Last month we lost the moonwalker. Today we lost the man on the moon.
Walter Cronkite, dead at 92, had a long physical life but his forever legacy is trust. Plain and simple, Cronkite was more credible in his journalistic career than most any American president.
Why did we trust him so? We loved him for his avuncular status in our living rooms when watching the Big Three networks -- his was CBS -- was a family vocation. The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite glides off the tongue. The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric jolts the senses. Perfection to perky. No wonder the news-hungry eyeballs twitched and went surfing online.
Uncle Walter took his craft seriously and delivered the news, whether good (moon landing) or bad (JFK assassination). He was made for black and white television. It allowed the viewer to focus on the message. He did not like the 24-hour news cycle. He thought it captured the mind like a little pill. Good news delivery is deliberative and measured, dare I say, thoughtful. It can't be netted second to second or tweeted from bar to poolside.
Uncle Walter did not allow his political leanings to overshadow his devotion to facts at hand. He, like his CBS compatriot Edward R. Murrow, believed that truth was the best propaganda. If you allow the facts to speak for themselves, you don't have to worry about the packaging.
Today we're bombarded by pseudo pop journalists from the TMZ celebrity twits to Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat. I can't believe that my week began with subjecting myself to the pornographic unfunny Bruno (es ist schrecklich) to ending with the announcement of Walter Cronkite's death.
President Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said: "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America," in reference to Cronkite's criticism of the Vietnam war. We may laugh at, "If I've lost Borat, I've lost middle America," but not one real journalist comes to mind to serve as our collective American conscience today.
Perhaps we need a new BC (before Cronkite) and AC (after Cronkite), because that's the age we're in. Not AC 360.
Over the weekend much will be said about "there will never be another" or "we won't see his like again." Funny, we've spent the last three weeks saying the same about an American entertainer. Well make some room, MJ. There will never be another in American journalism. Michael Jackson stayed true to his fans and Walter Cronkite stayed true to his viewers. Both loved what they did and that passion for their respective crafts came through.
The summer of 2009 will be remembered as when the American 20th century died.