Obama Celebrates Chronkite

President Obama and former president Bill Clinton also addressed hundreds of Mr. Cronkite’s friends and former colleagues at the memorial at Lincoln Center, which CBS called “A Celebration of Life.” It felt at times like a class reunion for TV news, and in particular for the legions of CBS News personnel who worked with Mr. Cronkite or wished they had.

One of Mr. Cronkite’s grandchildren, Walt, is working as an intern in the Washington bureau of CBS News for the fall semester, prompting Mr. McManus to say “the Cronkite tradition is alive and well at CBS News.”

Cronkite anchored the “Evening News” from 1962 to 1981, died July 17 at the age of 92. His funeral was held in Manhattan on July 23. He was a celebrated liberal who took credit for convincing America it couldn't win in Vietnam and helped bring down Nixon by being the first TV news anchor to focus on Watergate. His political views were even more prominent after his retirement, when he started writing newspaper columns. He urged Democratic candidates to run as open liberals, denounced conservatives in general (and Reagan in particular) and the "right wing views" of the Christian Coalition.

See Chick's THE SCOUNDREL.