Cronkite (100 page)

418 “were nothing short of remarkable”:
Jack Gould, “The Whole World Sat Front-Row Center,”
New York Times
, July 27, 1969.

419 Kuralt spoke about the spiritual aspects of Space travel:
Wussler and Salant,
10:56:20 PM 7/20/69
, pp. 53–54.

419 “
Eagle:
Roger, understand
”: Ibid., pp. 74–77.

421 “time had stopped in Studio 41”:
Arthur C. Clarke to Neil McAleer, April 20, 1990, McAleer Papers, Baltimore, MD.

421 “Wow,” the great journalist said. “Oh, boy!”:
Schirra Jr. with Billings,
Schirra’s Space
, pp. 222–23.

421 “
Cronkite:
There he is. There’s a foot coming down the steps”:
CBS-TV News Special Report (transcript), “Apollo XI,” July 20, 1969, CBS News Archive, New York.

422 “The step on the Moon was an awesome achievement”:
Wussler and Salant, Foreword,
10:56:20 PM 7/20/69
.

422 were “like colts” finding their footing:
Wagener,
One Giant Leap
, p. 522.

423 “Hot diggety dog!”:
Wussler and Salant, Foreword,
10:56:20 PM 7/20/69
.

423 their attitude was oddly blasé:
Jack Gould, “TV: Lunar Scenes Top Admirable Apollo Coverage,”
New York Times
, July 22, 1969.

423 “Man has finally visited the Moon after all the ages of waiting”:
Cronkite broadcast transcript, July 24, 1969, CBS News Archives, New York.

423 He hoped someday to touch the lunar rocks:
Wagener,
One Giant Leap
, p. 545.

423 he never noticed the “fatigue factor”:
Walter Cronkite interview, Archive of American Television, April 28, 1998.

423 “seemingly effortless performance”:
New York Times
, July 21, 1969.

423
Apollo 11
would lead to the militarization of space:
Bliss,
Now the News
, p. 368.

423 “History has never proceeded by a rational plan”:
Eric Sevareid, CBS TV, July 15, 1969 (transcript), CBS News Archives, New York.

424 An astonishing 94 percent of all American homes:
John E. O’Connor, ed.,
American History, American Television: Interpreting the Video Past
(New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1983), p. 380.

424 “It was a wonderful story of achievement”:
Walter Cronkite interview, Archive of American Television, April 28, 1998.

424 “I have always wished that I could have shared”:
Buzz Aldrin,
Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon
(New York: Harmony Books, 2009), p. 54.

424 CBS drew 45 percent of the audience:
Ferretti, “Cronkite on Endurance.”

425 “He’s more popular than the astronauts”:
Bernard Weinraub, “Tense Contractors Await Splashdown,”
New York Times
, July 19, 1969.

425 Cronkite shunned
Face the Nation
:
CBS News Archive, New York.

425 Armstrong had written, “Deist”:
Hansen,
First Man
, p. 33.

425 “That’s agency nomenclature”:
Face the Nation,
as broadcast over the CBS Television Network and the CBS Radio Network, Sunday, August 17, 1969, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., p. 24.

426 “Walter told me that the biggest on-air mistake he’d ever made”:
Author interview with Ed Bradley, December 21, 2004.

426 But Armstrong didn’t hold it against Cronkite:
Wagener,
One Giant Leap
, p. 268.

426 there just wasn’t a “one giant leap for mankind” moment:
History of Manned
Space Flight
, NASA publication #75-24641 (Washington, DC.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1975), p. 29.

426 astronauts’ wives watched CBS’s coverage because of the “fatherly”:
Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger,
Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994), pp. 272–77.

426 “He had little vials”:
McAleer,
Arthur C.
Clarke
, p. 231.

Twenty-Five
: Avatar of Earth Day

427 he kept a framed photo over his desk:
Francis French and Colin Burgess,
In the Shadow of the Moon
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), pp. 310–13.

428 The Apollo program had been designed to visit the Moon:
Ibid.

428 NASA employees developed “a new environmental appreciation”:
Author interview with George Abbey, June 6, 2011.

429 ended up canceling
Apollos 18
,
19
, and
20
:
David R. Williams, “Apollo 18 through 20—The Cancelled Missions,” NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, December 11, 2003, nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo_18_20.html (accessed December 2, 2011).

429 “Of all humankind’s achievements in the twentieth century”:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 27.

429 “The North American continent seemed ringed by oil slicks”:
Walter Cronkite,
Eye on the World
(New York: Cowles, 1971), p. 10.

430 “When Walter said ‘God damn it,’ things happened”:
Matusow,
The Evening Stars
, p. 116.

430 “We wanted to grapple first with air pollution”:
Author interview with Ron Bonn, June 1, 2011.

430 Cronkite and Union Carbide as sponsor:
Author interview with Jon Wilkman, January 8, 2012.

430 “Earth, you understand, wasn’t in the palm”:
Ibid.

431 The Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969 had become a rallying point:
Los Angeles
Times
, January 28, 1989, p. 123.

431 the “environmental crisis” was “eclipsing student discontent”:
Gladwin Hill, “Environment May Eclipse Vietnam as College Issue,”
New York Times
, November 30, 1969.

431 The time had come, Cronkite intuited:
William O. Douglas, “The Public Be Damned,”
Playboy
, September 1969, p. 209.

432 “Once Cronkite got on the environment”:
Author interview with William Ruckelshaus, August 2, 2011.

432 “Walter was almost a nutcase about the environment”:
Author interview with Sandy Socolow, May 28, 2011.

432 “Uhmm, could we call that thing something else?”:
Schieffer,
This Just In,
pp. 270–71.

433 “This planet is threatened with destruction”:
Oliver S. Owen,
Natural Resource Conservation: An Ecological Approach
(London: Macmillan, 1980), p. 859.

433 “Science can reveal the depth of the crisis”:
Barry Commoner,
Science and Survival
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1970), p. 157.

433 “devoting extensive time and energy”:
Gaylord Nelson to Frank Stanton, April 7, 1971, Nelson Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison.

434 To hear Cronkite bemoan the “littered Earth”:
Walter Cronkite, “Earth Day: A Question of Survival,” CBS News, April 22, 1970.

434 “I noticed that the mail increased”:
Matusow,
The Evening Stars
, p. 173.

434 “The affiliates went crazy on Walter”:
Author interview with Sandy Socolow, June 5, 2011.

434 When the anchorman started talking about bloodshed at Kent State:
Sean Kirst, “Kent State: ‘One or Two Cracks of Rifle Fire . . . Oh My God,’ ”
Syracuse Post-Standard
, May 5, 2010.

435 Michener, with Cronkite spurring him on:
James Michener,
Kent State: What Happened and Why
(New York: Random House, 1971).

435 “We must not reject those among us who dissent”:
“Dissenters Should Listen, Be Listened to—Cronkite,”
Columbia Daily Tribune
, June 3, 1970, p. 1; special thanks to Ron Kucera for bringing this to my attention.

436 “The 1960s, when we first launched humans into space”:
Walter Cronkite,
The Infinite Journey: Eyewitness Accounts of NASA and the Age of Space
(New York: Discovery Books, 2000), p. 1.

436 “how deeply interested Walter was in the environment”:
Author interview with William Ruckelshaus, August 7, 2011.

437 “That is not doomsday rhetoric”:
Cronkite,
Eye on the World
, p. 1.

437
The Greening of America
advocated “choosing a new life-style”:
Charles Reich,
The Greening of America
(New York: Random House, 1970), p. 350.

437 “Every year American power plants pour”:
Cronkite,
Eye on the World
, p. 3.

438 in 1980 he would get to collaborate with Peterson:
Roger Tory Peterson et al.,
Save the Birds
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989).

438 the airing of occasional “Can the World Be Saved?” segments lasted until 1980:
Author interview with Ron Bonn, June 1, 2011.

438 more than one thousand environmentally minded citizens stood up:
Ruth A. Eblen to Walter Cronkite, November 2, 1989, File: One Earth Award, Box: 2M609, WCP-UTA.

439 “It’s about your own relationship with Mother Nature”:
“Cronkite Talks of Regrets and Doing ‘The Job,’ ”
Lancaster
(PA)
New Era
, April 12, 2000.

439 “this little lifeboat floating out there in space”:
Ed Bark, “The Eyes of History: Cronkite Shares Thoughts on Life in TV Journalism,”
Dallas Morning News
, December 6, 2000.

Twenty-Six
: The Nixon-versus-CBS War

441 “ ‘This will tear the scab off those bastards!’ ”:
Author interview with Patrick Buchanan, June 20, 2011.

441 “that the networks were made more responsive to the views”:
Spiro Agnew speech, “On the National Media,” November 13, 1969, Des Moines, IA.

441 President Nixon wasn’t the first president to feel persecuted:
John Tebbel and Sarah Miles Watts,
The Press and the Presidency: From George Washington to Ronald Reagan
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 500–513.

441 “This administration’s antagonism had been”:
Powers, “Walter Cronkite: A Candid Conversation.”

442 “their whole objective in life is to bring us down”:
Stanley Kutler,
The Wars of
Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon
(New York: W. W Norton, 1990), p. 175. “great vigor”: Richard Reeves,
President Nixon: Alone in the White House
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), p. 74.

442 “dripped with vitriol”:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, pp. 221–22.

442 “To people in broadcasting, the picture of”:
Bliss,
Now the News
, p. 409.

443 “Perhaps we didn’t react enough”:
Cynthia Lowry, “Agnew Assailed by TV Analysts,” AP, November 6, 1969.

443 “gravest implications”:
“CBS Head Warns of Press Threat,”
Bridgeport Post
, November 26, 1969.

443 “implied threat”:
“Cronkite Says TV Won’t ‘Pull in Horns,’ ” AP, November 22, 1969; Christopher Lydon, “Burch Supports Agnew; Shift in F.C.C. Role Seen,”
New York Times
, November 15, 1969.

443 “dangerous to democracy in America”:
Walter Cronkite, “Speech,” International Radio and Television Society, May 18, 1971 (transcript), CBS News Reference Archive, New York.

443 “They said I had no proof that the campaign”:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, pp. 223–24.

443 “A nothing!”:
Reeves,
President Nixon
, p. 137.

444 Whether the informant was telling the truth:
John Cook, “FBI Files Discuss Cronkite Aiding Vietnam Protesters,” Yahoo! News, May 14, 2010, old.news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ 20100514/ts_ynews/ ynews_ ts2067 (accessed January 1, 2011).

444 The FBI had also monitored Cronkite’s work:
Ibid.

445 “Nixon truly saw the press as the enemy”:
Author interview with Patrick Buchanan, June 20, 2011.

445 a White House travesty called “The Enemies List”:
Kenneth Franklin Kurz,
Nixon’s Enemies
(Los Angeles: Lowell House, 1989).

445 “Nixon thought I was his number-one enemy”:
Brinkley,
A Memoir
, p. 192.

445 “Was this so-called ‘anti-media campaign’ ”:
William Safire,
Before the Fall
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975), p. 341.

446 CBS reported in December 1969 that it had never received so much:
“Public Split on Television News Coverage,”
New York Times
, AP, December 17, 1969; Daniel Schorr,
Clearing the Air
, p. 40.

446 “there would be revolution in the streets”:
Cronkite and Carleton,
Conversations with Cronkite
, p. 278.

447 “I never got called on it”:
Ibid.

447 Lines like “people feel that”:
Ibid.

448 “The Cronkite-Schorr charge against my brother was false”:
Cronkite,
A Reporter’s Life
, p. 222.

448 “Concentrate on NBC”:
H. R. Haldeman to Jeb Magruder, White House Memorandum, Internet Archive, February 4, 1970, http://www.archive.org/ stream/presidentialcamp10unit/presidentialcamp10unit_djvu.txt.

448 “news coverage now seems to reflect an eagerness to please”:
Untitled editorial,
New Yorker
, February 28, 1970.

448 “I feel that perhaps subconsciously”:
Nathan Miller, “Intimidation Succeeds: Anti-Nixon TV Curbed,”
Editorial Research Reports
, March 31, 1970.

449 “We broadcast the original story”:
“Film of Atrocity in Dispute Re-Run,”
New York Times
, May 22, 1970.

449 Fulbright described incidents staged by the Department of Defense:
Lee Byrd, “Sen. Fulbright Demands End to War Films by Pentagon,” AP, May 23, 1970.

449 “an aggressive Communist tide has spread”:
“The $$$ Selling of the Pentagon,”
Capital Times
(Madison, WI), March 15, 1971.