That's the Way It Was

"That's the way it is."

I just read the news, online: Walter Cronkite died. I called my kids in to sit down in front of the computer. They were in the other room watching television, my son with the remote, flipping through channels whenever a commercial came on the show they were watching.

I told them about a phone call I got one day in 1992, "Hello Jeff, this is Walter Cronkite." Hearing his voice on the phone was unmistakable and exciting. Walter had been asked to introduce a film I made about Brooke Astor in honor of her 90th birthday. He was not willing to introduce it unless he saw it and thought it worthy of her. I understood it was nothing personal. I was also a bit stunned as I realized the voice I, and millions of Americans got the news from was speaking directly to me.

"It's a fine piece of reality film making. In a short time, you really captured who she is and what she's about. I would be proud to introduce your film at Mrs. Astor's party."

Hearing that from Walter Cronkite filled me with pride. Telling my kids that story seventeen years later still made me feel proud. His death made me feel sad. He lived a long life. Ninety two years is a good run. I'm not sad about that. I am saddened by the reminder of how far television news has fallen since he left the air.

I wanted my teenage kids to watch a few examples of what the news was like when I was their age. I went to YouTube, something else I couldn't have done back then. We watched Cronkite interview President Kennedy about the Vietnam War. Listening to the interview, I was struck by how a part of my lifetime has become part of the history my kids are learning about in school.

I then put on the clip of Cronkite's coverage of the Kennedy assassination. Cronkite took off his glasses as he announced, "From Dallas Texas, the flash, apparently official, President Kennedy died at one pm central standard time, two o'clock, eastern standard time, some thirty eight minutes ago." There were six seconds of silence. Cronkite bit his lower lip, fighting back tears, he put his glasses back on, then continued reporting.

"Wow", said my son. "That was so quiet and so powerful."

Cronkite had a mustache. He wore glasses. In today's focus group driven media, that would never be tolerated. If you were casting a movie today, he wouldn't be cast as the newsman. Neither would David Brinkley, Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid or Ted Koeppel. No one was particularly handsome, cute or perky, but they all had journalistic credentials.

There were no graphics with dramatic soundtracks, no crawl of meaningless information going across the screen during the report. The coverage was direct, to the point -- powerful. You were supposed to pay attention to the story, not have your attention splintered over competing stimulus whose net effect is to numb rather than make aware. News wasn't meant to entertain, it was meant to inform.

"I wish the news was like that now," said my daughter.

That's the way it was.

Comments

[RooneyTunes]

Jeff....what a nice tribute to "America's Most Trusted Person" made so much more poignant by your own personal interaction with him and the lesson learned by your children. Cronkite's moment of reporting the passing of JFK remains to me one of the most powerful moments in US media history. It represents a certain 'passing' of the U.S. that used to be following the impact of the Kennedy-Nixon debates, Camelot and the assassination. I liked the manner you chose to bridge these generational gaps in technology, culture and media......EDUCATE. The kids could see for themselves the difference in how news was given then versus now. Rather than bitch and moan about things used to be...simply show how things COULD BE and the youth of today will find their own way to bring quality and sincerity to the news world.

[AndrewAnthony]

Great article!
I wonderful recount of a very respected man. What is also nice to hear is that we have outlets like youtube so that we can educate the youth on our country's past.

[MrRex]

As I recall the news it was presented quietly, and quickly.... matter-of-factly might be used to describe the delivery. When Cronkite showed emotion on the day of JFK's assassination I recall I was very moved and touched; someone had actually "broke" over the news.
Network news still attempts to do this but on cable I often feel I am watching mud wrestling. Shouting, guffawing, facial contortions, name calling, and just bad manners in general dominate what passes for news reporting. I am sorry for this; we are not well served by this kind of news delivery; it is personality over content.
Sorry Walter, Ed, Eric we've not maintained the integrity of you early efforts. I miss the quiet.

[Mephili]

I watched the movie 'Network' recently. It came out 1976. It has the repeating line 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore'. The movie had fantastic for 1976 news stories. Some people who watched it then thought news would never be like that. It is. In 1976, news was crazy entertainment much as it is today. It was sad to lose Walter Cronkite. There will probably never be another like him for a long time if ever.

[jennyjen]

I took my son who was in his mid-twenties at the time to see "Good Night and Good Luck". He did not believe that news anchors ever really talked to us like Edward R Murrow did in the movie. As if we were intelligent educated people. I proved to him that some of the script was taken verbatim from actual broadcasts. May I suggest that you sit down with your children and re-watch this wonderful film?

As a former resident of New Orleans I was glued to cable news in the week following Katrina. I was disgusted by the way the broadcasts used old footage day after day as background for news stories. Uhhh I was watching the news to find out what was happening currently - not 2 or 3 days ago. Also for anyone familiar with the city it was hard to watch them use footage from the wrong part of town to illustrate their supposed "news" stories.

Can you image Walter Cronkite EVER allowing this to happen on his watch?

[Mehe04]

Walter was a great man and you wrote a fitting tribute to him! I think you are right, on occasion, we need to enlighten the current generation with people who helped build our foundation for the future!

[jenniewhite]

It gives hope to other Gen-Y's when children like yours have that kind of response. There are a lot of us "kids" out there who, think the news has become too much of an entertainment spectacle. Walter Cronkite came into our living rooms at night and strictly reported the news without overdoing it.

[Cleanerman]

Yes, those were the good old days of decent news presentation. There are more points of view offered to the public today, but apart from that, the 24 hour "news" is embarrassing because it is more entertainment than just news. And the presentation of news is unbecoming-- pure rant, little "humanity" or empathy of any kind plays a role. Because of this, I do not watch TV news or listen to radio--I read my news online.

[leanandsuperfit]

Progress - It really is double-edged. We are born to strive for it. It's not always better but a lot of it is. But there is a trade off along the way.