In the magazine this week, Louis Menand reviews “Cronkite,” Douglas Brinkley’s new biography of longtime CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, and examines the events and myths that established the newscaster as the “most trusted man in America.” Cronkite’s career, Menand writes, “has become part of a much larger, decline-of-the-news narrative.… Some of that narrative may be true, but a lot of is Camelot.” The legend of Cronkite as the paramount newsman, the symbol of a bygone era of robust and honorable journalism, has seeped into our popular memory. As Menand says, “we imagine our predecessors as nobler and braver than our small and anxious selves.” The truth, as Menand shows, is never that simple.
In the video above, we’ve collected moments from Cronkite’s years at CBS. It’s a survey of his career but also a survey of men’s fashion, microphone technology, TV production values—and, of course, American history.
