Walter Cronkie died yesterday at 92 after a long illness. A poll conducted in 1972 hailed him as “the most trusted man in America”. When you consider how villified the mainstream media is today, it is all the more remarkable that people found him not only trustworthy but extremely so. The time of the Big Three networks and their evening anchor-focused newscasts has long since faded and Cronkite retired from his position way back when it was still relevant in 1981, but he remained a vital, active voice until the end of his long life. We are probably better off with today’s diverse, more accessible news delivered mainly through the Internet and organizations that are not beholden to large corporations but Cronkite’s passing still feels a bit like the loss of innocence, the unwelcome silencing of a reassuring and patronly voice.
