Cronkite (96 page)

282 in his conjecture that Oswald acted alone:
Gerald Posner,
Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK
(New York: Random House, 1993), p. 450.

282 “What fed the conspiracy notion about the Kennedy assassination”:
Small,
To Kill a Messenger
, p. 36.

283 dispelled the notion of an octopus-like conspiracy to get Kennedy:
Jack Gould, “TV: Useful View of Warren Report,”
New York Times
, June 29, 1967.

283 “We concluded,” he said, “that nothing else could be proved”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, pp. 204–5.

283 “a rare and important experience in television journalism”:
Rick DuBrow, “CBS Investigates Warren Commission,” UPI, June 29, 1967.

283 I’m not as happy as I once was with the Warren Commission”:
“And That’s the Way It Is,”
Columbia Journalism Review
19, no. 1 (May–June 1981): 50.

284 an “international” conspiracy was at play:
“JFK Killing Left LBJ Doubtful; Cronkite: Ex-Prez Not Sure of Truth,”
Philadelphia Daily News
, February 6, 1992.

284 “A man lands on the moon”:
“On the News Beat,”
Newsweek
, June 1, 1964.

Eighteen
: Who’s Afraid of the Nielsen Ratings?

285 Lyndon Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird, had purchased KTBC:
Robert Caro,
The Years of Lyndon Johnson
(New York: Knopf, 1990).

286 “Their deep friendship went back a long way”:
Author interview with Harry Middleton, September 8, 2011.

286 Before long, Lyndon and Lady Bird were making millions:
Jack Shafer, “The Honest Graft of Lady Bird Johnson,”
Slate
, July 16, 2007.

286 Johnson was a Pecos Bill–style folk figure in Texas:
Randall Woods,
LBJ:
Architect of Ambition
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), p. 80.

287 “LBJ and Frank Stanton were good friends”:
Tom Johnson to Douglas Brinkley, September 18, 2011.

287 The LBJ-Stanton relationship was so rock solid:
Lawrence Bergreen,
Look
Now, Pay Later
, pp. 276–277.

287 Cronkite knew that LBJ wasn’t “Huckleberry Capone”:
Author interview with Ethel Kennedy, November 5, 2011.

288 “[Johnson] watched all the newscasts”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with
Cronkite
, p. 225.

288 “Walter, I called Bill Paley”:
Frank,
Out of Thin Air
, p. 224.

288 CBS, the largest advertising-based business in the world:
Leonard Wallace Robinson, “After the Yankees What?”
New York Times Magazine
, November 15, 1964.

289 CBS broadcast fourteen of the top fifteen shows:
Deborah Haber, “They Still Remember Jim Aubrey (Shudder),”
New York
, September 9, 1968, p. 54.

289 Defending Cronkite against Aubrey was Fred Friendly:
Bergreen,
Look Now,
Pay Later
, p. 234.

289 “He is the most competitive person I ever met”:
Leslie Midgley,
How Many
Words Do You Want? An Insider’s Stories of Print and Television Journalism
(New York: Birch Lane Press, 1989), p. 244.

290 “Douglas Edwards had been replaced with Walter Cronkite”:
Buzenberg and Buzenberg,
Salant, CBS, and the Battle for the Soul of Broadcast Journalism
, p. 49.

291 “He was the World’s No. 1 purveyor”:
William Lambert and Richard Oulahan, “The Tyrant’s Call That Rocked the TV World: Until He Was Suddenly Brought Low, Jim Aubrey Ruled the Air,”
Life
, September 10, 1965.

292 For a decade CBS had been—and would remain for years to come—the biggest advertising medium:
Robinson, “After the Yankees What?”

292 set the tone “of its public relations image”:
Jack Gould, “Friendly to Head C.B.S. Unit,”
New York Times
, March 2, 1964.

292 “If Paley could fire Aubrey and Salant with the snap of a finger”:
Author interview with Andy Rooney, March 15, 2011.

293 “getting Ed back here is my first order of business”:
Ralph Engelman,
Friendlyvision: Fred Friendly and the Rise and Fall of Television Journalism
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), p. 182.

294 “Friendly proposed that I cover every day”:
Mudd,
The Place to Be
, p. 141.

294 “We’re going to cover this civil rights story”:
Author interview with Roger Mudd, November 14, 2011.

295 “Friendly deserved a lot of credit”:
Ibid.

295 “But we never felt that pressure on the news desk”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, p. 280.

296 “It was like the dark side of the moon”:
Author interview with Bill Plante, December 2, 2010.

296 Cronkite served as host of the
CBS News Special Report
:
“The Summer Ahead,”
Washington Post
, July 1, 1964 (Display Ad 241).

297 “The Senate action came just before 8 p.m”:
Walter Cronkite, “Mississippi 1964: Civil Rights and Unrest,”
All Things Considered
, NPR, June 16, 2005.

297 “Three young civil rights workers disappeared”:
CBS broadcast transcript, June 22, 1964, CBS Archive, New York.

295 having Mudd grow a beard:
Bill Small to Douglas Brinkley, March 5, 2012.

297 “to reveal the anti-democratic hypocrisy of Jim Crow”:
Author interview with Cornel West, January 10, 2012.

297 a deeply isolated civilization that hadn’t changed”:
Cronkite, “Mississippi 1964.”

298 “I always considered CBS News an ally”:
Author interview with Julian Bond, May 14, 2011.

298 CBS “had the edge on other networks”:
Leonard,
In the Storm of the Eye
, p. 136.

299 “He only made two visits back to Normandy”:
Paul Gardner, “D-Day Remembered,”
New York Times
, May 31, 1964.

299 praising the “simple eloquence”:
“Eisenhower Recalls the Ordeal of D-Day Assault 20 Years Ago,”
New York Times
, June 6, 1964.

300 “It may have been the most solemn moment”:
Walter Cronkite, “Eisenhower’s Return to Normandy,”
All Things Considered
, NPR, June 4, 2004.

300 “Cronkite personally tended to be on the side”:
Midgley,
How Many Words Do You Want?
p. 226.

300 far-searching documentary:
Ibid., p. 187.

301 “nimbus of patriotic fervor”:
Walter Cronkite, “Gulf of Tonkin’s Phantom Attack,”
All Things Considered
, NPR, August 2, 2004.

301 acknowledged “supporting” Johnson’s decision:
Ibid.

301 “What do we really know about what happened”:
David Halberstam,
The Powers That Be
, p. 444.

301 “I was still living with my old feeling of sympathy”:
Powers, “Walter Cronkite: A Candid Conversation.”

302 Cronkite’s “private feeling” after the Gulf of Tonkin:
Walter Cronkite to Bob Manning, April 3, 1987.

302 He tried to maintain objectivity:
Walter Cronkite to Bob Manning, April 3, 1987.

302 “I won’t say he was hawkish”:
Author interview with Morley Safer, September 9, 2011.

Nineteen
: Paley’s Attempted Smackdown

303 had callously said, “No comment”:
Rick Perlstein,
Before the Storm: Barry
Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
(New York: Hill & Wang, 2001), p. 248.

304 “a dad-burned dirty lie”:
“Goldwater Rips CBS,” Associated Press, July 18, 1964.

304 “They haven’t even the decency to apologize”:
Ibid.

304 “It’s
February
that he can’t say”:
Author interview with William Small, March 22, 2011.

304 “And it would work,” Sandy Socolow recalled:
Brian Stelter, “Friends Recall Walter Cronkite’s Private Side,”
New York Times
, July 24, 2009.

304 “Goldwater was a fervent hawk”:
Walter Cronkite, “Gulf of Tonkin’s Phantom Attack,”
All Things Considered
, NPR, August 2, 2004.

305 “The Germany story,” Perlstein explained:
Perlstein,
Before the Storm
, p. 375.

305 “A lot of people at CBS blew a gasket about the Goldwater-is-Nazi thing”:
Author interview with Dan Rather, November 19, 2011.

306 “You can say what you want about Goldwater’s conservatism”:
Stephen Shadegg,
What Happened to Goldwater? The Inside Story of the 1964 Republican Campaign
(New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1965), pp. 152–54.

306 Walter’s favorite dish was veal stew:
“At Home with . . . Mrs. Walter Cronkite,”
New York Post
, April 13, 1968.

306 “Everybody including the trash man calls him Walter”:
Betsy Cronkite as told to Lyn Tornabee, “My Husband: The Newscaster.”

306 “He had this great curiosity”:
Bob Schieffer, television interview,
CBS Evening
News with Katie Couric,
CBS, July 17, 2009.

307 “Dear Mr. Cronkite, What do the astronauts do”:
Pam and Margy to Walter Cronkite [circa 1962], Mervin J. Block Archive, New York.

307 “Your complaint was justified”:
Walter Cronkite to George H. Kenny, August 15, 1966, Box: 2M644, Folder: 1966, WCP-UTA.

308 “By the time the Republican Convention rolled around”:
Leonard,
In the Storm of the Eye
, p. 108.

309 “I saw your daughter Nancy”:
Drew Pearson, “Goldwater Interview Mystery,”
Los Angeles Times
, July 19, 1964.

310 “All of us have been the beneficiaries”:
“And That’s the Way It Is,” p. 50.

311 “Cronkite was appalled”:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 348.

311 “Walter exploded”:
Leonard,
In the Storm of the Eye
, p. 109.

311 That November Friendly named Sevareid a national correspondent:
“Sevareid to Washington,”
New York Times
, November 16, 1964.

312 “The only time Walter was difficult”:
Author interview with William Small, March 22, 2011.

312 “If the old son of a bitch does that to me”:
Schieffer,
This Just In
, p. 182.

313 “swallowing up great chunks of air time”:
Mudd,
The Place to Be
, pp. 161–162.

313 “None of us did well”:
Author interview with Dan Rather, November 19, 2011.

314 “The hell with Walter Cronkite”:
Charles Mohr, “Chairman Chosen,”
New York Times
, July 17, 1964.

314 Brinkley and Huntley were routinely threatened:
Brinkley,
A Memoir
, p. 161.

314 “The delegates,” Brinkley wrote, “left their chairs”:
Ibid., p. 162.

315 “She was my first girlfriend”:
Author interview with Chris Wallace, July 10, 2009.

315 “Walter would just ignore directions”:
Ibid.

317 “Who do you think could replace Walter”:
Leonard,
In the Storm of the Eye
, pp. 110–111.

317 “One trouble with this business is it’s like Hollywood”:
Cronkite [unpublished notes],
Newsweek
, July 31, 1964, WCP-UTA.

318 “every patient is owed the simple human dignity of being told the truth”:
Tom Wolfe, “After the Fall,”
New York Herald Tribune
, October 4, 1964.

318 “The anchorman was hoisted”:
Leonard,
In the Storm of the Eye
, pp. 110–111.

318 “any contract is breakable”:
Cronkite [unpublished notes],
Newsweek
, July 31, 1964, WCP-UTA.

318 “Walter Cronkite—demoted!”:
Tom Wolfe, “After the Fall,”
New York Herald Tribune
, October 4, 1964.

318 Sevareid and Reasoner would also play larger roles in Atlantic City:
Val Adams, “C.B.S. News Drops Cronkite As Convention’s Anchor Man,”
New York Times
, July 31, 1964.

318 “We took a clobbering in San Francisco”:
“Two-Man Team to Do Cronkite Job,” AP, July 31, 1964.

318 Cronkite might not be allowed to anchor Election Night:
Val Adams, “Cronkite’s Role for November 3 Unsure,”
New York Times
, August 1, 1963.

319 “We’ve got a team here”:
“Upstairs Was Unhappy,”
Newsweek
, August 10, 1964.

319 “I’m not bitter yet”:
Cronkite [unpublished notes],
Newsweek
, July 31, 1964, WCP-UTA.

319 “I kept thinking this is really going to screw up my relationship”:
Author interview with Chris Wallace, July 10, 2009.

320 Don Hewitt, in a show of solidarity with Cronkite, asked to be relieved:
Val Adams, “TV News Shows Added in Crisis,”
New York Times
, August 6, 1964.

320 Lady Bird Johnson had agreed to do a
Person to Person
:
Paul Gardner, “TV: From LBJ Ranch,”
New York Times
, August 13, 1964.

320 “Once after Mudd had given the viewers some information”:
Dick West, “Wryness of TV Convention Coverage Noted,” UPI, August 26, 1964.

321 Mudd’s “rather desperate attempts at being funny”:
Richard Martin, “TV ‘Backlash’ Can Whip Convention,”
Salt Lake Tribune
, August 26, 1964.

321 CBS garnered its highest share:
Jack Gould, “TV: Huntley and Brinkley Retain Grip,”
New York Times
, August 26, 1964.

321 Mudd considered a career change:
Mudd,
The Place to Be
, p. 167.

321 “By brutally dumping and publicly humiliating”:
Brooks Atkinson, “Muddled Showmanship Is Degenerating Both Parties’ Political Conventions,”
New York Times
, September 8, 1964.

321 “Walter is so objective, careful, and fair”:
William S. Paley,
As It Happened
(Doubleday: New York, 1979), p. 301.