"news, and often regularly included ""feel-good stories"" or humorous reports as the last items on their newscasts, as opposed to news programs transmitted thirty years earlier, such as the ""CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite"". From their beginnings until around 1995, evening television news broadcasts continued featuring serious news stories right up to the end of the program, as opposed to later broadcasts with such anchors as Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Diane Sawyer. News broadcasts in the United States were initially transmitted over the radio. NBC began broadcasts in November 1926, with CBS entering production on the 25th of"
"that time. On February 14, 1980, Cronkite announced that he intended to retire from the ""CBS Evening News""; at the time, CBS had a policy of mandatory retirement by age 65. Although sometimes compared to a father figure or an uncle figure, in an interview about his retirement he described himself as being more like a ""comfortable old shoe"" to his audience. His last day in the anchor chair at the ""CBS Evening News"" was on March 6, 1981; he was succeeded the following Monday by Dan Rather. Cronkite's farewell statement: On the eve of Cronkite's retirement, he appeared on"
"he ended the newscast with opinion or commentary. Beginning with January 16, 1980, Day 50 of the Iran hostage crisis, Cronkite added the length of the hostages' captivity to the show's closing in order to remind the audience of the unresolved situation, ending only on Day 444, January 20, 1981. Cronkite is vividly remembered for breaking the news of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy on Friday, November 22, 1963. Cronkite had been standing at the United Press International wire machine in the CBS newsroom as the bulletin of the President's shooting broke and he clamored to get on the"
"other news presenters bore the title before him. Cronkite anchored the network's coverage of the 1952 presidential election as well as later conventions. In 1964 he was temporarily replaced by the team of Robert Trout and Roger Mudd; this proved to be a mistake, and Cronkite returned to the anchor chair for future political conventions. From 1953 to 1957, Cronkite hosted the CBS program ""You Are There"", which reenacted historical events, using the format of a news report. His famous last line for these programs was: ""What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those"
"hands together on camera with a smile and uttering, ""Whew...boy"" on July 20, 1969, when the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission put the first men on the moon. According to the 2006 PBS documentary on Cronkite, there was ""nothing new"" in his reports on the Watergate affair; however, Cronkite brought together a wide range of reporting, and his credibility and status is credited by many with pushing the Watergate story to the forefront with the American public, ultimately resulting in the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon on August 9, 1974. Cronkite had anchored the CBS coverage of Nixon's address,"
"as the United Press main reporter in Moscow from 1946 to 1948. In 1950, Cronkite joined CBS News in its young and growing television division, again recruited by Murrow. Cronkite began working at WTOP-TV (now WUSA), the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.. He originally served as anchor of the network's 15-minute late-Sunday-evening newscast ""Up To the Minute"", which followed ""What's My Line?"" at 11:00 pm ET from 1951 through 1962. Although it was widely reported that the term ""anchor"" was coined to describe Cronkite's role at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, marking the first nationally televised convention coverage,"
"source to the AP. UP reporters were called ""Unipressers"" and were noted for their fiercely aggressive and competitive streak. UP (and later UPI) became a common training ground for generations of journalists. Walter Cronkite, who started with United Press in Kansas City, gained fame for his coverage of World War II in Europe and turned down Edward R. Murrow's first offer of a CBS job to stay with UP, but who later went on to anchor the ""CBS Evening News"", once said, ""I felt every Unipresser got up in the morning saying, 'This is the day I'm going to beat"
"Artists left the network without an immediate substitute. For 13 days, Zenker delivered the ""CBS Evening News"", telling viewers that he was ""sitting in for Walter Cronkite"". After the strike ended, Cronkite returned on April 11, 1967, and opened with the words, ""Good evening. This is Walter Cronkite, sitting in for Arnold Zenker. It's good to be back."" Once the strike ended Zenker returned to his former post. After that he went on to host a variety of television and radio shows in Boston and Baltimore and worked at one time in labor relations at ABC. Zenker founded the company"
"arrest. He was 62 years old. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. Bill Stout William Job ""Bill"" Stout (September 4, 1927 in Illinois – December 1, 1989 in Los Angeles, California) was an American broadcast journalist. A veteran for over thirty years, Stout's career began after World War II at the ""Los Angeles Times"", from which he moved to CBS News. Stout moderated Richard Nixon's press conference following his defeat in the California governor's race in 1962. Stout became a frequent stand-in for famed CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite. In"
"a game show based on news events. During the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956 Cronkite hosted the CBS news-discussion series ""Pick the Winner"". Another of his network assignments was ""The Morning Show"", CBS' short-lived challenge to NBC's ""Today"" in 1954. His on-air duties included interviewing guests and chatting with a lion puppet named Charlemane about the news. He considered this discourse with a puppet as ""one of the highlights"" of the show. He added, ""A puppet can render opinions on people and things that a human commentator would not feel free to utter. I was and I am proud"
"Cronkite was often cited as the ""most trusted man in America."" After Cronkite's retirement in 1981, Dan Rather became the anchor of ""CBS Evening News"". He was joined by co-anchor Connie Chung from 1993 to 1995. ""ABC Evening News"" began airing in 1953, hosted by John Charles Daly. Daly had been a well-known CBS radio correspondent, though today he is best remembered as the emcee of CBS's long-running game show, ""What's My Line?"", which he hosted while serving as ABC's anchorman. Daly left ABC in 1960 and was succeeded by a frequently expanding list of successors that included John Cameron"
"Walter Cronkite on CBS television with a commentary about the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the road ahead for the new president, Lyndon Johnson. From 1964 to his 1977 retirement from the network, Sevareid's two-minute segments on the ""CBS Evening News"" inspired those who admired him to dub him ""The Grey Eminence."" During his long run as a commentator, his segments earned both Emmy and Peabody Awards. In 1987, he was honored as an inductee to the Academy's Fourth Hall of Fame. Those who disagreed with his views nicknamed him ""Eric Severalsides."" Sevareid recognized his own biases, which caused"
"evening news casts as well. In the early and mid-1950s, Hite was narrator of several short films for RKO Pictures, including one of Stanley Kubrick's early works, ""Flying Padre"". Bob Hite announced the opening bumper for CBS's color programs starting in 1966, replacing fellow staff announcer Hal Simms who had voiced the same bumper the year before. But his most famous television credit was as announcer for the ""CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite"" beginning in 1971, and continuing until his retirement from the network in 1979. Hite died at a Hospice in West Palm Beach, Florida at age 86."
"and Managing Editor of ""The"" ""CBS Evening News"". Rather assumed the position upon Cronkite's retirement, making his first broadcast on March 9, 1981. From the beginning of his tenure, it was clear that Rather had a significantly different style of reporting the news. In contrast to the avuncular Cronkite, who ended his newscast with ""That's the way it is"", Rather searched to find a broadcast ending more suitable to his tastes. For one week in September 1986, with CBS the target of potentially hostile new ownership, Rather tried ending his broadcasts with the word ""courage"" and was roundly ridiculed for"
"Bill Stout William Job ""Bill"" Stout (September 4, 1927 in Illinois – December 1, 1989 in Los Angeles, California) was an American broadcast journalist. A veteran for over thirty years, Stout's career began after World War II at the ""Los Angeles Times"", from which he moved to CBS News. Stout moderated Richard Nixon's press conference following his defeat in the California governor's race in 1962. Stout became a frequent stand-in for famed CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite. In the early 1960s, Stout hosted a half-hour TV series, ""Line of Sight"", in which he aired his commentaries on current news"
"bulletins as they were handed to him, and recapping the events as they were known. He also related a report given to reporters by Texas Congressman Albert Thomas that the President and Governor were still alive, the first indication of their condition. At 2:00 EST, with the top of the hour station break looming, Cronkite told the audience that there would be a brief pause so that all of CBS' affiliates, including those in the Mountain and Pacific time zones which were not on the same schedule, could join the network. He then left the radio booth and went to"
"the craps table betting against the line,"" he said on ""Larry King Live"". ""If government suddenly became inspiring... we would be the happiest people in the world to turn our attention to idiots like, you know, media people, no offense."" In July 2009, ""Time"" magazine held an online poll entitled ""Now that Walter Cronkite has passed on, who is America's most trusted newscaster?"" Jon Stewart won with 44% of the vote, 15 points ahead of Brian Williams in second place with 29%. Stewart downplayed the results on the show stating ""It was an Internet poll and I was the 'None"
"At its peak RLTV was available in 29 million homes in the US. John Palmer was a host until he died in 2013. Florence Henderson was also a host until she died in 2016. RLTV documented the last on-air footage of Walter Cronkite in the form of a series of editorials known as the ""Cronkite Chronicles"". Retirement Living TV, LLC announced the network would wind down operations as a traditional network, a process that ended around December 31, 2017. However, RLTV has stated that it will continue to produce content, and will launch a streaming channel for Apple TV, Roku"
"although they are on the same network. On December 8, 2009, CBS canceled the series after almost 54 years, with the series finale airing on September 17, 2010, making it the last Procter & Gamble soap opera to end. On November 22, 1963, the live CBS broadcast of ""As The World Turns"" began as always at 1:30 EST. In this episode, the Hughes family was discussing plans for Thanksgiving. Ten minutes later, a ""CBS News Bulletin"" slide suddenly came up on the screen and Walter Cronkite gave the first report of the assassination. At the end of this bulletin, CBS"
"unsure about how much of an impact his editorial report had on Johnson's decision to drop his bid for re-election, and what eventually convinced him that the President had made the statement was Bill Moyers, fellow journalist and former aide to Johnson, telling him ""The president flipped off the set and said 'If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America.'"" Several weeks later, Johnson, who sought to preserve his legacy and was now convinced his declining health could not withstand growing public criticism, announced he would not seek reelection. During the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Cronkite was anchoring"
"presidential candidate Richard Nixon gave a press conference, with Murrow and Cronkite in the anchor booth for CBS. Producer Don Hewitt told him to remove his headset and place it on Nixon so that Murrow and Cronkite could speak to him directly. He did so, handed Nixon his microphone, and told him ""Walter Cronkite and Ed Murrow want to talk to you."" Nixon went on the answer their questions, audible only to him. This practice of placing headsets on personalities to talk to Cronkite became a CBS trademark and joke. The last election he covered for CBS was in 1960,"
"were saying in private that ""widespread and deep changes in attitudes, a sense that a watershed has been reached."" A great deal has been said by historians concerning how the news media made Tet the ""turning point"" in the public's perception of the war. Popular CBS anchor Walter Cronkite stated during a news broadcast on February 27, ""We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds"" and added that, ""we are mired in a stalemate that"
"the anchor desk in the newsroom. Within twenty seconds of the announcement, every CBS affiliate except Dallas' KRLD (which was providing local coverage) was airing the network's feed. The camera was finally operational by this time and enabled the audience to see Cronkite, who was clad in shirt and tie but without his suit coat, given the urgent nature of the story. Cronkite reminded the audience, again, of the attempt made on the life of the President and tossed to KRLD news director Eddie Barker at the Dallas Trade Mart, where Kennedy was supposed to be making a speech before"
"News"" on September 2, 1963, when the show was expanded from 15 to 30 minutes, making Cronkite the anchor of American network television's first nightly half-hour news program. Cronkite's tenure as anchor of the ""CBS Evening News"" made him an icon in television news. During the early part of his tenure anchoring the ""CBS Evening News"", Cronkite competed against NBC's anchor team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, who anchored the ""Huntley-Brinkley Report"". For much of the 1960s, the ""Huntley-Brinkley Report"" had more viewers than Cronkite's broadcast. A key moment for Cronkite came during his coverage of John F. Kennedy's"
"contradicted by press reports as journalists made their way into the city and reported on the extent of PAVN/VC control and the bitter house-to-house fighting that was underway. On 10 February 1968, CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite visited southern Huế to film footage for a special report on the Vietnam War. The ""Report from Vietnam: Who, What, When, Where, Why?"" screened on 27 February 1968, Cronkite closed the report with the editorial comments: After watching Cronkite's editorial report, President Lyndon Johnson is purported to have said, ""If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."" This account has been questioned in"
"the ""predominant news voice in America."" Affectionately known as ""Uncle Walter,"" he covered many of the important news events of the era so effectively that his image and voice are closely associated with the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the Watergate scandal. ""USA Today"" wrote that ""few TV figures have ever had as much power as Cronkite did at his height."" Enjoying the cult of personality surrounding Cronkite in those years, CBS allowed some good-natured fun-poking at its star anchorman in some episodes of the network's"
"a psychological victory, definitively turning American public opinion against the war effort. Iconically, Walter Cronkite of CBS news, voted the nation's ""most trusted person"" in February expressed on the air that the conflict was deadlocked and that additional fighting would change nothing. Johnson reacted, saying ""If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America"". Indeed, demoralization about the war was everywhere; 26% then approved of Johnson's handling of Vietnam; 63% disapproved. Clark Clifford, the new Defense Secretary, described the war as ""a loser"" and proposed to ""cut losses and get out"". He was supported by most of the ""Wise Men,"" who"
"his anchor desk in New York City, would give a few words on what was about to happen. An announcer would then give the date and the event, followed by a loud and boldly spoken ""You are there!"" At the end of the program, after Cronkite summarizes what happened in the preceding event, he reminded viewers, ""What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times... all things are as they were then, and you were there."" The program was seen again on Saturday morning as a videotaped color"
"then switched to Pete Clapper on Capitol Hill for an interview with the Senate's press liaison. Moments later, the interview was interrupted by Gardiner's report of the President's death: ABC Radio then returned to orchestral music. At 2:00 p.m. EST, Walter Cronkite moved from the CBS Radio flash booth, to his desk. The static CBS news bulletin bumper which had been on the screen for the last several minutes as Cronkite filed audio reports was now replaced by a live image of him, since a camera was now warmed up and ready to broadcast. Any CBS affiliates that had not"
"are largely lost. Moving images of Walter Cronkite reading the news in his studio every night for six years (1962-August 2, 1968) are mostly gone. Exceptions are his coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 and the November 1963 tragedies in Dallas, Texas: the JFK assassination, the shootings of police officer J. D. Tippit and Lee Oswald and all three funerals, as well as his introduction of the Beatles and his criticism of the Vietnam War. Douglas Edwards anchored the live five-minute segment ""The CBS Afternoon News"" five afternoons a week between 1962 and 1966. He started the"
"it. He eventually found a wrap-up phrase more modest than Cronkite's and more relaxed than his own previous attempt; for nearly two decades, Rather ended the show with ""That's part of our world tonight."" Rather also held other positions during his time as anchor. In January 1988, he became host of the newly created ""48 Hours"" and in January 1999, Rather joined the new ""60 Minutes II"" as a correspondent. While Rather had inherited Cronkite's ratings lead, the success of the ""Evening News"" with Rather at the helm fluctuated wildly. After a dip to second place, Rather regained the top"
"be tolerated."" These issues preceded the departures of Murrow, Smith, and ultimately Downs himself. He later wrote in a letter to Eric Sevareid: ""At least I can shout to the world this—I'm my own midget. The mistakes will be my mistakes—the failures will have my fiat—the successes, if any or none, will not be subject to people who worry about thick lenses, long noses, or advertising agency or affiliate bias."" He ultimately resigned as State Department correspondent for CBS in March 1962 during a shakeup that also saw the replacement of Douglas Edwards with Walter Cronkite as the anchor of"
"was known for hiring Walter Cronkite when he was a graduate student to work for him. Kennedy ran the station on a shoestring budget. He believed in giving anyone who wanted to learn the principles of good television journalism the chance to train on the job. As a result, over the years the station served as a training ground for recent college graduates. Due in part to the extremely high turnover—even considering the size of the market—the station's newscasts were constantly at the bottom of the ratings. The notable exception was the noon news, which was anchored by Walter Furley"