What an anchorman should be

[ellid]

Walter Cronkite is seriously ill and not expected to recover.

Not everyone who reads this blog was alive, or aware, when Walter Cronkite was the anchor for the CBS Evening News. Not everyone belonged to a family that watched CBS (mine tended to go for the Huntley/Brinkley report on NBC). But trust me: when they say that Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in America, believe them. He was calm, steady, and a consummate professional, and we have not seen his like in thirty years.

He will be greatly missed.

Comments

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

I remember Cronkite as the CBS anchor (we were a CBS family). He really set the standard.

[blaecstan.livejournal.com]

Damn. I thought he died a while ago. Didn't realize that he was still alive.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

The only thing that Huntley and Brinkley had that was better was their theme music. Beethoven is pretty hard to top. ;)

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

Beethoven is pretty hard to top. ;)

I would beg to differ (Machaut, anyone? How about Ockeghem?), but yes, that NBC News theme was cool (evidently we were a Huntley/Brinkley household, too).

[ellid.livejournal.com]

*wonders what the evening news with Guillaume de Machaut would sound like*

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

And alas, his passing will be eclipsed by that of a disturbed boy.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Yep. Same thing with poor Farrah Fawcett, who faced a dreadful disease with tremendous courage and grace, and whose passing was completely eclipsed by Michael Jackson.

It makes me think of a verse from Warren Zevon's song "Splendid Isolation" -

Michael Jackson in Disneyland
Don't have to share it with nobody else
'Lock the gates, Goofy, take my hand
And lead me through the World of Self.'

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

Yanno, I don't think he did it on purpose :->

[ellid.livejournal.com]

I really hope it wasn't completely intentional...but the plastic surgery was so extreme that one wonders.

Very, very sad story.

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

I really hope it wasn't completely intentional...

I don't think even MJ was enough of an attention wh0re that he would kill himself to steal publicity from another entertainer :->

Jocularity aside, it's possible that his self-image problems resulted in an eating disorder that threw his electrolytes so out of whack that a heart attack was inevitable--which would make him responsible, in a way, for his own death, but that isn't the same as "intentional."

OTOH, maybe he offed himself because he was drowning in debt--we won't know for a few weeks, in either case....

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Oops, misunderstood - *blushes*

I think it will turn out to be the result of too many drugs, poorly prescribed. For all his faults, by all accounts Jackson loved his children and likely wouldn't have left them alone this way.

[knitprincess.livejournal.com]

Oh noes! And I have to say, if I were a celebrity, I would get my affairs in order. Carradine, Ed McMahon, Farrah and Michael Jackson, now Cronkite! Good heavens.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Oh, no! Poor man.

I wish him a peaceful passing when it's his time. He will be deeply missed.

Oh, I'm old enough to remember him well...

[lillian78.livejournal.com]

And he just engendered respect you know? The type of trust for his character and even handedness that you just don't see now a days in any field. More's the pity. Kudos to the gentleman and I don't use that word lightly.

Re: Oh, I'm old enough to remember him well...

[varianor.livejournal.com]

Wonderful sentiment! So well put. I second it.

[xrian.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. Yes, definitely an icon of my growing up.

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear that but he had a good, long life. For me, growing up in the 60s, Cronkite was the news.

[orphandani.livejournal.com]

I remember growing up listening to Mr. Cronkite. He always managed to make it understandable. I'll miss that most of all.