Working Inside the Newsroom With Walter Cronkite

ABC’s Stu Schutzman worked at CBS with Walter Cronkite from 1971 to 1978. I could begin with a laundry list of superlatives, not that he doesn’t deserve all the plaudits but you’ve heard them all, all weekend.  Suffice it to say that an American icon is gone. Walter Cronkite was a presence in the newsroom like no one else.  He was brilliant and insightful and a great news editor (he was managing editor of the Evening News for most of his tenure).  The problem was he would often bring his brilliance and insight to the table late in the news day wrecking havoc on the staff, already on severe deadline. For those of us just starting out in the business it like walking on hot coals; initiation under fire. But we all somehow survived and the program prospered.   The weekly ratings were posted on a obscure wall on the perimeter of the newsroom. Staffers rarely read them and seldom discussed them. The ratings were what they were — a given.  When I got to the CBS Evening News With Walter Cronkite in 1971 it was number one in the ratings. When I left in 1978 it was number one in the ratings. Much of the reason was Walter himself; he was a commanding figure both on the air and off.   He had a good sense of humor but he could occasionally be gruff.  He was certainly not “one of the boys” (network newsrooms were mostly male back then). He had too many other fish to fry as the “most trusted man in America”.  When he spoke we listened even if we didn’t quite know what he was talking about. Case in point: during a routine broadcast in January, 1973, Walter received a phone call during a commercial break. We had no idea who he was talking to and could only make out bits and pieces of his side of the conversation. The commercial ended and he was still on the phone signaling us and the viewer to bear with him. It was a mesmerizing moment. The call was from Lyndon Johnson’s press secretary. Cronkite put down the phone and announced to the world that the 36th President had died. Who better to inform the world? Along with his family, the great loves of Walter’s life were his boat and his tennis game.  He was a fierce competitor on and off the court who didn’t lose at anything gladly. There wasn’t much interface or even office banter with Walter in those years. But he did have some of us to his house every Christmas, just the staff, no outsiders especially executives. It was an intimate couple of hours with the Cronkites; his children; his gracious wife Betsy and his mother. A classy gesture from an American icon.