Cronkite (102 page)

484 CBS also had a stable of correspondents whom Martin Luther King Jr. embraced:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, pp. 292–293.

484 “I’ll never forget the first story I did”:
Author interview with Bernard Shaw, June 10, 2011.

484 “We are a long way from perfection”:
Walter Cronkite to Bernard Shaw, October 29, 1971, Shaw Papers, Takoma Park, MD.

485 “I said I wanted a no-asshole staff”:
Author interview with Connie Chung, July 28, 2011.

486 “marvelous extemporaneous style”:
Walter Cronkite interview with Orville Schell, September 12, 1996,
San Francisco Chronicle
Herb Caen Lecture Series pamphlet.

486 “Betsy was proof that you could be”:
Author interview with Tom Brokaw, August 3, 2011.

486 “I was a Cronkite groupie by the age of six”:
Author interview with Brian Williams, September 3, 2011.

486 “I grew up in a CBS household”:
Ibid.

487 “My guys were Tom Snyder and Howard Cosell”:
Author interview with Bill O’Reilly, September 23, 2011.

487 “Pictures plus words plus personality equals believability”:
“Walter Cronkite: The Electronic Front Page,”
Time
, October 14, 1966.

488 he had created a fan club in the anchorman’s honor:
Robert Feder, “Cronkite Was Hero, Role Model, Friend,”
Chicago Sun-Times
, July 17, 2009.

488 “I personally am appreciative of your loyalty”:
Walter Cronkite to Robert Feder, May 18, 1972, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.

488 Correspondence continued between Cronkite and Feder:
Walter Cronkite to Robert Feder, December 19, 1972, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.

488 “I don’t go on a low-residue diet. I just don’t feel fatigue”:
Walter Cronkite Fan Club National Headquarters, January 1975, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.

488 Cronkite had become part of the popular culture:
“Walter Cronkite Fan Club Newsletter,” September 1973, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.

489 “the thirty-sixth president of the United States died this afternoon”:
CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
, January 23, 1973 (transcript), CBS News Archives, New York.

489 “What always impressed me about that moment”:
Author interview with Scott Pelley, May 11, 2011.

489 “Walter loved the challenge of broadcasting Johnson’s death”:
Author interview with Brian Williams, September 3, 2011.

489 Then it was CBS News’ turn:
Author interview with Tom Johnson, May 24, 2011.

490 “Cronkite had just been with LBJ at the ranch”:
Ibid.

490 Cronkite had been at the LBJ ranch only ten days earlier:
Jay Sharbutt, “Equal Rights Topic of Program,” AP, February 1, 1973.

490 While the five-part series wasn’t dramatic:
John J. O’Connor, “TV: Johnson Interview,”
New York Times
, February 1, 1973.

491 “Johnson was mad as hell”:
Author interview with Bob Hardesty, January 24, 2012.

491 “It burned the hell out of the president”:
Author interview with Harry Middleton, July 20, 2011.

491 “It was reprehensible”:
Tom Johnson to Douglas Brinkley, January 3, 2012.

492 “Walter got the first roll”:
Author interview with Bill Felling, July 6, 2011.

492 “He had simply conditioned himself to be the UP guy”:
Tom Johnson to Douglas Brinkley, January 3, 2012.

492 “Walter had been right after all. I dismissed him”:
Author interview with Sandy Socolow, July 8, 2011.

493 “These POWs were dressed in striped pajamas”:
Author interview with David Kennerly, May 28, 2011.

493 “a victim of a deliberate [media] campaign”:
Don and Val Hymes, “Target: The News Media,”
Frederick
(MD)
News-Post
, October 12, 1973.

493 “I first met Spiro Agnew in 1967 and I liked him”:
Jay Sharbutt, “Radio and Television,” AP, October 12, 1973.

494 Mark Allan Segal interrupted a Cronkite broadcast:
“Gay Raiders Invade Cronkite News Show,”
New York Times
, December 12, 1973.

494 “I sat on Cronkite’s desk directly in front of him”:
Joe Openshaw, “Walter Cronkite and the Gay Rights Movement,”
Birmingham Gay Community Examiner
, July 27, 2009, http//www.examiner.com/gay-community-in-birmingham/walter-cronkite-and-the-gay-rights-movement (accessed August 18, 2011).

495 “The police were called”:
Author interview with Mark Segal, August 21, 2011.

495 “the happiest check I ever wrote”:
Ibid.

496 “Network news was never the same after that”:
“Mark Segal, the Gay Raiders, and Walter Cronkite: That’s the Way It Was,”
Philebrity.com
, July 20, 2009.

496 “The homosexual men and women have organized”:
Edward Alwood,
Straight News: Gays, Lesbians, and the News Media
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), pp. 146–47.

496 he boasted about being a champion of LGBTQ issues:
Segal, “Mark Segal, the Gay Raiders, and Walter Cronkite.”

496 “if there is any criticism of President Nixon”:
Arthur Unger, “ ‘Vicious’ TV Reporting? What the Anchormen Say,”
Christian Science Monitor
service, January 2, 1974.

497 “Walter liked presidents”:
Author interview with Dan Rather, February 18, 2011.

497 Cronkite’s fans and admirers, private and corporate, would send:
Author interview with Kathy Cronkite, March 22, 2011.

497 “The Lenny Bruce cult certainly was (is) a strong one”:
Walter Cronkite to Lyle Stuart, August 22, 1966, Box: 2M644, Folder: 1960, WCP-UTA.

497 “There’s something in Walter’s style”:
“Walter Cronkite Fan Club Newsletter,” June–July 1973, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.

498 “Why do you feel Mr. Cronkite has risen to the high position”:
Doug James interview with John Chancellor, December 18, 1974 (transcript), James Archive, Mobile, AL.

499 Brian Williams and Diane Sawyer took a page from the Cronkite-Moore collaboration:
Alessandra Stanley, “An Anchor Loosens His Tie, Along with His Persona,”
New York Times
, November 1, 2011.

499 “I love 
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
”:
Quoted in the “Walter Cronkite Fan Club Newsletter,” August 1974, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.

500 “You watched Cronkite on Kennedy’s death”:
Author interview with Linda Mason, April 30, 2011.

500 “I thought I had arrived”:
Ibid.

500 He bought a summer house in Edgartown:
Clifford Terry, “Cronkite with Candor,”
Chicago Tribune Magazine
, March 15, 1981.

501 Friends considered him a “lunatic sailor”:
James,
Walter Cronkite
, p. 218.

501 The 4,330-square-foot home also allowed Cronkite:
Sarah Kershaw, “Where a Media Icon Once Went to Play,”
New York Times
, October 24, 2010.

501 “San Clemente or San Quentin”:
“The Walter Cronkite Fan Club Newsletter,” June 1974, Feder Papers, Chicago, IL.

501 “The Chief Justice himself said he was simply following the dictates”:
“CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite” (transcript), August 7, 1974, Box: 2M644, Folder: Warren, WCP-UTA.

502 “magnanimous”:
Mudd,
The Place to Be
, pp. 328–29.

502 “Did they consort in advance”:
Tom Braden, “Only Roger Mudd Saved the Day,”
Modesto Bee
(California), August 19, 1974.

503 “We should declare a honeymoon”:
“The Walter Cronkite Fan Club Newsletter,” November 1974, Feder Personal Papers, Chicago, IL.

503 “It’s quite cozy,” he said. “All of you are in a friendly circle”:
Stahl,
Reporting Live
, p. 48.

503 “I thought he wanted to suck me dry of all my hard work”:
Author interview with Lesley Stahl, April 11, 2011.

503 “He played all the roles in his stories”:
Stahl,
Reporting Live
, p. 48.

504 Stahl also learned what a hoot Betsy Cronkite was:
Ibid.

504 “He was very protective of his seat of power”:
Author interview with Tom Brokaw, August 2, 2011.

Twenty-Nine
: A Time to Heal

505 Schorr, who had won Emmys for reporting in each of the Watergate years:
Alan Greenblat, “Journalism Legend Daniel Schorr Dies at 93,” NPR, July 23, 2010.

505 whore:
Judy Flander, “CBS Rift Comes Out in the Open,”
Washington Star
, July 14, 1975.

505 At issue was Schorr’s charge:
Daniel Schorr,
Clearing the Air
, p. 117.

506 “sweetness and light”:
Ibid.

506 Brian Lamb, who later founded C-SPAN, was the publisher:
Author interview with Brian Lamb, May 30, 2011.

506 “that executive orders at CBS News were handed down”:
Daniel Schorr,
Clearing the Air
, p. 117.

506 “Oh, that the son of a bitch had done it again”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, pp. 262–63.

506 Cronkite believed the feud began when Schorr was excluded:
Flander, “CBS Rift Comes Out in the Open.”

506 “There was always a Schorr version”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, pp. 262–63.

506 “I think the circumstances required a sort of decency”:
Walter Cronkite oral history interview, WCP-UTA.

507 “Our reporters would have to ad-lib all night”:
Buzenberg and Buzenberg,
Salant, CBS, and the Battle for the Soul of Broadcast Journalism
, p. 115.

508 “It is as wrong [for the media] to take on the role of nation-healers”:
Schorr,
Clearing the Air
, p. 116.

508
The Washington Post
also declined a victory lap:
Douglas Brinkley,
Gerald Ford
(New York: Times Books, 2007), pp. 1–3.

508 “Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee issued a ‘don’t gloat’ order”:
Author interview with Bob Woodward, May 26, 2011.

508 praising the ex-president’s “overtures in international politics”:
Barbara Haddad Ryan, “Cronkite Proves Adept on the Other Side of Question-Answer Sessions,”
Denver Post
, July 18, 1972.

509 he was “behind” Schorr “all the way”:
Walter Cronkite to Robert Feder, May 31, 1976, Feder Papers, Chicago, IL.

509 “that his only boss was his wife, Betsy”:
Leonard,
In the Storm of the Eye
, p. 15.

510 “assured,” “unflappable,” and “perfectly aimed”:
Rather,
The Camera Never Blinks Twice
, p. 247.

510 “God help us if NBC had a good story”:
Ron Bonn to Douglas Brinkley, June 7, 2011.

510 “But as a managing editor, he was brutal”:
Author interview with Morley Safer, September 9, 2011.

510 knew they could get their stories on the Cronkite newscast:
Roger Mudd to Douglas Brinkley, March 3, 2012.

511 “Most newsmen have spent some time covering the seamier side”:
Powers, “Walter Cronkite: A Candid Conversation.”

511 One of his favorite phrases was “Find the facts”:
Ibid.

511 “Walter Wants”:
Schieffer,
This Just In
, p. 270.

511 “He took nothing for granted”:
Don Hewitt,
Tell Me a Story
, p. 74.

512 “He was that kind of guy”:
“Ed Bradley, the Award-Winning Television Journalist Who Broke Racial Barriers,” Associated Press, November 11, 2006.

512 Cronkite interviewed Ford from the Blue Room:
Gerald Ford interview with Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, and Bob Schieffer of CBS News (transcript), April 21, 1975, the American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid =4855#axzz1jHKBIJlR.

512 “Today, America can regain the sense of pride”:
Charles E. Neu, ed.,
After Vietnam: Legacies of a Lost War
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), p. 27.

512 North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon:
Brinkley,
Gerald Ford
, p. 86.

512 “Nothing was going to stop him from doing this broadcast”:
Midgley,
How Many Words Do You Want?
p. 286.

513 but he started the April 30 broadcast and made it to its end:
George C. Herring,
America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam
, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986), p. 265.

513 “rather well”:
Walter Cronkite, “Letter to the Editor,”
New York Times
, April 5, 1985.

513 “We embarked on this Vietnam journey with good intentions”:
Russell H. Coward Jr.,
A Voice from the Vietnam War
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004), p. 168.

513 “ ‘We could have won’ ”:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, pp. 264–65.

513
Esquire
put Cronkite on its cover:
Esquire
, December 1975. Also see James,
Walter Cronkite
, p. 211.

514 “too-much-the-toady”:
Author interview with Ed Bradley, December 21, 2004.

514 “Ford was probably the most personable”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, p. 313.

514 Cronkite broadcast
In Celebration of US
:
Frank Mankiewicz, “The Great Certifier,”
Washington Post–Potomac
, October 21, 1976.

514 “It was,” Cronkite said, “a glorious, spontaneous upwelling of enthusiasm”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, p. 316.

514 with pickups from forty-two locations:
Les Brown, “ ‘Rockets Red Glare,’ a Gift from BBC,”
New York Times
, June 2, 1976.

515 Cronkite used the Bicentennial to tell Americans:
Mankiewicz, “The Great Certifier.”