A biography for Walter Cronkitehasn’t been written yet.
“For heaven's sakes, in the newspaper days, when we had competing newspapers, and the newsstands sale was as important as the circulation - as the agreed-upon circulation, whatever you call that - in those days, why, gosh, the sensationalism was tremendous.”
“With police wielding unprecedented powers to invade privacy, tap phones and conduct searches seemingly at random, our civil liberties are in a very precarious condition.”
“With all this dolling up and featuring of the news, it's getter harder and harder just to get the facts of the story.”
“We need not only an executive to make international law, but we need the military forces to enforce that law and the judicial system to bring the criminals to justice before they have the opportunity to build military forces that use these horrid weapons that rogue nations and movements can get hold of - germs and atomic weapons.”
“I suppose popularity is measured by ratings. If a broadcaster is known as the leader because of ratings, then that's where people most want to be seen and heard, so there's no question that there's an advantage.”
“In the early stages of our involvement in Vietnam, basically I felt that our course was right. My concern grew with the concern of the American people.”
“On television, I tried to absolutely hew to the middle of the road and not show any prejudice or bias in any way.”
“I think it'd be great if the evening news broadcast, for instance, were unsponsored and unrated.”
“There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free.”
“I certainly think cameras ought to be in courtrooms.”
“Arianna Huffington has exercised her renowned wisdom to give journalism another boost along the ever busier Internet. Her blog site promises to be an interesting challenge for those of us lucky enough to be invited to participate with our occasional contributions.”
“I haven't quite got the hang of this retirement thing.”
“I can swear on a stack of Bibles that not once in doing the 'CBS Evening News' for 19 years - well, I take it back. Once perhaps. But during 19 years, with perhaps one exception, was I ever aware of any political or commercial pressure on that broadcast whatsoever.”
“I'm one of the best condensers in the business.”
“There were a few youthful fishing trips, but I never enjoyed the experiences, partly because I didn't like hurting the bait.”
“Beyond being timely, an obituary has a more subjective duty: to assess its subject's impact.”
“I am a news presenter, a news broadcaster, an anchorman, a managing editor - not a commentator or analyst.”
“I think we are realizing that we are going to have to have an international rule of law.”
“I wanted to have more time to play and reflect, but I find retirement more stressful than having a nice, steady job because I have to make decisions about where I want to be.”
“I think there are a lot of good pieces that can be covered in 20 minutes that don't need an hour, but by the same token, there are things that need an hour or more.”