i apologize. we want to end the program with the words of the man who in his day was the most trusted name in news. >> a press corps of 500 and we have television and radio standing by and atop that rocket colonel john glen standing by. >> man on the moon. >> the eagle has landed. >> boy. we are going to be busy for a moment. if you are justing joining us this is "ac 360." sad news. nay may have shared little in

common except for this, every weeknight at 7:00 p.m. invited walter conkite. he was 92. i grew up watching him. so did anderson. >> for so long, for so many of us he was the most trusted man in america. >> that's the way it is. >> walter cronkite covered in the world and changed in world as well. >> looking back on it i think i was so lucky to fall into the right things at the right time. >> he was born walter layland cronkite jr. in 1916. he was a beat reporter and football announcer before joining united press. when the first troops stormed normandy he was there. >> as dwight eisenhower told me

sitting on the stray wall of the 20th anniversary of d-day, he thinks of the grandchildren these young kids will never have. that is something for all of us to think about. >> when we think of walter cronkite, and generations will continue to, we think about his tenure in cbs, a company he joined in 1950. 12 years later he became the anchor of the "cbs evening news." he defined what an anchor was. he told america the way it was. who could forget, november 22, 1963, cronkite reported on the tragedy. >> president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central dard time, some 38 minutes ago. >> in 1968 after returning to a trip to vietnam, his conclusions

may have helped alter the course of history. >> it seems the bloody experience of vietnam is to end in a stalemate. >> the opinion reached president johnson who reportedly said if i lost cronkite i lost middle america. >> his approach to news was when news happens get as close to the story as you possibly can and tell people about it in language they can understand. walter spoke like the average person, not literary, flowery language. >> walter, it seemed, was always there. for the moon landing. >> man on the moon. oh, boy. >> thank you. >> for watergate, for the mideast peace break through. he was humble and honest and straight forward and never made himself the story. even on a winter day in 1981 when he sat in the anchor chair for the last time.

>> old anchormen don't fade away they keep coming back for more. that's the way it is, friday, march 6, 1981. i will be away on assignment and dan rather will be sitting in for the next few years. good night. >> good night mr. cronkite, good night and god speed. anderson cooper, cnn, new york. >> anderson coomer reflecting on walter cronkite. late reaction from president obama saying "walter was more than an anchor. he was family. he invited us to believe in him. he never let us down. this country lost an icon and a dear friend and he will be truly missed. president obama on walter cronkite who died at the age of 42, days short of the 40th anniversary of man walking on the moon. you heard his reaction, oh, boy. one of the many moments when his voice wasn't just that of a newsman delivering the facts but a trusted friend, sometimes taken with the moment, sometimes

overcome with emotion. as you saw on that fateful day in dallas, my mom who left us too soon long ago once told me i was a baby boy on her lap when she watched this. >> from dallas, texas the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time. 2:00 eastern standard time, some 38 minutes ago. vice president johnson has left the hospital in dallas but we do not know to where he has proceeded. presumably he will be taking the oath of office shortly and become the 36th president of the united states. >> don lemon was there.

don hewitt, help us understand what the man meant, not to cbs news, but to the country. like telling many americans their president had been killed. >> we learned a lot from walter cronkite. i believe every historic moment during the time he and i worked together i learned from walter cronkite. he was a newsman's newsman. there was nothing fancy about him. he didn't even look the part. he looked like walter cronkite, which was a great thing to look like. it's difficult to say too much about walter cronkite because i don't think there will be another one. >> don, help me understand, he was the voice for so many

americans of what was happening at a time when the country was being so foreign apart, vietnam the violence of the civil rights movement, the john kennedy assassination, the bobby kennedy assassination the martin luther king assassination. at a time when the country was being so torn apart how was it a man emerged as a unifying voice? >> he was a voice of calm. walter didn't allow his emotions to get in the way of his reporting. and he reported -- he reported as one of the great reporters of all time. he told a story, told it well and didn't embarrass you. >> what was the secret? what was he like when you were getting in the final crunch before a newscast goes on the air, what's in, what's out

what's the lead? what was walter's secret? >> we usually had a conference. two or three of us would sit down with walter and decide what we would do. when that meeting was over walter would tell us what he was going to do and we had very little to argue with him. >> you run "60 minutes." we live in the age of internet, cable, television and blog. there is a fair amount of shouting. we know walter didn't like. what are the lessons we need to keep in our business that would honor walter cronkite's legacy? >> calm. walter was calm about everything. walter didn't get caught up in the emotions of a moment. he rose above the assassinations

and all the moments that were shaped the times we lived in. he did it calmly and intelligently and, you know, there were an awful lot of potential walter cronkites. there was only one real walter cronkite. very well put. don hewitt. we thank you for your thoughts and reflections. walter cronkite was a newsman, a gentleman. he set the gold standard for journalism. dan rather who took over the anchor chair released this statement, i'm saddened to hear of walter's passage. he loved reporting and delivering the news and he was superb at both. dan rather tonight. i spoke with katie couric, the current anchor of the "cbs

evening news." katie couric, you are the current anchor of "the cbs evening news." you sit in walter cronkite's chair. how does that feel? >> well, john, it is a huge responsibility and slightly intimidating when i took this job and for a number of days we've known at cbs news that walter was in failing health and we were all worried about when this day would come. and he was so revered and so beloved here. i have read so much, john, in recent days and throughout my career about walter. i have been reminded only recently what incredible man and journalist he was. i mean, he was the personification of integrity and decency and humanity. i think that is one thing that struck me as i watched some of

the earlier broadcasts of the past. when he announced that president kennedy had died it was so moving to see his body language and his facial expressions. and similarly, the glee he exhibited when, you know, he was anchoring a space launch. he had an adolescent enthusiasm, it's been said, about the space program. this unbridled joy in terms of reporting that story and a huge interest in science as well. but i think he really connected to the audience. sometimes you think about television as being this sort of stiff, stilted profession. particularly when walter was at the helm. but what struck me was how natural he was. in his early days before the era of teleprompters, he would write a few notes on cards and speak extemporaneously to the

audience. you can't find many anchors who are capable of pulls that off. >> speaking with the country not at the country might have been part of his gift. i want to take you back to time. he go on the air in february 1968 and says the united states is mired in a stalemate. president johnson told his aides if i have lost cronkite, i have lost middle america. will any television anchor ever have that power? >> i don't think so. you know, it was a very different period of time there was no cnn. no 24-hour news cycle. he often talked a bit disparagingly about 24 hour news and saying people get a till of news. 24 hours a day, no offense to you or cnn, but he did wield incredible influence because he was so trusted. >> joining us on the phone,

morleis safer and bob schieffer. walter con cite's legacy is? >> quite simply his legacy is he in a way created what we now regard as broadcast news. and he did it with a kind of -- i don't know how quite to describe it, a very ordinary, commonplace grace that really no one has quite duplicated. you can't duplicate that. you've got it or you don't. walter had it. it is really interesting to me that this mythology of being the most trusted man in america. well, it's not a myth. he probably was just about the most trusted man in america and people felt he never betrayed that trust.

he had that kind of dead honest simplicity about him, on the air and off the air, by the way. i mean, he was devoted to the craft there is no question. one thing no one has mentioned is how much fun he was off the air. he was the best man i have known to go drinking with. i have been fortunate enough or unfortunate enough to have done it many times. he never lost his old wire service instinct, get the story done and go out and have some fun. >> amen to that. morley, stay with us. bob schieffer, i have been wrestling with this over the past few hours. how did he do it. i know there was no cable television. i don't know how any news anchor

can go through the civil rights movement, vietnam, president kennedy's assassination, bob kennedy's assassination, martin luther king's assassination and keep his calm and keep the trust of the people. >> he not only loved the news and loved covering the news, he had great respect for the news and the people involved with making the news. it sort of came through to people. i have often thought about walter and i think one of the secrets to his success was being the anchor of a major news program is a pretty darn good job when you come right down to it. i think people used to look at walter and say, that is a good job walter has. old walter knows it is a good job and he appreciates having it. i think people understood that. in fact, it was absolutely correct. walter felt very fortunate.

walter had this insatiable curiosity about things and how things worked and this enthusiasm about trying to find out about it and he understood that he had the job that allowed him to talk to all these people who made the news and he liked that. he -- it wasn't just that, you know, he was running around with celebrities or something. he was breasted in what they had to say and why they thought what they thought. that just came through to people. walter never let anything get in the way of the news including himself. >> we are seeing a picture of walter cronkite playing himself standing next to ted knight, ted baxter on "the mary tyler moore show." >> i remember that episode. morely, in the sense of the trust he had then, he clearly didn't like what has happened to much of our business now.

could walter cronkite be walter cronkite in the age of internet and blog something. >> i would like to say he could. there is some safe haven of the delivery of the news. someone who is not a poser in the chair, but gets out and covers the news and as bob says has terrific respect for it and great respect for the people who make news, even some of the rascals. i'd like to think he could. the reality, i guess, is that the country has passed that moment by. neglected it or something. i'm not sure. but -- and you're right. he didn't like what had happened. i think katie mentioned it.

this 24-hour news cycle. i think one of the things that a 24-hour news cycle does to reporters is it takes away their time to think. thinking time is terribly important even if it is only ten minutes to think about what you are going to say. this business of just rattling off stuff doesn't enlighten very much and it certainly doesn't get the best out of the people who are doing the reporting. >> i would just say, walter said to me one time, you know there is nothing that peps up a newscast like a little news. he knew new facts, something people hadn't heard before, he knew you could tap dance and that kind of thing if you are the anchor. but the fact is if you came up with a story that was important that people didn't know about it

was going to get people's attention. that was always walter's great secret. i mean, he didn't let other things get in the way of reporting the news. i want to tell you at 6:25 as that newscast was getting ready to go on the air, if a big story broke walter loved tearing the whole thing apart and getting what he thought the news was right up at the top. he loved that. to him that was what it was all about. because he did, we all -- i mean, we learned from him. we liked it too. >> two damn good newsmen in their own right, morley safer and bob schieffer. >> can i say one other thing. >> quickly, morley, please. >> he was the correspondent's best friend. he was a tough boss and demanding but you felt you had a friend in walter. >> absolutely.

i'm so glad you said. >> i will say we love that in an anchor always. gentlemen, thank you for taking the time. it is a tough night. we appreciate it. morley safer and bob schieffer. one of walter cronkite's army of producers who would go on to fame in her own right. susan zarinski holding in her hand one of the cronkite pieces of history that happened to be american history.

he was the calm voice of the news. on this occasion a voice that moved the nation's center of

gravity. >> if the communist intention was to take and seize the cities they came closer here than anywhere else. now three weeks after the offensive began the firing still goes on. tonight back in more familiar surroundings in new york we would like to sum up our findings in vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective. who wont and who lost in the great tet offensive? i'm not sure. the vietcong did not win by a knock out but neither did we. the referees of history may make it a draw. >> mr. cronkite died tonight at the age of 92. we are joined by the people who knew him and worked with him. susan zarinski was a producer for mr. cronkite. susan, your thoughts on this sad night. >> i think for me, i was 9 years

old when i started in the washington bureau and it was weeks after watergate. what cronkite embodied was the core values of any young journalist. it was unbelievable time. walter was an korring specials. what was so striking about the time was the impact a single voice could have. the "washington post," network television was on night after night. those of us who grew up in that era saw the impact this single man had. people were trusting this man like no one else. we were in their living rooms. walter came into your living room but walter was not about flash. walter was about the story. morley safer and bob schieffer talked about he wasn't a flashy, fancy guy. he was about the core value of the news. i think we live in an era with the proliferation of cable,

fikac sesz by people to information t. great part about having a smaller platform is that you were always heard. it is harder to have a distinctive voice. i'm proud to work at cbs where "60 minutes" is the hallmark of journalism and continues to break new ground. walter was all about that. walter was about the value and knowledge of a story and shedding light. it sounds old fashioned but that is what it was about. >> susan we have talked about so many big nights, kennedy assassination, man on the moon, the turning point in vietnam. walter was a pack rat we are told. that is one of the things you learned from your friend and mentor. you have in your desk a script of another famous night in walter cronkite's life. >> i do, indeed. i feel grateful that i can show it tonight. let me put it up here so you can

see it. the night that nixon resigned, you can see the copy, good evening, the 37th president of the united states resigned today. you can see walter's handwriting on there. the copy was written by a writer named charlie west. i was a researcher. walter cavalierly threw the script into the garbage can. it is the whole script for the night. the special of the night nixon resigned. i fished it out. i had no knowledge of ebay back then. i could have made catch. i have kept hold this script in my possession. i always felt very attached to walter through the years. but holding the copy from a historic night where his handwriting made the changes is a moment that you feel that i have history in my hand. i have walter in my hands. i'm just going to read a little piece of it, which was the last line. it was at the end of the show.

and so virtually on the eve of her bicentennial, the united states has passed through a day of historic drama, a day many of her citizens had been awaiting with dread, a day some fear would shed the fabric of her society. the fear has not continue to past. as president ford said in his acceptance speech, our long national nightmare is over. our constitution works. our great republic is a government of laws not of men. here people rule. this is walter cronkite, cbs news, washington, good night. it doesn't get better than that. this embodies what walter was. taking a dramatic nights and days in history, putting them in perspective and taking the country through history. we are doing our own special, that's the way it was,

remembering walter cronkite. what you are struck with is not only the great journalism of a man, but the fact that we lived as a country through history through the eyes and the voice of this man. i'm incredibly proud to kind of embody walter and have a script like this in my possession, but it is more about the ethics. it is more about who he was and the people, the producers that worked for him, we were film back in the early cronkite days. you were running up floors with reels of film. the technology with ease of information is fantastic but there was no less emphasis on getting it right. you know, you were a little scared of walter. if walter calls during the show, after the show, you were pretty nervous. there was nothing about an advocacy or point of view. for walter, it was the straight

and narrow, we are covering the story, we are covering the news. tell me like it is. i think many of us here at cbs are grateful that those of us who came up through the ranks and many of u.s. exist, are proud to be walter cronkite's disciples. >> susan zirinsky, one of the many cronkite kids at cbs. thank you for your reflections. thank you, take care in the days ahead. >> more on walter cronkite's passing and his pivotal role in this business. brian williams joins us. all that still ahead on "360." ♪ that's just the way it is some things will never change ♪

and that's the way it is, monday december 5, 1977. this is walter cronkite, cbs news, good night. >> reporting from moscow. from the great wall of china. >> reporting from madrid. this is walter cronkite somewhere over the north

atlantic. this is my last broadcast as the anchorman of the "cbs evening news." a moment which i long planned but nerls comes with sadness. after two decades we have been meeting like this in the evenings and i will miss that. >> that was walter cronkite's final broadcast as the anchor on the "cbs evening news." more b on other news. >> indonesian authorities believe suicide bombers are behind the twin hotel bombers in jakarta a that killed six people. eight americans are among the injured. investigators are analyzing surveillance images showing a man in a baseball camp pulling a suitcase toward the marriott's l lobby. iran's most important

clerical back eer criticized th government. the government responded to protesters with violence. unemployment topped 10% in 5 states in june. that is the grim headline. hardest hit, michigan, which became the first state in 25 years to see unemployment rise above 15%. and the website trip adviser is is waging a quiet battle against bogus reviews. hotels involve only a small fraction of the reviews they post. >> walter cronkite died at home in new york. he was 92. he had been ill for a long time. bernie shaw new walter cronkite

as a cbs news colleague. brian williams joins us, the anchor of the "nbc nightly news." bernie, let me start with you, my friend. take me inside cbs news in your heydays of one of the colleagues of this great man. >> john, i'm looking at a letter that walter wrote me, october 29, 1971, very briefly it says dear bernie, congratulations and thanks for that very warm letter. i too have no doubt you have joined the finest of the news organizations. we are a long way from perfection and i know you are sophisticated enough not to let the petty annoyances dim your broader vision of the outfit. our feet may not be of clay, but our little toe is suspect. i'll look forward to seeing you on the evening news. i think about those days, suzanne zirinsky alluded to them. walter was a stickler for facts

and figures. i was a rookie reporter with leslie stahl and connie chung. gerald ford had just become president. in handling the nation's economic problems there was created this federal agency called the pay board. the cbs news bureau at 2020 m street. at the other end of the block this agency existed. i covered this story late on the hill and then i went to the lobby where this agency was and i wrote my script and the cronkite producers in washington talked it over with those in new york and the script was in the show. it was the second story on the cronkite evening news. walter saw a script about 6:20, ten minutes before air time and he did not like the fact that a certain figure was not in my script. all of this now is on videotape. they come to me and say you've got to change this. walter wants this and this.

we were so late that as the announcer was saying direct from our newsroom in new york this is the "cbs evening news with walter cronkite" bernie shaw was still at his typewriter getting the figures correct. we had technicians with cable, stretching it down the street to this federal agency lobby. i had to run down the street and get into position to do this story. that's how tightly we sometimes went with the "cbs evening news." the important thing was to have the story right with the right perspective. >> brian williams, join the conversation because you can help with the challenge that i think i'm failing at all night which is trying to explain to people who did not know this man, he left the anchor chair in 1981, somebody in their 40s or younger watching they might say,

okay. he was a great man who had a great job. why does he matter to me? you have the experience when this great man walked into your home for dinner, explaining to your daughter. >> john, the best way to say it is in the words of a buddy of mine, when cronkite was on in his heyday, he addressed the nation, when he said good evening it was tantamount to addressing the nation. we had three channels in this country. you could almost feel the lights dim in new york when people tuned into cronkite's newscast in the years when they were dominant. they had a heck of a fight from huntley and brinkley in new york. it was palpable. he would put his jacket on seconds before air. he looked the part. he had those eyebrows like the hedgerows our boys fought

through in europe in world war ii. he looked like a news man. he smoked a pipe in the newsroom all day. i was smiling while susan zirinsky was talking. he had a tactile love of the news. he loved paper. he loved copy. he loved getting it from the writers and putting it back in the tray for a rewrite. he was simply the best at what he did and he created the mold. we didn't have an anchor a true anchorman, a lead correspondent leading the gain like we did until cronkite. >> brian and bernie, we don't have much time left. i want you each to take 20, 30 seconds and help me understand. you are news men for whom i have such high respect who have managed the transition between network and the world of cable. bernie, walter didn't like this world that much, did he? >> no, he did not because of the

lack of discipline. one of walter's secrets was he was a investor ration student of history. he used it as a prism for viewers to understand the present. >> brian williams, how do you take your anchor seat every night wanting to be like walter cronkite in a different age? >> knowing the skill set is the same. a reporter is a reporter. when a fire truck goes by our window i am on the fdny citywide scanner. i have to know what the alarm is. i can't live any other way. that is the gene that walter cronkite had. >> walter cronkite called you friends. brian williams, bernie shaw, thank you both, gentlemen. he was one of a kind. walter cronkite in his own words when "360" returns.

back now, looking at the life, the work the legacy of walter cronkite. who died today at age 92. he covered the world and helped changed it. he did what he loved most, reported the news. here is walter cronkite at the anchor desk and beyond in his own words. >> good evening from the cbs news control center in new york. this is walter cronkite reporting. the biggest assignment any american reporter could have so

far in this war. covering the occupation of north africa by american troops. this aircraft is executing a maneuver to make everyone in it temporarily weightless. what are our scientists doing to ensure the survival of the hostile environment in outer space. from dallas, texas, the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time, 2:00 eastern standard time, some 38 minutes ago. >> there seems to be some kind of battle going on over there. >> yes. there is a battle. we can see it directly under our booth. they are carrying a man out bodily by the legs and the arms. it makes us in our anger, i want to turn off our cameras and pack up our microphones and typewriters and get the devil out of this town. the vice president mr. ford,

will become president at noon as we have said. he's already hard at work, of course, in putting his new government together. deputy secretary of state warren christopher briefed president carter today on his two days of talks with aljer yan intermediaries about the american hostages in iran. u.s. officials said late ter process of negotiating with iran through the algerians is working. that progress has been made but there is no expectation of a quick release. mr. president, the only hot war we have going in the moment is the one in vietnam. >> i don't think unless a greater evident is made to win popular support the war can be won. it is their war. >> the administration has not been willing to discuss in public and in detail any of the specific accusations by the nation's press reviewed here tonight. in our next report, the money behind the watergate affair. and that's the way it is, friday

october 27, 1973. >> and that's it the way it is was walter's signature. that was walter cronkite doing what he did best and in many cases did first. let's talk about his impact on the nation. doug brinkley is writing a book about mr. cronkite. doug, if i have this right, you spent part of the day in research looking at the papers of this great man. >> we were talking. i live in austin. we have the bros co center for american history at the university of texas and a man named don carlton a great friend of walter cronkite's was able to get his diaries and papers back to texas. cronkite, of course, grew up in houston and spent some of his early reporting years in austin and went to college here two years and he had a great affinity for austin, texas. one of his daughters lives here. they have a great treasure trove

of papers. in the last few years i have been researching it. walter cronkite is a great window on american history. it is a story of as you have been talking about the upi, but not only was he part of the normandy invasion, covering the nuremberg trials with cbs with the edward r. murrow and vietnam. he saved speeches, correspondence, photographs, press pass, on and on. it is all at the center. they are getting ready at the university of texas in the spring of 2010 to have a big walter cronkite conference. >> doug brinkley, tell us something we don't know about him in the sense this was a man who had dinner with millions of americans every night who held their hands and telling them their president had been shot and killed. martin luther king had been shot and killed. a public man but, of course, in

these papers are things we never knew. like what? >> general comment for example, he was a great admirer of ernest hemmingway's piece the old news man's writers. cronkite believed in the old wireman tap. he used to go constantly read the ap and upa wires and save some and circle them. his notebooks. when you read his notebooks it has a clipped sense, i was looking at one today from vietnam when he went over there. you see each line he is writing source, source, source. i have interviewed people you have had on your show by people like bob schieffer and bill plant i talked to this past week working on my book. they talk about how tough walter cronkite was.

he ran the cbs show, roger mud, schieffer, daniel shore doing investigative work and robert perpoint. it was quite a group around cbs and cronkite was the orchestra leader with all these great players. cronkite loved print reporting and he believed that cbs news television in that era was as fine as any newspaper because people that worked for him had to do the digging and had to read the wires. so i think what people remember about cronkite's voice is for one thing his street voice was the same as his tv voice. it wasn't an act. that was walter cronkite. secondly, when he said something like, named a soldier's name, bob jones died. the way he would say that, you didn't need to have flourishes. you didn't need a lot of language. that's one of the things to me

that comes through when you read his speeches, notes letters, his succinctness of language. >> we so look forward to your continued work and research. you mentioned walter's work for the wire service. i didn't know him well. he knew i came from the ap and he said i would probably because of that experience do okay in this business. probably he said. dan rather had kind words and memories of the man kwhoz chair he filled. we'll hear from dan shortly. that and more, next. imodium multi-symptom relief p) combines two powerful medicines for fast relief of your diarrhea symptoms, so you can get back out there. imodium. get back out there. introducing the all new chevy equinox.

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we just had a chance to talk to the former cbs news anchor dan rather about walter cronkite. here is what dan told us. >> he was literally a living legend and now a legend in memory of the very best in the journalistic craft. in many way, in many important ways he defined the role of the network anchor. >> walter cronkite called by so many the consummate newsman. said soo often it almost sounded like a cliche. almost. at the time when television news was coming of age, his name and

face were linked to so many pivotal times in history. the assassination of john f. kennedy, cronkite described that 40 years later to the former cnn anchorman aaron brown. take a listen. >> how lounge after you got on television did you find out the president had been shot, fatally shot? >> we didn't learn that he had been fatally shot until they announced he was dead. they never gave us a hospital bulletin that he was critical. >> at the airport in dallas the -- and throughout the streets of dallas the dallas police have been augmented by 400 police. >> the magnitude of the moment hit you. you knew this was as serious as anything you had done and television has done. were you nervous? >> no. i don't think so.

no, i wasn't nervous at all. you know, aaron the thing about a situation like that, that you are living through as a living on-air reporter at the moment, at that time the job is everything. you've got to concentrate on doing what you're supposed to do and are trained to do. i think the same thing is true of us news people because i had no personal sense of tragedy in this thing until the moment when i had to say he was dead. from dallas, texas, the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time, 2:00 eastern standard time. some 38 minutes ago.

>> you take off your glasses and you wipe a tear. when you think about that moment now, 40 years later, would you do it differently? >> probably not because that moment was purely extemporaneous in every sense of the word. i certainly, it wasn't -- i hadn't planned to have a tear in my eye at that moment at all. i wouldn't have thought of that. i would never have yielded to that if it had been a thought. >> do you regret it? >> no. i don't regret it at all. not at all. i would have regretted it if i broken down and couldn't have continued. that i would have regretted. but this brief show of emotion was something that i think is perfectly natural. i don't blame a on-air person

for showing emotion. it seems to me that you really don't want people reporting to you who don't have any sense of the emotional impact of a given moment in history. >> you've seen a lot of emotion here tonight from people who dearly miss walter cronkite and honor his legacy. mr. cronkite made history, the defining moments of his legendary career, just ahead. is there anything that the bank can do for you? customers are stressed. so that's why, you know we've adjusted a lot of the different processes we have in place such as rolling out more innovative products to really meet the needs of the customers. we actually move with the economic times. customers who maybe have lost their jobs, we're looking at waiving fees for them. we've introduced add it up. our risk free cd. it's one stop shopping for all the answers they're looking for. you just kind of have to learn to, just you know, just be there. that's how we keep moving.

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sneechl just moments ago the president of the united states reflecting on the life and legacy of walter cronkite. >> that is why we loved walter, in an era before cell phones and cable, walter was the news. this country lost an icon and a dear friend and he will be truly missed. >> the president a short time ago. our shot tonight, the legend walter cronkite. he was there to bring the country reports that changed history. here are some of the defining moments of this iconic career. >> good evening from the cbs news control center in new york. this is walter cronkite reporting. >> the eagle has landed. thanks a lot.

[ laughter ] >> oh, boy. whu. boy. wally, say something, i'm speechless. from dallas, texas, the flash apparently official, president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time, 2:00 eastern standard time. some 30 38 minutes ago. old anchormen, you see, don't fade away they just keep coming back for more that's the way it is, friday march 6, 981. i will be away on assignment and dan rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. good night. >> to that there is not much more to add. part of a beauty of a walter cronkite newscast how much he said in so few words. in that tradition we can only say he will be missed. and that is the way it is.

more coverage on "360" and throughout the morning, next. p<

if you are just joining us this is "ac 360." sad news. millions of americans from all over the country and all walks of life may have shared little in common except for this, every weeknight at 7:00 p.m., invited walter cronkite into their homes. tonight walter cronkite left us. he died at his home in new york. his family by his side. he was 92. i grew up watching him. so did anderson. who remembered him this way. >> for so long, for so many of us he was the most trusted man in america. >> that's the way it is.

>> walter cronkite covered the world and changed in world as well. >> looking back on it i think i was so lucky to fall into the right things at the right time. and it worked beautifully. >> he was born walter layland cronkite jr. in 1916. he was a beat reporter and football announcer before joining united press in 1939. when the first troops stormed normandy, walter cronkite was there. >> as dwight eisenhower told me sitting on this very wall over here on the 20th anniversary of d-day, he thinks of the grandchildren these young kids will never have. that is something for all of us to think about. >> when we think of walter cronkite, we think about his tenure in cbs, a company he joined in 1950. 12 years later he became the anchor of the "cbs evening news."

in that chair n that role, he came to define what an anchor was. he told america the way it was. who could forget, november 22, 1963, cronkite reported on the horror in dallas. >> from dallas, texas, the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time, 2:00 eastern standard time, some 38 minutes ago. >> in 1968 after returning to a trip from vietnam, his conclusions may have helped alter the course of history. >> it seems the bloody experience of vietnam is to end in a stalemate. >> the opinion reached president johnson who reportedly said if i lost cronkite i lost middle america. >> his approach to news was when news happens get as close to the story as you possibly can and tell people about it in language they can understand. walter spoke like the average

person. it wasn't literary flowery language. people didn't talk that way and neither did walter. >> walter, it seemed, was always there. for the moon landing. >> man on the moon. oh, boy. >> thank you. >> for watergate, for the mideast peace breakthrough. he was humble and honest and straight forward and never made himself the story. even on a winter day in 1981 when he sat in the anchor chair for the last time. >> old anchormen don't fade away they keep coming back for more. that's the way it is, friday, march 6, 1981. i will be away on assignment and dan rather will be sitting in for the next few years. good night. >> good night mr. cronkite, good night and god speed. anderson cooper, cnn, new york. >> anderson cooper reflecting on walter cronkite. late reaction from president

obama saying walter was more than an anchor. he was family. he invited us to believe in him. he never let us down. this country lost an icon and a dear friend and he will be truly missed. that is president obama on walter cronkite who died tonight at the age of 92, days short of the 40th anniversary of man walking on the moon. you heard his reaction, oh, boy. he was a fan and made no bones about it. one of the many moments when his voice wasn't just that of a newsman delivering the facts but instead a trusted friend, sometimes taken with the moment, sometimes overcome with emotion. as you saw on that fateful day in dallas, my mom who left us too soon long ago once told me i was a baby boy on her lap when she watched this. >> from dallas, texas the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time. 2:00 eastern standard time, some

38 minutes ago. vice president johnson has left the hospital in dallas but we do not know to where he has proceeded. presumably he will be taking the oath of office shortly and become the 36th president of the united states. >> don hewitt was there for many of those moments and his first as the cane or of the "cbs evening news." don hewitt, help us understand what the man meant, not to cbs news, but to the country. like telling many americans their president had been killed. >> we learned a lot from walter cronkite. i believe every historic moment during the time he and i worked

together america learned from walter cronkite. he was a newsman's newsman. there was nothing fancy about him. he didn't even look the part. he looked like walter cronkite, which was a great thing to look like. it's difficult to say too much about walter cronkite because i don't think there will be another one. >> don, help me understand, he was the voice for so many americans of what was happening at a time when the country was being so torn apart, whether it was vietnam, the violence of the civil rights movement, the john kennedy assassination, the bobby kennedy assassination, the martin luther king assassination. at a time when the country was being so torn apart how was it a man emerged as a unifying voice? >> he was a voice of calm. walter didn't allow his emotions

to get in the way of his reporting. and he reported -- he reported as one of the great reporters of all time. he told a story, told it well and didn't embarrass you. and didn't embellish. >> what was the secret? what was he like when you were getting in the final crunch before a newscast goes on the air, what's in, what's out what's the lead? what was walter's secret? >> we usually had a conference. two or three of us would sit down with walter and decide what we were going to do. by the time that meeting was over walter had told us what he was going to do and we found little reason to disagree with him. >> help me understand, don

hewitt, you now run the legendary "60 minutes." we live the the age of cable, internet and blog. there is a fair amount of shouting. it is fair to say we both know walter didn't like. what are the lessons we need to keep in our business that would honor walter cronkite's legacy? >> calm. walter was calm about everything. walter didn't get caught up in the emotions of a moment. he rose above the assassinations and all the moments that were shaped the times we lived in. he did it calmly and intelligently and, you know, there were an awful lot of potential walter cronkites. there was only one real walter cronkite.

very well put. don hewitt. we thank you for your thoughts and reflections on a great man. walter cronkite was a newsman, a gentleman. as don set, he set the gold standard for journalism. dan rather who took over the anchor chair released this statement, i'm saddened to hear of walter's passage. he loved reporting and delivering the news and he was superb at both. dan rather tonight. just a short time ago i spoke with katie couric, the current anchor of the "cbs evening news." katie couric, you are the current anchor of "the cbs evening news." you sit, not quite exactly, but you sit in walter cronkite's chair. how does that feel every night? >> well, john, it is a huge responsibility and slightly intimidating when i took this job and for a number of days we've known at cbs news that walter was in failing health and

we were all worried about when this day would come. and he was so revered and so beloved here. i have read so much, john, in recent days and throughout my career about walter. i have been reminded only recently what an incredible man journalist he was. i mean, he was the personification of integrity and decency and humanity. i think that is one thing that struck me as i watched some of the earlier broadcasts of the past. when he announced that president kennedy had died it was so moving to see his body language and his facial expressions. and similarly, the glee he exhibited when, you know, he was anchoring a space launch. he had an adolescent enthusiasm, it's been said, about the space program. this unbridled joy in terms of reporting that story and a huge

interest in science as well. but i think he really connected to the audience. sometimes you think about television as being this sort of stiff, stilted profession. particularly when walter was at the helm. but what struck me was how natural he was. in his early days before the era of teleprompters, he would write a few notes on file cards, glance at them and know what the story was and speak extemporaneously to the audience. you can't find many anchors who are capable of pulls that off. >> speaking with the country not at the country might have been part of his gift. i want to take you back to time. he goes on the air in february 1968 and says the united states is mired in a stalemate. president johnson told his aides if i have lost cronkite, i have lost middle america. will any television anchor ever have that power?

>> i don't think so. you know, it was a very different period of time there was no cnn. no 24-hour news cycle. he often talked a bit disparagingly about 24 hour news and said people get a little pill of news and think that's enough 24 hours a day. no offense to you or cnn, but he did wield incredible influence because he was so trusted. >> joining us on the phone, morley safer and bob schieffer. morley safer, let me begin with you. walter cronkite's legacy is? >> well, i think his legacy quite simply is, he in a way, created what we now regard as broadcast news. and he did it with a kind of -- i don't know how quite to describe it, a very ordinary,

commonplace grace that really no one has quite duplicated. you can't duplicate that. you've got it or you don't. walter had it. it is really interesting to me that this mythology of being the most trusted man in america. well, it's not a myth. he probably was just about the most trusted man in america and people felt he never betrayed that trust. he had that kind of dead honest simplicity about him, on the air and off the air, by the way. i mean, he was devoted to the craft there is no question. one thing no one has mentioned is how much fun he was off the air. he was the best man i have known to go drinking with.

i have been fortunate enough or unfortunate enough to have done it many times. he never lost his old wire service instinct, get the story done and go out and have some fun. >> amen to that. morley, stay with us. bob schieffer, i have been wrestling with this as we cover this story this sad story over the past few hours. how did he do it. i know there was no cable television. i don't know how any news anchor can go through the civil rights movement, vietnam, president kennedy's assassination, bob kennedy's assassination, martin luther king's assassination and something less controversial but man on the moon and keep his calm and keep the trust of the american people. how? >> he not only loved the news and loved covering the news, he had great respect for the news and the people involved with making the news.

it sort of came through to people. i have often thought about walter and i think one of the secrets to his success was being the anchor of a major news program is a pretty darn good job when you come right down to it. i think people used to look at walter and say, that is a good job walter has. old walter knows it is a good job and he appreciates having it. i think people understood that. in fact, it was absolutely correct. walter felt very fortunate. walter had this insatiable curiosity about things and how things worked and this enthusiasm about trying to find out about it and he understood that he had the job that allowed him to talk to all these people who made the news and he liked that. he -- it wasn't just that, you know, he was running around with celebrities or something. he was breasted in what they had

to say and why they thought what they thought. that just came through to people. walter never let anything get in the way of the news including himself. >> we are seeing a picture of walter cronkite playing himself standing next to ted knight, ted baxter on "the mary tyler moore show." >> i remember that episode. morely, in the sense of the trust he had then, he clearly didn't like what has happened to much of our business now. could walter cronkite be walter cronkite in the age of internet and blog something. >> i would like to say he could. there is some safe haven of the delivery of the news. someone who is not a poser in the chair, but gets out and covers the news and as bob says has terrific respect for it and great respect for the people who

make news, even some of the rascals. i'd like to think he could. the reality, i guess, is that the country has passed that moment by. neglected it or something. i'm not sure. but -- and you're right. he didn't like what had happened. i think katie mentioned it. this 24-hour news cycle. i think one of the things that a 24-hour news cycle does to reporters is it takes away their time to think. thinking time is terribly important even if it is only ten minutes to think about what you are going to say. this business of just rattling off stuff doesn't enlighten very much and it certainly doesn't get the best out of the people

who are doing the reporting. >> i would just say, walter said to me one time, you know there is nothing that peps up a newscast like a little news. he knew new facts, something people hadn't heard before, he knew you could tap dance and that kind of thing if you are the anchor. but the fact is if you came up with a story that was important that people didn't know about it was going to get people's attention. that was always walter's great secret. i mean, he didn't let other things get in the way of reporting the news. i want to tell you at 6:25 as that newscast was getting ready to go on the air, if a big story broke walter loved tearing the whole thing apart and getting what he thought the news was right up at the top.

he loved that. to him that was what it was all about. because he did, we all -- i mean, we learned from him. we liked it too. >> two damn good newsmen in their own right, morley safer and bob schieffer helping us reflect. >> can i say one other thing. >> quickly, morley, please. >> he was the correspondent's best friend. he was a tough boss and demanding but you felt you had a friend in walter. >> absolutely. i'm so gladieux said that, morley. >> i will say we love that in an anchor always. gentlemen, thank you for taking the time. i know it is a tough night for you both. we appreciate it. morley safer and bob schieffer. reflecting on walter cronkite. one of walter cronkite's army of producers who would go on to fame in her own right. suzanne zirinsky, holding in her

hand one of the cronkite pieces of history that happened to be american history.

he was the calm voice of the news. on this occasion a voice that moved the nation's center of gravity. >> if the communist intention was to take and seize the cities they came closer here than anywhere else. now three weeks after the offensive began the firing still goes on. tonight back in more familiar surroundings in new york we would like to sum up our findings in vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative,

personal, subjective. who won and who lost in the great tet offensive? i'm not sure. the vietcong did not win by a knock out but neither did we. the referees of history may make it a draw. >> walter cronkite there on the vietnam war. mr. cronkite died tonight at the age of 29. we are joined by the people who knew him and worked with him. suzanne zirinsky is the producer of "48 hours mystery" on cbs. she was a producer for mr. cronkite. susan, your thoughts on this sad night. >> i think for me, i was 9 years old when i started in the washington bureau and it was weeks after watergate. what cronkite embodied was the core values of any young journalist. it was an unbelievable time in watergate. walter was anchoring specials.

what was so striking about the time was the impact a single voice could have. the "washington post," network television was on night after night. those of us who grew up in that era saw the impact this single man had. people were trusting this man like no one else. we were in their living rooms. walter came into your living room. yet walter was not about flash. walter was about the story. morley safer and bob schieffer earlier tonight talked to you about he wasn't a flashy, he wasn't a fancy guy. he was about the core value of the news. i think we live in an era with the proliferation of cable, which is fantastic, access by people to information, but the great part about having a smaller platform was that you were always heard. it is harder to have a distinctive voice. i'm proud to work at cbs where "60 minutes" is the hallmark of journalism and continues to break new ground. walter was all about that.

walter was about the value and knowledge of a story and shedding light. it sounds old fashioned but that is what it was about. >> susan we have talked throughout the course of the past couple of hours on cnn, about so many big nights, the kennedy assassination, man on the moon, the turning point in vietnam. walter was a pack rat we are told. that is one of the things you learned from your friend and mentor. you have in your desk a script of another famous night in walter cronkite's life. >> i do, indeed. i feel grateful that i can show it tonight. let me put it up here so you can see it. the night that nixon resigned, you can see the copy, good evening, the 37th president of the united states resigned today. you can see walter's handwriting on there. the copy was written by a er walter cavalierly threw the script into the garbage can. it is the whole script for the

night. the special of the night nixon resigned. i, of course, fished it out. i had no knowledge of ebay back then. i could have made cash today. but i have kept holding this script in my possession. i always felt very attached to walter through the years. because of what i learned and the fact i was a researcher. but holding the copy from a historic night where his handwriting made the changes is a moment that you feel that i have history in my hand. i have walter in my hands. i'm just going to read a little piece of it, which was the last line. it was at the end of the show. and so virtually on the eve of her bicentennial, the united states has passed through a day of historic drama, a day many of her citizens had been awaiting with dread, a day some feared would shed the fabric of her society. but the fear has not come to pass.

as president ford said in his acceptance speech, our long national nightmare is over. our constitution works. our great republic is a government of laws not of men. here the people rule. this is walter cronkite, cbs news, washington, good night. it doesn't get better than that. this embodies what walter was. taking dramatic, amazing nights and days in history, putting them in perspective and taking the country through history. we are doing our own special, that's the way it was, remembering walter cronkite. as you will watch this show, what you are struck with is not only the great journalism of a man, but the fact that we lived as a country through history through the eyes and the voice of this man. i'm incredibly proud to kind of embody walter and have a script like this in my possession, but it is more about the ethics.

it is more about who he was and the people, the producers that worked for him, we were film back in the early cronkite days. you were running up floors with reels of film. every night, everything was at stake. quite frankly, the technology which has given ease of information which is fantastic, but there was no less emphasis on getting it right. you know, you were a little scared of walter. if walter calls during the show, after the show, you were pretty nervous. there was nothing about an advocacy or point of view. for walter, it was the straight and narrow, we are covering the story, we are covering the news. tell me like it is. i think many of us here at cbs are grateful that those of us who came up through the ranks and many of us still exist here. we are proud to be walter cronkite's disciples and carries on his message.

>> susan zirinsky, one of the many cronkite kids at cbs. thank you for your reflections. thank you for sharing that historic script. thank you, take care in the days ahead. >> more on walter cronkite's passing and his pivotal role in this business. and more importantly the lives of so many americans. "nbc nightly news" anchor brian williams joins us and bernie shaw who worked with walter cronkite at cbs. all that still ahead on "360." ♪ that's just the way it is some things will never change ♪ 

and that's the way it is, monday december 5, 1977. this is walter cronkite, cbs news, good night. good evening from paris. reporting from moscow. from the great wall of china. reporting from madrid. this is walter cronkite somewhere over the north atlantic. this is my last broadcast as the anchorman of the "cbs evening news." for me, it is a moment of which i long have planned but nevertheless comes with some sadness. after two decades we have been meeting like this in the evenings and i will miss that. >> that was walter cronkite's final broadcast as the anchor on the "cbs evening news." more on his legacy. first a quick update on some of the other stories. the "360" bulletin. indonesian authorities believed is bombers are behind the twin hotel bombers in jakarta that killed at least six people and wounded more than 50. eight americans are among the injured. investigators are analyzing surveillance images showing a man in a baseball camp pulling a suitcase toward the marriott's lobby seconds before the blast.

minutes later a bomb exploded at the nearby rit carlton. in iran, demonstrations sparked by the most important cleric backer. ras tan jani criticized the leadership for losing the public's trust. the government responded to protesters with violence. unemployment in june topped 10% in 15 states. that is the grim headline out of the department of labor's report. hardest hit, michigan, which became the first state in 25 years to see unemployment rise above 15%. >> and the travel website travel advisor is waging a quiet battle against fake reviews. some hotels post bogus reviews.

they say they involve only a small fraction of the reviews they post. >> walter cronkite died at home in new york. he was 92. he had been ill for a long time. he will be remembered for a long time. bernie shaw knew walter cronkite as a cbs news colleague. brian williams joins us, the anchor of the "nbc nightly news." bernie, let me start with you, my friend. take me inside cbs news in your heydays of one of the colleagues of this great man. >> john, i'm looking at a letter that walter wrote me, october 29, 1971, very briefly it says dear bernie, congratulations and thanks for that very warm letter. i too have no doubt you have joined the finest of the news organizations. we are a long way from perfection and i know you are sophisticated enough not to let the petty annoyances dim your broader vision of the outfit. our feet may not be of clay, but our little toe is suspect. i'll look forward to seeing you

on the evening news. i think about those days, suzanne zirinsky alluded to them. walter was a stickler for facts and figures. i was a rookie reporter with leslie stahl and connie chung. gerald ford had just become president. in handling the nation's economic problems there was created this federal agency called the pay board. the cbs news bureau at 2020 m street. at the other end of the block this agency existed. i covered this story late on the hill and then i went to the lobby where this agency was and i wrote my script and the cronkite producers in washington talked it over with those in new york and the script was in the show. it was the second story on the cronkite evening news. walter saw a script about 6:20, ten minutes before air time and

he did not like the fact that a certain figure was not in my script. all of this now is on videotape. they come to me and say you've got to change this. walter wants this and this. we were so late that as the announcer was saying direct from our newsroom in new york this is the "cbs evening news with walter cronkite" bernie shaw was still at his typewriter getting the figures correct. we had technicians with cable, running out of the front of the bureau, stretching it down the street to this federal agency lobby. i had to run down the street and get into position to do this story. that's how tightly we sometimes went with the "cbs evening news." the important thing was to have the story right with the right perspective. >> brian williams, join the conversation because you can help with the challenge that i

think i'm failing at all night which is trying to explain to people who did not know this man, he left the anchor chair in 1981, somebody in their 40s or younger watching they might say, okay. he was a great man who had a great job. why does he matter to me? you have had the experience of trying to explain like we said earlier, to your daughter when this great man walked into your home for dinner. >> john, the best way to say it is in the words of a buddy of mine, when cronkite was on in his heyday, he addressed the nation, when he said good evening it was tantamount to addressing the nation. not just anchoring the news. we had three choices, three channels in this country. you could almost feel the lights dim in new york when people tuned into cronkite's newscast during the years when they were dominant. they had a heck of a fight from huntley and brinkley in new york. it was palpable.

he loved doing what he did for a living. he would put his jacket on seconds before air. he looked the part. he had those eyebrows like the hedgerows our boys fought through in europe in world war ii. he looked like a news man. he smoked a pipe in the newsroom all day. i was smiling while susan zirinsky was talking. he had a tactile love of the news. gave up his manual typewriter reluctantly. he loved paper. he loved copy. he loved getting it from the writers and putting it back in the out tray for a rewrite as the veterans like lee townsend and john mosedale will tell you. he was simply the best at what he did and he created the mold. we didn't have an anchor a true anchorman, a lead correspondent leading the gain like we did until cronkite. >> brian and bernie, we don't have much time left. we have more colleagues waiting. i want you each to take 20, 30 seconds and help me understand. you are news men for whom i have

such high respect who have managed the transition between network and the world of cable. bernie, to you first, walter didn't like this world that much, did he? >> no, he did not because of the lack of discipline. one of walter's secrets was he was a investvoracious student o history. he used it as a prism for viewers to understand the present. >> brian williams, how do you take your anchor seat every night wanting to be like walter cronkite knowing you work in a different age? >> knowing the skill set is the same. a reporter is a reporter. when a fire truck goes by our window i am on the fdny citywide scanner. i have to know what the alarm is. i can't live any other way. that is the gene that walter cronkite had. >> walter cronkite called you both friend and respected you

both so much. brian williams, bernie shaw, thank you both, gentlemen. he was one of a kind. walter cronkite in his own words when "360" returns.

from the biggest assignment any american reporter can have in this war. covering the occupation of north africa by american troops.

this aircraft is executing a maneuver to make everyone in it temporarily weightless. what are our scientists doing to ensure the survival of the hostile environment in outer space. from dallas, texas, the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time, 2:00 eastern standard time, some 38 minutes ago. >> there seems to be some kind of battle going on over there. >> yes. there is a battle. if you can get over there. we can see it directly under our booth. they are carrying a man out bodily by the legs and the arms. it makes us in our anger, i want to turn off our cameras and pack up our microphones and typewriters and get the devil out of this town. the vice president mr. ford, will become president at noon as we have said. he's already hard at work, of course, in putting his new government together.

deputy secretary of state warren christopher briefed president carter today on his two days of talks with algerian intermediaries about the american hostages in iran. u.s. officials said later process of negotiating with iran through the algerians is working. that progress has been made but there is no expectation of a quick release. mr. president, the only hot war we've got running in the moment is the one in vietnam. >> i don't think unless a greater effort is made by the government win popular support the war can be won. in the final analysis, it is their war. >> the administration has not been willing to discuss in public and in detail any of the specific accusations by the nation's press reviewed here tonight. in our next report, the money behind the watergate affair. and that's the way it is, friday october 27, 1973.

>> and that's the way it is was walter's signature. that was walter cronkite doing what he did best and in many cases did first. let's talk about his impact on the nation. historian and cbs news contributor doug brinkley is writing a book about mr. cronkite. doug, if i have this right, you spent part of the day in research looking at the papers of this great man. >> we were talking. i live in austin. we have a thing called the broscoe center for american history at the university of texas and a man named don carlton a great friend of walter cronkite's was able to get his diaries and papers back to texas. cronkite, of course, grew up in houston and spent some of his early reporting years in austin and went to college here two years and he had a great affinity for austin, texas. one of his daughters lives here. they have a great treasure trove of papers. in the last few years i have been researching it. walter cronkite is a great window on american history.

it is a story of as you have been talking about the upi, but not only was he part of the normandy invasion, covering the nuremberg trials with cbs with the edward r. murrow and the kennedy assassination to vietnam. he saved everything. he saved speeches, correspondence, photographs, press passes, on and on. it is all at the center. they are getting ready at the university of texas in the spring of 2010 to have a big walter cronkite conference. >> doug brinkley, having seen all these papers, tell us something we don't know about him in a sense that this was a man who had dinner with millions of americans every night, who held their hand and telling them their president has been shot and killed. martin luther king had been shot and killed. a public man but, of course, in these papers are things we never knew. like what? >> general comment for example,

he was a great admirer of ernest the old news man's writers. he wrote a piece called the old newsman's writers. cronkite believed in the old wireman tap. he used to go constantly read the ap and upa wires and save some and circle them. he also -- his notebooks. when you read his notebooks it has a clipped sense, i was looking at one today from vietnam, for example, when he was over there. you see each line he is writing source, source, source. i have interviewed people you have had on your show this evening like bob schieffer and bill plant and i talked to this past week working on my book. they talk about how tough walter cronkite was. he ran the cbs show, roger mud, schieffer, daniel shore doing investigative work and robert

perpoint and bernard shaw and leslie stahl. it was quite a group around cbs and cronkite was the orchestra leader, duke ellington type of figure with all these great players. cronkite loved print reporting and he believed that cbs news television in that era was as fine as any newspaper because people that worked for him had to do the digging and had to read the wires. so i think what people remember about cronkite's voice is for one thing his street voice was the same as his tv voice. it wasn't an act. that was walter cronkite. secondly, when he said something like, named a soldier's name, bob jones died. the way he would say that, you didn't need to have flourishes. you didn't need a lot of language. that's one of the things to me that comes through when you read his speeches, notes letters, his succinctness of language.

both on the air and off the air. >> historian douglas brinkley, we thank you for your refrexs and we so look forward to your continued work and research. you mentioned walter's work for the wire service. i didn't know him well. he knew i came from the ap and he said i would probably because of that experience do okay in this business. i needed to prove it. probably he said. a few moments ago, dan rather had kind words and memories of the man whose chair he filled. we'll hear from dan shortly. that and more, next.

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and stop denials for pre-existing conditions. it's time to act. we just had a chance to talk to the former cbs news anchor, dan rather, about the death of walter cronkite. here's some solve what dan told us. >> he was literally a living legend and now a legend in memory of the very best in journalistic craft. many ways, many important ways he defined the role of the network anchor. >> walter cronkite called by so many the consummate newsman, said so often, almost sound like cliche. almost. the fact is dan rather just said, cronkite literally defined the role of anchorman. his face and voice are linked to

so many pivotal moments in history. simply by reporting them, he made history. one of those moments the assassination of june f. kennedy. 30 years later, cronkite described that day to aaron brown. >> how long after you got on television did you find out that the president had been shot, and fatally shot? >> we didn't learn of him being fatally shot until they announced he was dead. that -- they never gave us any kind of a hospital bulletin that he was even critical. >> at the airport in dallas, the -- and throughout the streets of dallas, the dallas police had been augmented by some 400 policemen called in on their -- >> obviously the magnitude of the moment had hit you. i mean, you knew this was as serious as anything you had ever done and television had ever

done. were you nervous? >> no, i don't think so. no, i wasn't nervous at all. you know, aaron, the thing about a situation like that that you're living through as a living on-air reporter at the moment, at that time, the job is everything. you've got to concentrate on doing what you're supposed to do and you're trained to do. i think the same thing is true of us newspeople because i -- i had no -- no personal sense of tragedy in this thing until the moment when i had to say -- >> from dallas, texas, the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time. 2:00 eastern standard time. some 38 minutes ago.

>> you take off your glasses and you wipe a tear. how do you -- when you think about that moment, now, 40 years later, would you do it differently? >> probably not. because that moment was purely extemporaneous in every sense of the word. i certainly -- it wasn't -- i hadn't planned to have a tear in my eye at that moment at all. i wouldn't have thought of that. i wouldn't ever have yielded to that if it had been a thought. >> do you regret it? >> no, i don't regret it at all. i -- not at all. i would have regretted it if i had broken down and couldn't have continued. that i would have regretted. but this -- the brief show of emotion was something that i think is perfectly natural, and i don't blame an on-air person

for showing emotion. it seems to me that you really don't want people reporting to you who don't have any sense of the emotional impact of a given moment in history. >> well, you've seen a lot of emotion here tonight from people who dearly miss walter cronkite and honor his legacy. coming up, mr. cronkite made history as he reported it. the defining moments of his legendary career, just ahead. between an environment at risk and an environment in balance. between consuming less and conserving more. there is one important word: how. and it is the how that makes all the difference. to the planet we all share.

just moments ago the president of the united states joining the many reflecting on the life and legacy of walter cronki cronkite. >> that's why we love walter because in an era before blogs and e-mail, cell phones and cable, he was the news. walter invited us to believe in him and he never let us down. this country has lost an icon and a dear friend. and he will be truly missed. >> the president, just a short time ago. for our "shot" tonight, the legend, walter cronkite. much more than a newsman. he was there to bring the country reports that changed history. here are some of the defining moments of this iconic career. >> good evening from the cbs news control center in new york,

this is walter cronkite reporting. >> the eagle has landed. thanks a lot. >> oh, boy. >> thank you. >> boy. >> we're going to be busy for a minute. >> wally, say something, i'm speechless. >> from dallas, texas, the flash apparently official. president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time. 2:00 eastern standard time. some 38 minutes ago. >> old anchormen you see don't fade away. they just keep coming back for more. that's the way it is. friday, march 6th, 1981. i'll be away on assignment and dan rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. good night. >> to that, not much more to add. part of a beauty of a walter cronkite newscast is how much he said in yet so few words, y