Walter Cronkite Quotes
We've always known you can gain circulation or viewers by cheapening the product, and now you're finding the bad driving out the good.
Brinkley, Douglas. Cronkite. Harper, 2012.
This quotation is often used to illustrate the change in attack and negative campaigning so often done by politicians whereas in the 1830s most politicians did not campaign that way. However at the time the newspapers were very closely associated with candidates and political parties—in some cases owned and controlled by them.
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll. Cronkite reported many events from 1937 to 1981, including bombings in World War II; the Nuremberg trials; combat in the Vietnam War; the Dawson's Field hijackings; Watergate; the Iran Hostage Crisis; and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr., and Beatles musician John Lennon. He was also known for his extensive coverage of the U.S. space program, from Project Mercury to the Moon landings to the Space Shuttle. He was the only non-NASA recipient of an Ambassador of Exploration award. Cronkite is known for his departing catchphrase, "And that's the way it is", followed by the date of the broadcast.
