That's The Way It Was: Walter Cronkite

Watching the memorial to Walter Cronkite brings so many thoughts. The evolution of television, his reporting of some of history biggest moments, his other projects like "The Twentieth Century."

Television and I grew up together. As I watched his coverage of the 50's, I remembered watching many of those stories at grandmother's house. The Pettits had television several years before we did, but then they bought us our first television, and we could watch the news every night in our own living room. I have always been a news junkie, and Cronkite was riveting. In retrospect, he inspired me to love politics, history, popular culture. His curiosity and objectivity about everything probably set the stage for my own independent political leanings and my fascination with popular culture.

I have been around radio and television since I was a kid. Microphones, cameras, video have all morphed as technology has changed. Newspapers are reaching the end of their cycle. Television studios are becoming automated. A huge television news staff died way before Walter Cronkite. We are looking at the media of the future. Computers, ipods, podcasts, news to your phone and Kindle will be all part of our future.

Cronkite would definitely be on my list of 4 people in history I would invite to a dinner party. He could not have been the newsman he was without being a world-class listener. Much of media today is weak in the listening department. Cronkite had a respect for details and was a master of research. Would that be common or true today.

I was fascinated by the people who had spent time with Cronkite and counted him as a close friend--Mickey Hart, Robin Williams, George Clooney, President Johnson, and a long list of newsmen, politicians, and television people. We were all blessed by his presence.