Decades remembers Walter Cronkite

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - ABC 57’s sister station, Decades, is honoring legendary journalist Walter Cronkite.

Eye on the World: The Rise of Walter Cronkite and the Evening News premiers Friday at 8 p.m. on Decades.

Cronkite’s name is synonymous with journalistic trust and credibility

Richard Jones, Annenberg Director of Gallivan Program in Journalism at the University of Notre Dame, tried to teach his students how to be credible.

“What do we sell? It’s not newspapers, it’s not commercial airtime. It’s credibility. It’s authority. It’s trustworthiness, and in many ways, Cronkite was the embodiment of trust,” Jones said.

During an era that defined the United States and television news, Cronkite became the face of CBS.

“To see the visuals that were accompanying these things and to see reporters like Cronkite in the field, and Bradley in the field, and all those tremendous, tremendous journalists, it was a storytelling revolution indeed,” Jones said.

Of Cronkite’s many defining moments Jones says the Kennedy assassination and Vietnam War coverage stick out.

Cronkite was a media leader when trust in media was at an all-time high.

Jones believes he would have succeeded in today’s world as well.

“I think he’d be just fine. I think he’d be just fine. I think there are some values that transcend time, that transcend some of the moments that we’re going through politically,” Jones said.