"And that's the way it is."

Walter Leland Cronkite Jr.

           1916-2009

Legendary news broadcaster Walter Cronkite died today at the age of 92.

I have spent most of my life as a news junkie and part of that time as a journalist. Walter was perhaps one of the ultimate news people during my lifetime.

He was Uncle Walter. The “most trusted voice in America” as President Obama has just now called him in a statement.

Cronkite is another one of those folks who was born elsewhere but had the fortune to have grown up in Texas.

So many important moments of the world and of my life that I remember were reported by Walter’s authoritative voice: The killing of John F. Kennedy, Armstrong and Aldrin being the first to land on the moon, and his summary of how Vietnam was a failed American policy.

Walter was obviously no blow-dried airhead that has given TV news such a bad rep in recent years. Hopefully some day, we will be given real reporters again who also anchor the news like Walter. Some are getting there. All should strive to do better.