Lessons Passed Down By My Elders

Goodnight, Mr. Cronkite ... Wherever you are.

I got a call over the weekend from a newspaper reporter at the Abilene Reporter News. He was doing a reaction story about Walter Cronkite’s death and wanted to get some thoughts from local TV News anchors. In reflecting back on Cronkite’s life and death, I couldn’t help but remember the times in which he lived, for I think that they to played a part in who Mr. Cronkite was. In the field of behavioral study, there is a formula that goes like this: B=P+E -- Behavior is shaped by two factors: personality traits and environment.
No doubt that Walter Cronkite was an icon in the field of news. But, if Walter Cronkite became an icon, it may be a just as much a reflection on the times in which he lived as his personal style or presenting the news. The world has changed a lot since the Great Depression of the 1930s and the tide of history took a great many newsmen riding along on its coat tails. They grew up seeing first-hand world-changing events. They covered the Cold War, the Vietnam Conflict, the Assassination of President Kennedy, the Civil Rights struggle, the landing on the moon. How much the world changed in their lifetime, and yet Walter Cronkite was there to give those events some meaning in the larger context of our daily lives.
Now, I'm not goiung to compare myself to Walter Cronkite in any way. In fact, about the only similarity between myself and Walter Cronkite (and it is a very minute comparison) is that we both were lucky enough to have come up through the ranks. I didn't start in TV. I began my lifelong association with journalism literally from th ground up. I was a newspaper delivery boy. Remembering those times has brought me a lot of pleasure this past weekend.
I spent my formative years in Montgomery, Alabama. Those were the years of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and “separate, but equal”. Everyone was talking about this charismatic Baptist minister named Martin Luther King. I attended an all white public school, but was too young to understand “why” it was all white. In 1960, we moved to Washington, D.C. I got my first “news” job when I was just 13 years old. I delivered the Washington Post, every morning – rain or shine – in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, Maryland. I would always have one or two papers left over, so on my way back home each morning, I’d read the paper as I walked along, my “paper” bag draped across my shoulders. That is where I learned about current events and I think it was there where I first was bitten by the “news” bug. I began reading about history and being fascinated by how it all came together.
I saved enough money from my paper route to buy my first movie camera – a little 8mm Revere. I couldn’t routinely afford film for it, but once – when I did have film in it, I passed by a fire and ran up and started filming it. I still have the camera. The film of the fire is long gone.
When Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, my parents took me down to the Lincoln Memorial the night before to see all the camera podiums set-up. I remember looking at all of those people climbing the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the stifling heat of that summer night, realizing that it was the eve of some great event, wondering what would happen and what the world would say about it all.
Over the years, I have been blessed to have worked with some of the best in the buiness. They aren't names that you'd readily recognize, but they were champions to me. Those great reporters told great stories and shared those stories with young, fresh-faced kids just getting into the business. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got from a newsman was from an intoxicated former TV news photographer one night in a bar. He said, “Let me tell you something. Nobody cares what you think. Your job is to keep your mouth shut and your ears open.” He was absolutely right and that advice has served me well over the years.
Most people don’t know this but Walter Cronkite actually re-learned his speech patterns. He understood that for a TV audience, he had to read slower, and he taught himself to do that. You see, the story BEHIND the story is often much better than the story itself. That is what I think about when I think of Walter Cronkite...the story BEHIND the story. “Class” is the word that comes to mind wheh I think of Walter Cronkite. He was never bigger than the story he covered and never forgot that entering America’s living room each evening was not a “right”, but a privilege. You are a guest and don’t ever forget that.
Goodnight Walter and thanks for everything.

Downing Bolls