July 2009 Topic of the Month: A WALTER CRONKITE TRIBUTE

While the national news media have provided many tributes and perspectives on the career of Walter Cronkite in recent days, I am moved to add my own reflections on Cronkite as a person and as a journalist who insisted on the best research and preparation.

I was fortunate, early in my career at CBS, to be part of the Cronkite team for political and space coverage. The work included the “get this done” assignments reserved for a junior staffer; and it involved quite a bit of travel and the ability to work with and see Cronkite up close.

The space launches from Cape Canaveral were perhaps highest on his list of passions, and he was in his element there. As Barbara Matusow reported in The Evening Stars (Ballantine Books, 1983):

"People traveling in the field with Cronkite were more apt to see his warm, human side, so little in evidence in the office. On the road, he was a charming companion, telling jokes, and uproarious stories with relish. He could be considerate too."

The frequent launch delays at Cape Canaveral provided an opportunity for staff dinners, and he enjoyed those, especially when it was his turn to choose the restaurant. Fat Boys BBQ, a short drive from the launch site, was a favorite. Everyone sat on the long benches at bare wooden tables and everyone was equal at Fat Boys.

He was very approachable though clearly in charge. He reminded me of the person who knows that he does important work and that secondarily he is important to the process. A star? In every respect, yes, but by no means a prima donna. Demanding? Yes. Especially when it came to the facts. He was not about to let his viewers down.

In the pre-laptop and blackberry days he traveled to Cape Canaveral with a very full 4-drawer steel file cabinet containing his precisely organized files. On one launch the plan was for him to leave the TV anchor booth at Cape Canaveral immediately following liftoff and fly by small private jet to Houston to continue coverage. He declared he would need his files on the plane with him, ready for the resumption of his reporting in Houston. I gasped when I thought of the weight on that small plane but the pilot agreed it would be OK. Though I have no flight training I felt this was a huge risk though I was given no choice. I will never forget the suspense as I stood on the runway watching takeoff – as the plane did not lift off till the last few feet of runway remained. He made it to Houston and with his files intact.

He wanted these files. They included every conceivable fact and factoid – from astronaut bios to critical dates and every imaginable fact about outer space. Those files gave him the assurance he could communicate on virtually any aspect of the space shot. And he used them, providing the succinct, absorbing delivery of the news we all knew then and now were the hallmark of what journalism is all about.

Times have changed since CBS News was the place to be and the place for news. But Walter’s influence is there for those who either witnessed him or studied him. For those who have not, it is their loss. Though the way we receive news now is split among 24/7 cable news, the networks, PBS, the Web and the social media, the influences are there.

Throughout all the media choices, the best communication will be based, as Cronkite knew so well, on the depth of facts. Without the facts, reporting – or in fact any communication regarding an issue - is shallow and of no value. In a crisis-prone world we need no less.

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Crisis Communicator is a publication of The Biegel Group, Inc., Washington DC. Len Biegel, President of The Biegel Group, is an internationally recognized crisis management and communications expert. His experiences range from the Tylenol tampering crisis to the events of 9/11 and Katrina. His work spans homeland security, the environment and travel, from outer space (for NASA) to major airlines; to the cruises and maritime industry. He is the author of Never Say Never: The Complete Executive guide to Crisis Management (Brick Tower Press, 2008).

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