Print Says Goodbye to 'America's Anchor'

The man who defined television network news was remembered and honored today -- in print.

Front pages across the country reported the news that Walter Cronkite, former anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News," died Friday night at his home in New York. He was 92.

"America's Iconic TV News Anchor Shaped the Medium and the Nation," says this morning's Washington Post. Cronkite was the anchor of America's first half-hour TV news program. In an appreciation and a column, The Post noted Cronkite's authoritative but calm delivery and a rapport with viewers that garnered him the title "the most trusted public figure in the United States" in 1973.

Before spending 20 years as CBS News anchor, Cronkite's career included radio, public relations and the wire service United Press. Today's Houston Chronicle noted that Cronkite was raised in Houston and got his journalism start there. As a high school student, he delivered The Houston Post. He later wrote for the newspaper. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, a fact The Austin American-Statesman mentioned in its headline. He dropped out to pursue journalism full time.

Cronkite worked in news and sports at KCMO radio in Kansas City. But he was part of the KC media scene long before then, The Kansas City Star reported. His biography noted that at the age of 9, he peddled the Star, making about 10 cents a week.

He loved newspapering but saw the potential of a new medium -- television.

In all, the reporter and anchor covered five decades of history, including stories that defined generations -- the assassinations of JKF, his brother, Robert, and MLK; man's first landing on the moon; and the Watergate scandal.

Cronkite's signature sign-off was "And that's the way it was" followed by the date. Said The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, "most Americans took him at his word."