A Reporter's Life

by Walter Cronkite

Book Overview

"IMMEDIATELY ENGROSSING . . . [A] SPLENDID MEMOIR." --The Wall Street Journal "Run, don't walk to the nearest bookstore and treat yourself to the most heartwarming, nostalgia-producing book you will... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394578791
• ISBN13: 9780394578798
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.6" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Ultra Liberal

I was suprised at how liberal Walter turned out to be. By his efforts to present news without bias I assumed he was a much more pragmatic man. But his liberal viewpoints are right out of the Western Liberal playbook. It saddened me that a man who had so much access to all the information newspeople have he would be a blinder wearing liberal.

Modern American History Through the Eyes of Walter Cronkite

To live the life of Walter Cronkite is to live a thousand years. For nearly half a decade Walter Cronkite served as the voice of reason to millions of Americans who looked to his print, radio, and television reports for information and reassurance. This autobiography covers the life of Walter Cronkite from his early life as a lowly radio announcer to his ultimate stand at the pinnacle of journalism. As usual, Cronkite's wit is second-to-none and comes through clearly in his prose. Still, he never pulls punches and minces no words regarding the multitude of famous and powerful men and women he met along the way. His engrained honesty and objectivity is a refreshing look to when journalism was an honest art, plagued not by corporate sponsorship. Cronkite's work not only serves as an interesting look at "Cronkite, the man," but is a work of modern American history, written by the man who lived and reported it all. For a readable, enjoyable look at Cronkite's America, "A Reporter's Life" is one of the best.

Fascinating

This book contains the memoirs of Walter Cronkite, pioneering television journalist. Cronkite begins by describing his childhood briefly, noting that even as a youngster, he was pulled to journalism. He credits a volunteer journalism teacher in his high school for introducing him to the rigors of print journalism, but once started, he was hooked. It was this teacher who taught him the prime importance of getting the facts correct, a value that he would hold primary throughout his career. As a high school student, Cronkite competed in statewide journalistic writing tournaments, and won. After high school, he enrolled in college for a while, but decided that pulling in an income was more important than getting a degree (this was during the Great Depression), a decision which he later came to regret. On a lark, he landed a radio news announcer job in Oklahoma City. Later, he worked for UPI, where he honed his collating and rewriting skills under pressure of constant deadlines. The experience from all of these jobs was to prove invaluable later when he landed a job announcing the news on CBS television. Cronkite was not only one of the first early TV news broadcasters, but the word `news anchorman' was even invented just to describe what he did (or so he claims). In this book, Cronkite reminisces not only about his career, but also about the big news stories of day. He discusses how television came to play a strong role in politics, starting with the 1952 party conventions, which were the first to be televised. He enumerates the presidents he has known, from Hoover through George Bush, senior, and he compares the effectiveness of each, as well as their relations with the media. He analyzes the forces behind the fateful American build-up in Vietnam, and the eventual pull-out. He also relates how he inadvertedly became involved in negotiating peace between Egypt and Israel. All in all, his tales are fascinating. I usually find political discussion hideously tiresome, but Cronkite manages to make even politics interesting.

His voice still commands attention

As a devotee of the CBS evening news anchored by Walter Cronkite before his retirement, I was pleased to hear his voice again. His tones always seemed to exude confidence and accuracy, leading to his being known as the most trusted man in America. His public statements about the futility of American involvement in Vietnam did as much as anything else to turn American public opinion against the war, a fact that even Lyndon Johnson understood. He was present at many momentous events of this century, not the least of which was the beginning of both radio and television broadcast journalism. The stories that he recounts are factual, yet sometimes funny as he describes his role in developing two new mediums and how he watched events unfold. Had anyone else read this book, it would have had nowhere near the effect that it does. His is one of the most fascinating careers of all time, as he also had some form of interaction with nearly every major newsmaker of the last century. One section that I found very interesting was when he was talking about the American presidents. I was very surprised that he ranked Jimmy Carter as the smartest president that he met, and from his statements it appears that the rest are considered a distant second While he was polite enough to avoid direct criticism of Ronald Reagan, it was clear that he does not have a high opinion of Reagan's intellect. His role in bringing about the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt was something that I had not known until now. It is an event that should be extensively examined by every journalism major. If his career was examined in depth, it is possible that Walter Cronkite would be placed in the upper echelons of the most influential people of the last century. The changes that he helped bring about were more subtle, yet no less significant. From this tape, you get only a glimpse of that influence, but it still demonstrates how important he was to the flow of history.

Getting to know Walter...

Being only 24 I have seen little of Walter Cronkite in my life, either on television or in the news. I certainly have heard quite a bit about the man and now that I am a journalism student I am learning even more; what better way to do so than by reading his engrossing autobiography, A Reporters Life. From his modest begginings as a newspaper delivery boy to his permanent position on the CBS evening news Cronkite gives us hundreds of interesting anecdotes on his many adventures during his career in journalism. Perhaps most interesting is the first half of the book which takes us through World War II and the start of the cold war with Cronkite in the midst of all of it. The second half of the book deals with the many political and social events of the recent past that Cronkite has been witness to and had the opportunity to report on. Here in his book he finally presents a bit more of a subjective view on the worlds affairs after his years of newroom protocol dictated that he remain 100% objective on all issues in the news. Not everyone will agree with his views on the media and its uses and misuses but that is part of what makes it such a great read. If like me you barely knew who Walter Cronkite was/is read this book; if you are intimately familiar with Walter Cronkite read this book, I am sure that anyone reading it will be fascinated by his insights and views. Few, if any, other people of our time have had such and imtimate aquaintance with so many of the 20th centuries news and events