Walter cronkite biography reviews on spirit

“A majestic biography. One can only wonder what he would think about cable stations (Fox News), programs (“Nancy Grace”) and “professionals” (Glenn Beck) who pass themselves off as providing news in a 24/7 society.

In a tome such as CRONKITE, one can expect to discover heretofore unknown issues that never would have come to light otherwise; such things were not discussed in more polite/discreet eras.

Presidents and other officials feared him --- not because he was mean-spirited, but because he had earned such trust from his audience. . And that’s the way it is."

Like many of his contemporaries, Cronkite got an early start, working for his school paper and paying his dues as a reporter with various news services as he honed his craft almost literally in the trenches during World War II.

It was there that he came under the eye and mentorship of Edward R. Murrow, whom he one day would replace as CBS’ top anchor. 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.

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.

. . . . . . 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.

If only we had Walter Cronkite today.” — Tina Brown, Newsweek

“Cronkite’s career has vast scope, and cumulative effect of this book is illuminating, not only about the man himself but also about the way he filtered history for a nation.” — Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“An ambitious and deeply researched biography.

Brinkley also delves into Cronkite’s private life, to an unprecedented yet respectful degree. Back then, you trusted Cronkite, and he warranted that trust. There’s no denying his influence on American history: his special reports from Vietnam alerting an American audience that the nation was mired in a war it could not win was a significant factor in President Lyndon Johnson’s decision not to seek reelection.

When Cronkite retired as the anchor of “CBS Evening News,” he left a void not just in the network, but in the industry as a whole.

He writes affectionately of his childhood and avuncularly of the young self in whom he locates the roots of the man he became.