America’s legendary broadcaster Walter Cronkite, who passed away at age 92, would be long remembered among the journalist fraternity in the world for the basic things he upheld/promoted as a professional all his life: Excellence, Integrity, Accuracy, Fairness, Objectivity.
Really, the world would be a better place if journalists left aside the frills and returned to these basic values in journalism. He was a typical example of the saying that “journalists are born and not made”. He edited the high school newspaper and was a member of Boy Scouts.
Cronkite attended college at The University of Texas at Austin, where he worked on The Daily Texan, and became a member of the Nu chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity. He also was a member of the Houston chapter of DeMolay, a Masonic fraternal organization for boys. More here…
The Christian Science Monitor recalls: “Walter Cronkite, who died Friday, always took an interest in young journalists. He was known as ‘Uncle Walter’ for his low-keyed but authoritative style.” More here…
The NYT gives an old Cronkite quote: “ ‘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 when he did pronounce judgment, the impact was large. In 1977, his separate interviews with President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel were instrumental in Sadat’s visiting Jerusalem. The countries later signed a peace treaty.
“ ‘From his earliest days,’ Mr. Halberstam wrote, ‘he (Cronkite) was one of the hungriest reporters around, wildly competitive, no one was going to beat Walter Cronkite on a story, and as he grew older and more successful, the marvel of it was that he never changed, the wild fires still burned’.” More here…
(A friend reminds me of Cronkite’s another famous quote: “There are sound good stories and good sound stories. Unfortunately, the world loves the sound good stories.”)
See here for Life magazine’s pictorial tribute to Walter Cronkite….
And here for the BBC’s tribute… The photo above shows Cronkite interviewing JFK two months before the latter’s assassination.
To read about some interesting facts about Cronkite please click here…
Excerpts:
• Cronkite swayed the outcome of the Vietnam War in 1968 by declaring it “unwinnable.”
• He made “Watergate” a nightly theme on his newscast, the relentless repetition of which was used by the left to topple Republican President Richard Nixon.
• Since retirement, he has advocated many liberal causes, including a single world government and the end of U.S. veto power in the United Nations.
A reader suggests a site that carries a number of links related to Cronkite…See here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.