she turned to bessie and said, he is dead, isn't he? she said, well, if he is not dead, he ought to be. dan, here we are joined once again on the news and talking about someone who is so important us to. thanks, rachel, for having me on. >> tom brokaw, thank you so much. >> rachel, thank you for having me. >> thank you for joining us tonight for our coverage of the death of walter caron cite. david shuster will have more of our special coverage at the top of the hour. we leave you with the words of the most famous man in america. good night. >> and that's the way it is, monday, december 5th, 1977. this is walter caron cite, cbs news, good night. >> beginning from paris. >> from the great wall of china. >> reporting from mad right. >> this is walter cronkite. this is my last news. it nevertheless comes with sadness. for the last few decades we've been meeting like this. >>> good evening from new york. i'm david shuster in for keith olbermann. legendary newsman walter cronkite died at the age of 82. he became known as the most trutheded n

i think that it's important we pay tribute to bessie, his wonderful life who had a sardonic sense of humor. r he was a humble anchorman. bessie had the lightest touch of letting the air out of him. >> i am having a humbling moment sitting here with dan rather and tom brokaw. i feel like a kid let at the table at thanksgiving. dan, i start with you. that is the idea of the reporter anchor, the anchor who is not only from the world of reporting, but brings reporting as their first and primary compass in terms of what drives their decision-making, what makes the news and how they do it. what's changed about that? what's different about the air of walter cronkite and how cronkite defined that? what distance have we travelled? >> i'm interested to hear what tom has to say about this. we travelled a long way from that. i'm happy to say with the anchors of the present news broadcast, some of what walter cronkite pioneered, some of what made him the most trusted man in america, part of what made him a giant of eternalistic craft by any measure, he didn't just play a reporter on tv. he had be