News “And That’s the Way It Is…”
I’m not exactly thrilled that the perpetually perky Katie Couric will be narrating, but I’m quite pleased that PBS is devoting the season premiere episode of their excellent American Masters series to the peerless Walter Cronkite. I certainly appreciate this man too, but Cronkite was the first journalist who thoroughly hypnotized me as a young girl.
On a related note, if you are unfamiliar with the American Masters series, I highly recommend checking out Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart: Lou Reed (available on DVD), which essentially plays like a Frontline investigation of New York proto-punk and covers everything from Reed’s mentoring by poet Delmore Schwartz to his collaborations with David Bowie and Robert Wilson. Great stuff.
For those of us who grew up in the '60's, Cronkite is the epitome of what TV journalism CAN be. I still get eerie shivers up my spine recallng him begin each newscast with the number of U.S. soldiers killed or wounded in Viet Nam each day, and recall with fondness watching him wipe away tears of joy at the moment Armstong & Aldrin landed on the moon.
He repesents everything that's good about television news reporting, and which sadly has been lacking for many years now.