adulthood.
If you didn't see CBS's tribute to Cronkite tonight, you missed a good show. If you didn't DVR it hopefully it'll be available online somewhere. It chronicles not only Walter being the news guy for a nation but him being on the air during the most major of news stories: the JFK Assasination, Man walking on the Moon, Martin Luther King, the 60's Unrest with the Hippies and the Protestors, the Viet Namn War - and Cronkite going into the war with our troops and then later going on the Nightly News and calling for the end of the war.
He wasn't our age, but he may have been our voice. The fact that CBS has Robin Williams and George Clooney narrating the tribute in fact shows that our generation was the one that "trusted" Walter despite the fact he was from our parents generation that we protested against. And this little known fact...he interviewed the Beatles on Nov. 22, 1963 which was to air on the news that night except for the tragic events in Dallas that day. A day my generation will never forget - especially everyone who calls Dallas home. But, later in December Walter decided that the country needed an uplift that only an interview with this new goofy band from Liverpool could bring. And it was after that show that Ed Sullivan called and started asking questions about this band called the Bugs or Beetles or whatever...Go figure.
A wish for my kids and all their peers: to never have to experience the assasination of a U.S. President. It will rip your guts out.
It wasn't until retirement that Cronkite did a series of "We're Texas" commercials for the University of Texas - the school he attended for two years working on the school newspaper and discovering his love for journalism. He also ran for Class President as a freshman and lost to Joe Greenhill who became Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Whenever these come on tv they're worth stopping what you're doing for 30 seconds...the booming voice of Walter plus the pride of all things UT coming thru loud and clear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQNYmdgny2g&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STphfid-PWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFRnwJ84znU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhvSl0-I-N4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=456M_nveGek&feature=related
And that's the way it was.
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