As the world mourns the loss of one of television's great newsmen I thought I would post this excerpt from an article written by Paul O'Neil, the late great writer, Roxmor resident and father of WCA member Mike O'Neil.
"Millions of people would find a political convention, a state funeral, a national election or a moon shot as curious, if Walter Cronkite did not describe it to them on TV, as a World Series without an umpire. Armies of them consider him their one constantly credible source of information in an era of complaints, deception and social uncertainty. Columnist Art Buchwald was less facetious than he may have believed, during the Apollo 10 flight, when he described Mrs. Buchwald's reaction to the words “son of a bitch” as muttered from deep space by Astronaut Eugene Cernan. “What's happening?” she cried (or so Art told his readers). “What is it Walter?” And, on being reminded that Cronkite was not, after all, in charge of the mission: “He's the only one I have faith in. What do the rest of them know?”
The age of TV has not yet produced that race of creatures predicted by the late Fred Allen: “People with eyeballs as big as grapefruit and no brains, no brains at all.” Many Americans no longer read newspapers, however, and communicate with the world solely through their picture tubes. Cronkite is appalled by this reliance on so narrow a channel of information-even though a great many of the wrongdoers are getting their news from him. Cronkite's professional reputation is based on rigorous objectivity-a refusal to inflict his own opinions of the viewing public-but the real flavor of the man stems from those very areas of private conviction and personal anomaly which never emerge on the TV screen."
- Paul O'Neil
Life Magazine March 26, 1971
