Walter Cronkite quotes

Walter Cronkite was an American broadcast journalist and television news anchor, best known as the host of the CBS Evening News. His calm demeanor and trusted reporting style earned him the nickname "the most trusted man in America." He became an iconic figure in American journalism and covered many historic events. Here are 68 of his quotes:

Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.

Walter Cronkite

I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything he's got.

Walter Cronkite

We are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders.

Walter Cronkite

There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free.

Walter Cronkite

I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that.

Walter Cronkite

America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.

Walter Cronkite

The perils of duck hunting are great - especially for the duck.

Walter Cronkite

Our job is only to hold up the mirror - to tell and show the public what has happened.

Walter Cronkite

And that's the way it is.

Walter Cronkite

There's a little more ego involved in these jobs than people might realize.

Walter Cronkite

Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away. They just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is, Friday, March 6, 1981.

Walter Cronkite

Since he came out of the west to team with David Brinkley back in 1956, Chet Huntley has been our competitor - and what a competitor! - but he also is a colleague and a good friend. Tonight, over on that other network, as we say, he's saying good night to David for the last time on their evening newscast, returning to his native Montana to build a resort, and, I suspect, perhaps to get involved in politics. As he leaves the daily broadcast scene, a giant departs the stage. For journalism and for ourselves, we hate to see him go, but that's the way it is: Friday, July 31, 1970. Goodbye, Chet. Chet Huntley : Goodbye, and good luck, Walter.

Walter Cronkite

I regret that, in our attempt to establish some standards, we didn't make them stick. We couldn't find a way to pass them on to another generation, really.

Walter Cronkite

Eric's not retiring from television entirely, but only from daily journalism, and that means, of course, this broadcast. It's not only his beautifully-chosen words of wisdom that we shall miss - to this newsman, he's one of the finest essayists of this century - but we shall also miss our almost daily contacts with him in the pursuit of our craft, in which his rare insight and unswerving integrity were a constant source of professional guidance. And yes, it's also true that we shall be the poorer in our self-esteem for no longer being able to call him "colleague," but that's the way it is: Wednesday, November 30, 1977. This is Walter Cronkite, CBS News; good night.

Walter Cronkite

This is the essential importance of the Alliance for Better Campaigns' efforts backed by Common Cause. It is our campaign to give free time to all legitimate candidates. ... What our campaign asks is that the television industry yield just a tiny percentage of that windfall, less than 1 percent, to fund free airtime.

Walter Cronkite

With all this dolling up and featuring of the news,it's getting harder and harder just to get the facts of the story.

Walter Cronkite

A journalist covering politics,most of us are aware of the necessity to try to be sure we're unbiased in our reporting.That's one of the fundamentals of good journalism.

Walter Cronkite

I think the whole policy of pre-emptive war is a serious,serious mistake.

Walter Cronkite

And that's the way it is.... [reads date]. This is Walter Cronkite, CBS News; good night.

Walter Cronkite

What Alexander Hamilton wrote about the need for law among the 13 states applies today to the approximately 200 sovereignties in our global village: "To look for a continuation of harmony between a number of independent, unconnected sovereignties in the same neighborhood, would be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at defiance the accumulated experience of ages."

Walter Cronkite

All the European democracies have far higher election turnouts than ours, and all of them provide their candidates with extensive free airtime. In fact, of all the major nations worldwide that profess to have democracies, only seven - just seven - do not offer free time. These are Ecuador, Honduras, Malaysia, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States of America. Does it make us proud to be on such a list?

Walter Cronkite

More details just arrived. These details about the same as previously: President Kennedy shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas; Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr. Kennedy, she called 'Oh, no!'; the motorcade sped on. United Press says that the wounds for President Kennedy perhaps could be fatal.

Walter Cronkite