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Cronkite (2012)

Tekijä: Douglas Brinkley

JäseniäKirja-arvostelujaSuosituimmuussijaKeskimääräinen arvioMaininnat
3261279,223 (3.87)3
Biography & Autobiography. Nonfiction. HTML:Douglas Brinkley presents the definitive, revealing biography of an American legend: renowned news anchor Walter Cronkite. An acclaimed author and historian, Brinkley has drawn upon recently disclosed letters, diaries, and other artifacts at the recently opened Cronkite Archive to bring detail and depth to this deeply personal portrait. He also interviewed nearly two hundred of Cronkite's closest friends and colleagues, including Andy Rooney, Leslie Stahl, Barbara Walters, Dan Rather, Brian Williams, Les Moonves, Christiane Amanpour, Katie Couric, Bob Schieffer, Ted Turner, Jimmy Buffett, and Morley Safer, using their voices to instill dignity and humanity in this study of one of America's most beloved and trusted public figures.
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Näyttää 1-5 (yhteensä 12) (seuraava | näytä kaikki)
I found this biography mediocre, pulling its punches far too frequently to present Walter Cronkite in the most positive light, despite hinting at the American news icon's wandering middle-of-the-road politics, overweening ambition and often unremarkable achievements. Between the lines, the book silhouettes the more impressive careers of his (apparently resented) coworkers Eric Sevareid, Dan Rather and especially Ed Murrow. It was interesting to discover how often Cronkite knowingly tailored his slant on newscasts to suit his employers'/ government's/ own career ambitions: propaganda about claimed American successes in WWII, the space-race and Vietnam. The CBS News team I watched across the Canadian border as a child provided the best internal political analysis on American TV and a strong position against Jim Crow politics in the US south, but the avuncular Cronkite seems to have been too often an uncritical and deferential publicist for Eisenhower, NASA, Johnson and even Nixon while shaping his image as an 'anchorman' (more accurately termed in British English a 'newsreader'). Tellingly, this biography uses the word 'beloved' 17 times to describe its subject. ( )
  sfj2 | Dec 21, 2023 |
Summary: The biography of Walter Cronkite, from his early reporting days, his United Press work during World War 2, and his years at CBS, including his nineteen years on the CBS Evening News, and his “retirement years,” where he came out as a liberal.

I grew up with “Uncle Walter.” I was a fourth grader when John F. Kennedy was assassinated and watched as Walter Cronkite walked us through the days that followed, from his initial announcement of the death of Kennedy, removing his glasses and sitting in silence, connecting with the stunned response of all of us. I watched the unfolding of the Vietnam war, which Cronkite declared, after visiting the front lines in 1967, a “stalemate.” He covered the horrors of 1968 from the deaths of Kennedy and King through the turbulent 1968 Democratic convention. With the world, I watched the orbiting of the moon on Christmas eve in 1968, and the landing on the moon in the summer of 1969, accompanied by his characteristic “Oh, boy!” Watergate, the fall of Saigon, the Iran hostages, and that final sign off in March of 1981. “That’s the way it is.”

Douglas Brinkley chronicles all of this in this outstanding biography, and so much more. He covers the shaping and the rise that made him “the most trusted man in America.” We follow him from his sports reporting forays, his unfinished college career at UT Austin, his radio news experience at KCMO, and the pivotal opportunity of becoming night editor at the United Press office in Kansas City, that honed his instincts as a news hound both careful with the facts and eager to be the first to break the story that would go with him for the rest of his life. Then the war came, and through persistence he won the opportunity to cover the war in Europe for the United Press on the front lines, flying in a bombing run, and with troops in northern Africa, on D-Day, and the Battle of the Bulge, first meeting Andy Rooney as part of the “Writing 69th.” His bombing dispatch caught the attention of Edward R. Murrow, who thought he’d succeeded in recruiting Cronkite to CBS only to have him renege, still believing print was the thing.

Murrow tried again and Cronkite joined CBS in the fifties to cover the Korean War. Returning stateside, he failed as the host of CBS’s version of the Today show, hosted “You Are There,” a weekly show in which Cronkite would interview historical figures or cover events like the Boston Tea Party. It was in 1956 that he found his true calling as anchor of CBS television’s political convention coverage, first earning the nickname, “Old Ironpants” for his stamina.

We learn about the complicated relationship with Edward R. Murrow, the dean of broadcasters, both mentor and rival. Cronkite continued to accumulate achievements, polishing his TV credentials with the coverage of the Mercury 7 astronauts and his relationship with John Glenn. Murrow left CBS at Kennedy’s request to lead the US Information Agency. When it became apparent that Douglas Edwards was coming to the end of his tenure, the rivalry became fierce. In the end Cronkite won over Eric Sevareid, who did offer commentary at the end of newscasts for a time, Charles Collingwood, Charles Kuralt, and Howard K. Smith. Cronkite was Paley’s choice, and for nineteen years anchored the CBS Evening News.

Brinkley covers the team of people who worked with Cronkite, perhaps Richard Salant as news director, and a young, ambitious reporter by the name of Dan Rather. He describes the slow, upward climb to supplant NBC’s top position in the news ratings. He recounts the decisive role Cronkite played in changing the narrative about Vietnam, after passing along the administration version in 1965 and 1966, how he served to “platform” the story Woodward and Bernstein were putting together about Watergate, and his role in bringing Sadat and Begin together.

Brinkley offers an unvarnished account of how difficult Cronkite’s retirement was and his bitterness toward Dan Rather, his successor, who cut him out of opportunities to continue to contribute, despite Rather’s flagging ratings. They would never reconcile. Freed of the reporter’s commitment to neutrality, his own liberal views came to the fore, brought on, in part, by the movie, Network. In later years, he would rail on the war on drugs, and argue for the legalization of marijuana.

Betsy Cronkite, Walter’s wife of 65 years comes through as a force in her own right, often traveling with Cronkite, and helping him keep perspective. I was also surprised to learn that two of his close friends were Mickey Hart, drummer for the Grateful Dead, who encouraged Cronkite’s drumming, and Jimmy Buffett. I never knew Cronkite was either a “Deadhead” or a “Parrothead.” Buffett was actually at Cronkite’s death bed, playing songs, which he also did at his funeral.

Brinkley gives us a portrait with warts and all. Cronkite was absolutely tenacious about both getting the facts straight and getting the story out, and he succeeded so well at this because of his relentless pursuit of the reporter’s disciplines. He had a kind of “common touch” that came from middle-American roots but his credibility was earned and not just because of an “on air” personality. Yet he was contemptuous of some of his rivals, both Murrow and Rather. He liked to carouse, and while he gave opportunities to women like Connie Chung and Katie Couric, he was a bit of a chauvinist, still enjoying the company of his “old boys.”

Reading this account makes one wonder whether such news coverage is possible today, and perhaps wistful for a different time. Cronkite did not have to deal with a 24/7 news cycle on cable TV and the internet and the increasingly partisan character of many news outlets. I suspect he would have done what he did, pursue the facts and work at getting the story out both quickly and right. What this biography reminds me of is why we did not have the epistemic crisis in the Cronkite years that we face when it comes to the news today. Back then, you trusted Cronkite, and he warranted that trust. We didn’t ask, “who can you trust?” Today that sounds incredibly naïve. Sadly, today it is. ( )
  BobonBooks | Apr 16, 2023 |
Douglas Brinkley’s Cronkite is a well-researched biography about one of journalism’s most admired anchormen. Walter Cronkite was born in St. Joseph Missouri as an only child on November 4, 1916. As a young man he attended the University of Texas, Austin. In the 1930’s he broadcast sports at KCMO, a Kansas City radio station where he met his wife Betsy Maxwell. Cronkite worked as a broadcaster for eleven years at WKY, Oklahoma City, and was married in the 1940’s.
During World War Ⅱ he was with the United Press, stationed in Europe, and was bureau chief in Moscow. He covered the Nuremberg Trials. It was Edward R. Murrow who was instrumental for him being hired at CBS. And Cronkite was assigned to WTOP-TV in Washington DC. He worked on CBS’ The Morning Show. In the 1950’s he did a TV series “You Are There” and he interviewed famous people. Cronkite became anchor of the CBS Evening News from 1962 until his retirement in 1981.
In the 1960’s he interviewed John F. Kennedy on the CBS Evening News. On November 23, 1963 Cronkite announced Kennedy’s death on CBS News. In his career he covered Dwight D. Eisenhower Return to Normandy –“D-Day Plus 20 Years” a program aired in 1964. As an anchorman Cronkite covered Apollos 11 and 13, visited the Great Wall with President Richard Nixon in 1972, reported on Watergate, the Vietnam War as a war correspondent, and the Iran hostage crisis. In retirement Cronkite became a special correspondent who did cultural affairs programs and documentaries for PBS, the Discovery Channel, and other networks. ( )
  erwinkennythomas | Apr 20, 2020 |
Fokkows Cronkites life from birth to death. Gives great insight into how he became America's most Trusted Man. A great deal of insight into politics of the time as well as the backbiting that goes on inside CBS. Dan Rather is not portrayed as a nice person. ( )
  LindaLeeJacobs | Feb 15, 2020 |
I have read a lot of biographies, and have come to believe that the lives of nice guys often make for dull reading, but CRONKITE, a bio of the iconic anchor of the CBS Evening News, by Douglas Brinkley, made me rethink that assertion. This is one fascinating account of a great American life, and an excellent mini history of American culture from the Depression era to the Internet Age, and how the country got their daily news in a time of tremendous technological change, and more importantly, how Americans reacted to it all, in short, how we made the news, and how the news made us. If like me, you are a fan of THE POWERS THAT BE, David Halberstam’s epic account of the rise the mainstream media in the 20th Century, then much of CRONKITE will read like a sequel to that book, especially Halberstam’s sections on William S. Paley’s CBS.

If ever there was an icon, it was Walter Cronkite, “Uncle Walter” as was known to millions during his more than 20 years on the air as “the most trusted man in America.” Brinkley does a masterful job of telling us how this came about, while also giving us a portrait of a fully human man, and a great journalist from his early roots in Missouri and Texas to his rise as a network anchorman – a job he virtually invented – to his years at the top of his game and beyond. Cronkite found his calling early, and it was a love of journalism, of being the first to get a story, to get the facts, and get them before the public. Cronkite was a natural at the job of reporter, and covering World War II from Great Britain for UPI gave him an invaluable opportunity to hone his skills. It was more than being just a good print reporter, Cronkite had a smooth voice and the ability to ad-lib, skills that served him well on radio, and when the chance came, even better on TV. After the war, he went to work at CBS, where he would go on to supplant the legendary Edward R. Murrow as the face of the Tiffany Network’s news division. But as Brinkley tells it, success was hard work and long hours, as it took more than a few years for Cronkite to surpass Huntley-Brinkley over at NBC, who were for years the evening news ratings champions. The Kennedy assassination, the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, the space program (one of Cronkite’s many passions), the landing on the moon, Watergate, and all the other massive stories of the 60’s and 70’s get plenty of print, but what I enjoyed was getting the behind the scenes newsman’s view of those stories, as how they were covered would often become as controversial as the story itself. That Walter Cronkite always strove for objectivity is something Brinkley makes clear, but he also implies that many of the big stories of the 60’s, especially the Vietnam War and the crusade for equal rights, often pitted one set of values cherished by Americans against another set of equally cherished values. On any given day, nightly news viewers would see something that would deeply anger and offend them, and in time, many of them would turn against the messenger, but through most of it, Cronkite retained his dignity, stayed cool on the air, and managed to retain cordial relations with Presidents and those in power, the exception being Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, but they hated everybody.

For me, the most interesting parts concerned the big stories many consider Cronkite’s finest hours, starting with the Kennedy assassination, the event where network news came of age, which gave us the iconic sound bite where Cronkite pauses, takes off his glasses and then announces the President’s death after getting it confirmed by the hospital – a piece of film that has turned up on every single retrospective on that terrible day in Dallas ever since. I couldn’t help but have respect for Cronkite after reading how he went to Vietnam during the 1968 Tet offensive and covered that battle up close, going into harm’s way countless times – despite being the most well paid newsman in America, he still went into a war zone to get the real story. This set the stage for him to go on TV and tell the American public that after years of fighting, there was no light at the end of the tunnel in South Vietnam, and that the stalemate would only end in a negotiated settlement. It says something that Lyndon Johnson, who could hold a grudge, remained on good terms with Cronkite afterward. His relationship with NASA is detailed, an organization for which he was often accused of being a cheerleader, though there is no denying his genuine enthusiasm for the space program and the lunar landing in 1969. There is no getting away from the issue of bias, which was festering even back in the glory days of the 60’s, and though Walter Cronkite strove hard to be objective on air, there is no denying CBS was less than fair to Barry Goldwater in 1964, but it was hardly the bastion of social liberalism conservative critics would later claim, as Brinkley makes it plain that Cronkite took his time when it came to feminism and gay rights. Long after he left the anchor’s chair, Cronkite became a vocal supporter of left wing causes, opposing the Gulf War, and later, George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, and supporting the legalization of marijuana, and right wingers would push back, claiming it was only Uncle Walter showing his true colors.

I liked Brinkley’s writing style, the chapters are well laid out, covering a specific period of time and a series of events, working in personal details, like Cronkite’s love of sailing, good drink, a bawdy joke, his home life, where he was a loving, but a far too absent husband and father, though his marriage would be a strong one to the end. In one part, the author does not mince words when dispensing with Bill Moyers’s criticism of CBS’s Vietnam coverage, while laying out a damning case that Dan Rather was one insecure jerk. The book came out a few years ago, and in some places it is telling, as when the now gone and forgotten FOX news host, Bill O’Reilly, is quoted. We also get the picture that there is little loyalty at CBS, no matter who is in charge, Murrow was pushed toward the door in the last years of his career, and Cronkite was often given a cold shoulder in his retirement.

I think Brinkley’s book does a good job of proving that Walter Cronkite is still relevant decades after he gave up the anchor’s chair and nearly a decade since his death; he stood for an objective standard, and for a pact with his viewers that implied that he would not lie, nor knowingly miss lead them. Today, people get their news from social media; or a cable channel that that totally supports their world view in every way; it’s a world where you can pick your facts and choose your truth, and live a life without anyone challenging your beliefs. That this is a disaster waiting to happen, if it not already, is clear to anyone who can take a step back and see things for what they are; once upon a time, men like Walter Cronkite came into homes each evening at dinner time, and told us just that. Journalists who had earned our trust and it was returned in kind. Those days are gone, and their absence is a gaping hole only a few seem notice. There is no Walter Cronkite now to tell us, “That’s the way it is.” What a shame. ( )
  wb4ever1 | Dec 5, 2018 |
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If we cannot produce a generation of journalists - or even a good handful - who care enough about our world and our future to make journalism the great literature it can be, then "professionally oriented programs" are a waste of time. Without at least a hard core of articulate men, convinced that journalism today is perhaps the best means of interpreting and thereby preserving what little progress we have made toward freedom and self-respect over the years, without that tough-minded elite in our press, dedicated to concepts that are sensed and quietly understood, rather than learned in schools - without these men we might as well toss in the towel and admit that ours is a society too interested in comic strips and TV to consider revolution until it bangs on our front door in the dead of some quiet night when our guard is finally down and we no longer kid ourselves about being bearers of a great and decent dream. - Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway
The stalwart kingpin of CBS News . . . Walter Cronkite, who has earned for himself, and in turn for CBS that which we have wanted from the very start of our News Division: the highest degree of credibility in the world of journalism . . . Walter has been so characterized - if not immortalized - with the oft-heard line: "If Walter says it, it must be so." - William S. Paley
When the history of journalism is written about our era, it will be divided into separate eras - B.C. and A.C. - before Walter Cronkite and after Walter Cronkite. And the great division here is that Walter had in spades what today is lacking in huge proportion - and that is trust. It's probably hard for Walter himself to fathom how the profession of journalism has declined in public trust and, I'm bound to say, public esteem since he left it. But the decline has been sharp and precipitous. In a profession, as with currency, it's good to have a gold standard, and Walter is simply the gold standard of network, national, shared news experience. - George F. Will
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(Prologue) When novelist Kurt Vonnegut heard that, on March 6, 1981, after nearly nineteen years of service, Walter Cronkite was retiring at sixty-four years old from his job as anchorman of the CBS Evening News, he wrote a heartfelt paean for The Nation titled "A Reluctant Big Shot."
Of all Walter Cronkite's boyhood adventures, the one that was seared in his memory clearest was his first airplane flight, in 1923.
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Biography & Autobiography. Nonfiction. HTML:Douglas Brinkley presents the definitive, revealing biography of an American legend: renowned news anchor Walter Cronkite. An acclaimed author and historian, Brinkley has drawn upon recently disclosed letters, diaries, and other artifacts at the recently opened Cronkite Archive to bring detail and depth to this deeply personal portrait. He also interviewed nearly two hundred of Cronkite's closest friends and colleagues, including Andy Rooney, Leslie Stahl, Barbara Walters, Dan Rather, Brian Williams, Les Moonves, Christiane Amanpour, Katie Couric, Bob Schieffer, Ted Turner, Jimmy Buffett, and Morley Safer, using their voices to instill dignity and humanity in this study of one of America's most beloved and trusted public figures.
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