Cronkite: CBS Kept Me Off Air

WALTER Cronkite has revealed that he was double-crossed 23 years ago when he voluntarily stepped down and ceded his anchor chair on "The CBS Evening News" to Dan Rather.

Although the network had promised the then-64-year-old TV legend he would remain on the air, incoming CBS News president Van Gordon Sauter reneged and treated him "like a leper."

Cronkite tells Avenue magazine, "Sauter . . . in cahoots with Dan's manager, felt that any presence of mine on the air would diminish the possibilities of Dan getting his own following - which may have been true. The result was that instead of fulfilling the contract, which provided for my doing specials and that sort of thing, which I expected to do - all I was trying to do was get out of daily journalism; I'd been in it since I was 20 years old - they never called me again. But they keep renewing my contract."

In hindsight, says the renowned newsman, "I think I made a mistake. If I'd known that my health would have stayed as good as it has, I might have stayed with the daily news." (Rather, 72, runs last in the ratings, whereas Cronkite was always first.)

more…
http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix.htm

Craven Broadcasting System.

... and I'll call it square.

from the article:


Lunching at La Cote Basque with his wife, Betsy, and columnist Richard Turley, Cronkite recalled two occasions when he was ambushed by Barbara Walters, his rival at ABC. The first was in 1977 when Cronkite was at the Cairo airport preparing to accompany Egyptian president Anwar Sadat on his historic visit to Israel.

Walters, who'd been in Tel Aviv, arrived by charter plane and ran down the runway, "like a quarterback going in at the last minute, waving her arms and shouting, 'Wait!' She made the flight, but sat in the back, while I sat in the front with Sadat."

At the 1980 Republican Convention, when Cronkite was interviewing former President Gerald Ford about the possibility of his running for vice president on Ronald Reagan's ticket, Walters was "pounding on the door and hollering, 'Let me in there.' She would do anything to stop that one."

Cronkite showed his sense of humor when some neighbors were protesting construction of Trump World Tower across from the U.N. Attached to a letter from a civil engineer complaining about "Trump's erection on First Avenue," Cronkite wrote, "We're not objecting to your erection, Donald, we're objecting to the size of the damn thing!"

This only confirms it for me.

So I have hardly ever watched any of her specials. In fact, while I probably Have watched one, I can't remember when it was. Certainly not this Century.

she has done some of the best interviews ever and she has always amazed me with her ability to get interviewees to say things that they never intended to say out loud in public.

Was she a crackpot because she'd do anything for an interview, even beg, or make a fool of herself? I don't know, but she got the interviews that no one else could, she asked tough questions, but even better, she got answers.

I can't say I ever liked her that much, but she deserves credit for succeeding in a man's world while most of the men around her were trying their best to marginalize her.

He remains the greatest, but I guess there's no room for a real newsman in today's media.

Not to hijack the thread, but he did a great piece about Edward R. Murrow and Joe McCarthy on All Things Considered this past week, give it a listen, it's scarily current:

http://www.npr.org/news/specials/cronkite/

Uncle Walter was, as usual, bang-on. But MURROW could take him on the best day he ever had. :wow:

In 2004, the viewing public would click away from that Murrow broadcast in about two seconds.

:freak:
dbt

...is to make Rather look bad? I actually don't love Rather but Republicans hate him, and the NYPost is very right-wing. They hate Cronkite even more, but since he's not on-air, they don't have as much to fear from him now.

What was he trying to prove with these on-air marathons he did with the '00 election and the Columbia disaster? Got so strung-out he started getting silly.
Rather couldn't be a pimple on Walter's pimple.

he's a servant of the elite just like the NYT

the impeachment and took the whole Clinton family sailing.