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Cronkite was one the last TRUE REAL journalists. Today's Lame Stream Media have nothing but Talking Heads spewing PROPAGANDA It was 42 years ago today, March 6, 1981, that news anchor Walter Cronkite signed off “The CBS Evening News” for the final time, stating his tag line, “That’s the way it is.” The phrase was more than just a signature ending of his nightly newscast. It was a statement that his newscast was designed to, as he put it, “hold up the mirror — to tell and show the public what has happened.” Together with Huntley-Brinkley, Cronkite presided over the era in which television overcame newspapers as the source where most Americans got their news. The news agenda that sparked water cooler conversations was set largely by CBS and NBC at 6:30 each evening, providing a common and generally measured baseline from which to understand and debate the nation’s issues. News consumers didn’t have media echo chambers in which to retreat. National and international news came from network television or from wire service accounts in local newspapers. Cronkite’s broadcast rarely had news of pop culture, as he preferred to keep the focus squarely on hard news. The CBS hierarchy offered Cronkite the opportunity to do commentary in his nightly newscasts — but he declined. Cronkite believed doing commentary was inconsistent with his news anchoring duties and would diminish his credibility with viewers who wanted just the news. He strayed from this position on two noteworthy occasions. One was after his visit to Vietnam in 1968, in the wake of the Tet offensive. In a special report during prime time, Cronkite provided his analysis that the Vietnam conflict was headed toward a stalemate and not going as well as the LBJ administration was asserting. But his commentary was brief, to the point, and separated from the actual reporting by commercial breaks. He also made a point to tell viewers his commentary remarks were speculative and personal. Cronkite’s other venture into opinion was in 1973 upon the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew. Agnew had been point man for the Nixon administration’s criticism of the news media. Cronkite opined briefly that a “free press must fight any attempt to intimidate it,” as he said Agnew had tried to do.