Cronkite (95 page)

246 the days of Murrow’s ACLU-infused mania were over:
Friendly,
Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control
, p. 127.

246 “Walter was in the studio sucking on cough drops”:
Smith,
Events Leading Up
to My Death
, p. 258.

247 his love of Russian caviar and French espionage:
See Charles Collingwood,
The Defector
(New York: Ace, 1970).

248 “Sig had begun at ground-zero and built”:
Smith,
Events Leading Up to My
Death
, pp. 268–69.

248 “We were naturally terribly worried”:
Walter Cronkite, “Reflections on Dick Salant,” New Canaan (Connecticut) Public Library, November 24, 1996.

248 “We were,” Cronkite recalled, “all depressed”:
Walter Cronkite, “Salant Memorial Service,” February 22, 1993, Museum of Television and Radio Archives, New York.

249 the Wallace-Edwards team became fondly known as the “Cunningham Aces”:
Susan Buzenberg and Bill Buzenberg, eds.,
Salant, CBS, and the Battle for the Soul of Broadcast Journalism: The Memoirs of Richard S. Salant
(Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999), p. 37.

249 “not the right image for an anchorman”:
Schoenbrun,
On and Off the Air
, p. 143.

250 nicknamed “one-take Walter”:
Robert W. Butler, “From One Legend to Another, Good News,”
Kansas City Star
, June 12, 1996.

250 “We didn’t pick Walter to anchor”:
Buzenberg and Buzenberg,
Salant, CBS, and the Battle for the Soul of Broadcast Journalism
, p. 37.

251 “That’s the news”:
Walter Cronkite,
CBS Evening News
, April 16, 1962 (broadcast transcript), CBS News Research Library, New York.

251 “The suits—as we used to call them—went crazy”:
Tom Watkins, “How ‘That’s the Way It Is’ Became Cronkite’s Tagline,” CNN, July 18, 2009.

251 “Over on CBS tonight Walter Cronkite takes over”:
Cynthia Lowry, “Cronkite Won Respect of Rival Newscasters,” Associated Press, April 29, 1962.

251 “He was the father figure of television journalists”:
Ben Bradlee, “Walter Cronkite, 1916–2009,”
Newsweek
, July 27, 2009.

252 “Doug Edwards used to brag that he had the highest rated newscast”:
Author interview with Mervin Block, July 27, 2011.

252 “knows the future of CBS news is riding on him”:
“The Battle of TV News,”
Newsweek
, September 23, 1963.

253 Cronkite and director Don Hewitt:
David Schoenbrun,
On
and Off the Air
, p. 84.

253 “Cronkite would foresee the Next Big Story”:
Ron Bonn to Douglas Brinkley, January 4, 2012.

253 Cronkite as part of communications history:
Val Adams, “U.S. and Europe Exchange Live TV,”
New York Times
, July 24, 1962.

254 Cronkite’s profession had been revolutionized with the transmission of images:
Ibid.

254 “The reality of live telecasts to Europe seemed so unbelievable”:
Ibid.

254 “He’s nervous,” Fred Friendly said:
“The Battle of TV News,”
Newsweek
, September 21, 1963.

255 “Turns out Helen was a swinger”:
Author interview with Bill Small, March 22, 2011.

256 “the half-hour news show was a communications creation”:
John Horn, “News—But Not Good News,”
New York Herald-Tribune,
November 30, 1963.

257 “CBS is expanding Cronkite to a half hour”:
Frank,
Out of Thin Air
, p. 180.

257 CBS’s news expansion “revolutionized” the American political process:
Buzenberg and Buzenberg,
Salant, CBS, and the Battle for the Soul of Broadcast
Journalism
, p. 43.

258 “Hewitt wanted to get all the kinks out”:
Author interview with Sandy Socolow, November 14, 2011.

258 script makers would “rip stories off the half-dozen wire service Teletypes”:
Ron Bonn to Douglas Brinkley, June 7, 2011.

258 Having won a Peabody Award:
“Networks Divide Peabody Awards,”
New York Times
, March 28, 1963.

258 CBS had been chosen by lot to coordinate the pooled coverage:
Stephen C. Rogers, “March to Get Full News Goverage,”
Washington Post
, August 25, 1963.

259 “They called it the March on Washington for jobs and freedom”:
Walter Cronkite,
CBS Evening News
broadcast transcript, August 29, 1963, CBS News Archive, New York.

259 Not everybody at CBS thought Cronkite’s coming to Cape Cod:
Richard Reeves,
President Kennedy: Profile of Power
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), p. 586.

259 “As I drove up to the motel”:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 246.

261 “I was getting a little fed up”:
Author interview with Robert Pierpoint, March 19, 2011.

261 Cronkite—following questions about:
Harold W. Chase and Allen H. Lerman, eds.,
Kennedy and the Press: The News Conferences
(New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell, 1965), pp. 484–86.

261 “It is their war”:
Kenneth P. O’Donnell and David F. Powers,
Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye: Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1972), p. 444.

261 Salinger complained vehemently to CBS:
Reeves,
President Kennedy
, p. 589.

261 the Kennedy administration was distancing:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 244.

261 “partial distortion”:
Pierre Salinger,
With Kennedy
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966), p. 125.

261 “Salinger was preparing a preemptive defense”:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 248.

261 The features unfolded like articles in a glossy magazine:
John Horn, “News—But Not Good News,”
New York Times Herald Tribune
, November 30, 1963.

262 the shows didn’t seem to offer anything more:
Ibid.

263 his nightly catchphrase “caught on instantly”:
Walter Cronkite interview with Archive of American Television (April 28, 1998, and October 18, 1999), Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation, North Hollywood, CA.

Seventeen
: The Kennedy Assassination

264 eating a low-calorie cottage cheese and pineapple salad:
Bliss,
Now
the News
, pp. 335–337.

265 he clearly did not have this forty-six-year-old
Newsweek
cover star in mind:
Alex S. Jones,
Losing the News: The Future of News That Feeds Democracy
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 46.

265 “Hell, yes, there’s a battle”:
Ibid.

265 Flummoxed by his Florida experience, Wood recommended:
Lew Wood, “Dallas and JFK,”
Reporter’s Notebook
(blog), November 20, 2008.

265 “loaded for bear”:
Author interview with Lew Wood, January 9, 2012.

266 “Dan Rather was downtown to cover the motorcade”:
Ibid.

266 “Hold on, Lew . . . don’t go away”:
Wood, “Dallas and JFK.”

267 “We figured there might be some good footage for Walter to run”:
Author interview with Robert Pierpoint, March 19, 2011.

268 “My God, they’ve killed Jack”:
Smith,
Grace and Power
, pp. 447–48.

268 “THREE SHOTS WERE FIRED”:
Patrick J. Sloyan, “Albert Merriman Smith,”
American Journalism Review
(May 1997).

268 “DA IT YRS NY”:
Small,
To Kill a Messenger
, p. 135.

269 Although Rather’s version of events has self-servingly changed:
In March 1964, Rather told author John Mayo that he was stationed along the expressway and saw the motorcade speed past after the shooting. This version of events was later published in Mayo’s book,
Bulletin from Dallas: The President Is Dead
. Rather then stated in his 1977 book,
The Camera Never Blinks Twice
, that he was in fact next to Dealey Plaza (on the other side of a railroad overpass) when the shooting occurred. Wood insists that Rather was at KRLD-TV when Kennedy was shot. It’s confusing. But Rather did great work.

270 “Let’s get on the air”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, p. 202.

270 but the cameras needed ten or fifteen minutes to warm up:
Walter Cronkite interview, Archive of American Television, April 28, 1994.

270 the studio lights weren’t “hot”:
Bliss,
Now the News
, p. 336.

270 “Here is a bulletin from CBS News”:
“As 175 Million Americans Watched . . . ,”
Newsweek
, December 9, 1963.

271 “We beat NBC onto the air”:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 305.

271 It was also Smith who first used the term
grassy knoll
:
Gary Mack (curator), “The Man Who Named the Grassy Knoll,” Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, mcadams.posc.mu.edu/gk_name.htm (accessed October 31, 2011).

271 As the crisis deepened, Eddie Barker, news director of KRLD-TV:
Small,
To Kill a Messenger
, p. 135.

272 “Because of Barker and Rather,” Cronkite claimed:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, p. 202.

272 CBS stayed live for fifty-five hours:
Small,
To Kill a Messenger
, p. 136.

272 when a crisis occurred, “the adrenaline pumps”:
“Cronkite Talks of Regents and Doing the Job,”
Lancaster
(PA)
New Era
, April 12, 2000.

272 “I don’t even recall the spots”:
“As 175 Million Americans Watched.”

273 “Walter ate all of this up”:
Author interview with Sandy Socolow, September 18, 2010.

273 Jackie Kennedy’s pink Chanel suit being saturated with blood:
Gary Mack (Sixth Floor Museum) to Douglas Brinkley, December 25, 2011.

273 “I was in shock”:
Richard Goldstein, “Robert Pierpoint, 86, Dies; CBS News Correspondent,”
New York Times
, October 24, 2011.

273 “let them see what they’ve done”:
Smith,
Grace and Power
, p. 442.

273 He felt a “chill”:
Bliss,
Now the News
, p. 337.

274 “Even if you are right (and God help you if you are wrong)”:
Rather and Herskowitz,
The
Camera Never Blinks Twice
, p. 120.

275 “Whoever said talk is cheap”:
Sperber,
Murrow: His Life and Times
, p. 684.

275 “I was really just a disreputable character”:
Walter Cronkite oral history interview, p. 452, WCP-UTA.

276 “From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official”:
CBS News transcript, “The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy as Broadcast on the CBS Network,” November 22, 1963, vol. 1, p. 24.

276 “We knew it was coming”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, p. 203.

276 “It was touch and go there for a few seconds”:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 305.

276 Cronkite explained that “the psychological trauma” didn’t touch him:
Walter Cronkite interview, Archive of American Television, April 28, 1999.

276 Unbeknownst to Cronkite, Vice President Johnson had been whisked:
Jim Bishop,
The Day Kennedy Was Shot
(New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1968), pp. 269–70.

277 “I think we just kind of intuitively knew what to do”:
“JFK: Breaking the News,” extended interview (transcript) with Eddie Barker, Online
NewsHour
, Public Broadcasting Service, November 20, 2003, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/kennedy/ barker.html.

277 “When the news is bad, Walter hurts”:
“A Man Who Cares,”
Newsweek
, March 9, 1981.

278 “This is Walter Cronkite, and you’re a goddamn idiot”:
Frank,
Out of Thin Air
, p. 187.

278 “Unfortunately, that Park Avenue lady drove me mad”:
Oriana Fallaci, “Walter Cronkite Says What He Can’t Say on Television,”
Look
, November 17, 1970.

279 “We were not challenged”:
Author interview with Lew Wood, January 9, 2012.

279 “It was an easy shot”:
Wood, “Dallas and JFK,”
Reporter’s Notebook
, November 20, 2008.

279 made history by airing a two-hour telecast:
CBS Television Network Program Logs, November 1–November 30, 1963, CBS News Archives, New York. Also A. R. Hogan to Douglas Brinkley, August 2, 2011.

279 Cronkite steadied the 70 million friends of CBS News:
Miller and Runyon, “And That’s the Way It Seems,” p. 23.

280 CBS News
did
have a camera at the Dallas police department:
Bliss,
Now the News
, p. 339.

280 ABC didn’t broadcast Oswald’s death:
Gary Mack to Virginia Northington, November 14, 2011.

280 “One of the great misfortunes at CBS was that we were off”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, p. 203.

280 “the national hearth”:
George Rosen, “Television Responds with Its Finest Hour,”
Variety
, November 27, 1963.

280 93 percent of U.S. homes with televisions were tuned in:
Bliss,
Now the News
, p. 340.

280 “to involve an entire population in a ritual process”:
Marshall McLuhan,
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), p. 293.

281 “It is said that the human mind has a greater capacity”:
“Cronkite Broadcasts: Moon Landing, JFK Death,” MSNBC, http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/31972354/ns/today-entertainment/t/cronkite-broadcasts-moon-landing-jfk-death/ (accessed July 3, 2011).

281 “Walter was really in his element”:
Author interview with Sandy Socolow, September 18, 2010.

282 They’d go immediately to their Apple laptop:
M. G. Siegler, “In the Age of Realtime, Twitter Is Walter Cronkite,”
TechCrunch
online, November 27, 2009.