Once upon a time, Americans could look to CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite for the straight dope on what was going on in the world.
Decades TV Network is looking back at the career of ‘the most trusted man in America, with a feature-length documentary, Eye on the World: The Rise of Walter Cronkite and the Evening News.
Eye on the World: The Rise of Walter Cronkite and the Evening News will November 3rd and 6th on Decades.
DECADES TV NETWORK LOOKS BACK AT THE CAREER AND TRUSTED MEDIA INFLUENCE OF LEGENDARY NEWS ANCHOR WALTER CRONKITE
ORIGINAL FEATURE-LENGTH DOCUMENTARY ‘EYE ON THE WORLD: THE RISE OF WALTER CRONKITE AND THE EVENING NEWS’ AIRS NOVEMBER 3 AND NOVEMBER 6
November 1, 2017 – Chicago, IL – When journalist and anchorman Walter Cronkite told Americans “And that’s the way it is,” they believed him. Amidst weakening faith in the nation’s institutions throughout the tumultuous period of the 1960s and 1970s, trust in media was at a high, reaching its peak in 1976 according to a Gallup poll. In 1972, Walter Cronkite was widely declared “the most trusted man in America.” DECADES Network is proud to present an original, two-hour documentary that looks at the rise of Walter Cronkite and the evening news, and America’s confidence in them. Eye On The World: The Rise of Walter Cronkite and the Evening News will air in primetime on Friday, November 3 at 8:00pm ET, with an encore presentation on Monday, November 6 at 8:00pm ET.
“For several decades beginning in the 1960’s, America turned to the evening network news and to Walter Cronkite in particular to get their news of the day. Walter was a historic figure who brought credibility, trust and understanding into our living rooms nightly”, said Neal Sabin, Vice Chairman of Weigel Broadcasting, Co. “For so many, Walter was the face of TV news and the person we counted on each night to help make sense of national and world events.”
As Bob Schieffer comments, “Maybe we didn’t agree with the editorial page of the local newspaper, or the commentary that Eric Severeid did, but we all assumed the news was true.” As the 1960s and 1970s progressed, Americans relied more and more on Walter Cronkite and the voices that rose alongside him on the CBS news team. But how did Walter Cronkite inspire such confidence to earn the moniker ‘the most trusted man in America’? Eye On The World: The Rise of Walter Cronkite and the Evening News poses that question to former colleagues and media experts as it traces the career of Walter Cronkite and the ascension of the CBS Evening News over the course of events that defined the era: The assassination of President John F. Kennedy, The Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and Watergate. Cronkite remained behind the desk as many of the nation’s leaders rose and fell, some by fate, some by violence, others by choice.
Eye On The World: The Rise of Walter Cronkite and the Evening News also turns its attention to what changed after Cronkite’s tenure. Could America even have a Walter Cronkite figure now? Who or what could fill that role in the new media environment? The delivery mechanisms are radically different, but perhaps the attributes of the trustworthy journalist remain the same. The documentary’s investigation features some of the seminal voices of broadcast news in a line-up of original interviews that includes: Bob Schieffer, Lesley Stahl, Todd Gitlin, Susan Zirinsky, Rita Braver, Tom Bettag, Linda Mason, Russ Bensley, Bill Kurtis, Robert Feder and Bill Wheatley.
To find out where you can watch DECADES in your area, click “Where to Watch” on www.decades.com.