Legendary broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite died July 17 at the age of 92. Cronkite was famous for his reporting of the Kennedy assassination, Watergate and the U.S. space program. Cronkite came to ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ April 8, 2003, and had a conversation with David Gergen, a former adviser to four U.S. presidents and the chair of the ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ School of Law advisory board.
Cronkite’s discussion with Gergen took place in Alumni Gym in front of more than 2,900 people. They talked for more than hour, covering topics including Cronkite’s coverage of Vietnam, President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the United States’ recent war in Iraq, of which Cronkite was quite critical.
Cronkite said throughout his career he always tried to remain an objective, unbiased anchor and reporter, particularly in his coverage of Vietnam, a war that he famously said the United States could not win.
“We always tried to be in the middle of the road with our coverage of Vietnam,” Cronkite said to Gergen. “We got a lot of mail criticizing our coverage, but we always kept two bags of mail, one with the letters praising our coverage, and the other with the letters against it. I always thought if those two bags weighed about the same, then we were doing a pretty good job.”
Earlier in the day, Cronkite held a press conference in Studio B of the McEwen Communications building, which was covered by news outlets nationwide.