Remembering Walter Cronkite: 1916-2009

    Iconic CBS newscaster Walter Cronkite has died at the age of 92.
    New York Times writer Douglas Martin puts it nicely on the Times' web front, describing Cronkite as the man "who pioneered and then mastered the role of television news anchorman with such plain-spoken grace that he was called the most trusted man in America."
    At Beat the Press we're lucky to have some first-hand insight about Cronkite through our host Emily Rooney, whose father, Andy Rooney, was a longtime colleague of Cronkite's at CBS News.
    According to Emily, the pair eventually became close friends, especially over the last few decades, playing tennis and sailing together often on Cronkite's boat. Once they were in a bookstore on Martha's Vineyard when Andy Rooney asked the sales clerk: Got anything by Saul Bellow?
    "No, but that's Saul Bellow over there for Chrissakes!" Cronkite snorted. The Nobel-prizewinning author was over on the other side of the bookstore.
    Emily, who saw Cronkite regularly at social occasions, says the legendary newsman had no hidden, goofy side. Off-air, he was the same serious, dignified, and reassuring man that he was in front of the camera. He was also intensely and genuinely interested in other people's opinions on issues of the day.
    "You knew when he wanted to have a discussion, because he would lean in toward you and really listen to what you had to say," Emily says.
    As Cronkite got older, he remained bright and lucid. "He never lost his fastball," she says. But he did lose his hearing, which made it more difficult him later in life to participate in the serious conversations he loved so much.
    Cronkite died from complications of dementia, the Times has reported.