Many a Saturday morning, back in the day...

was spent watching this TV show. It was called You Are There, and it was hosted by Walter Cronkite.



The coolest episode I can remember now was The Fall of Troy. You can imagine, me bein' a HUGE history nut, how cool the show was. It was the first thing I thought of when we walked into the house tonight and I found out that Mr. Cronkite had passed away. Whatever you think of him, you have to respect him.

Having said that, I don't respect the way he allowed his political feelings to mingle with his reporting. I don't respect the way he allowed his star power to turn him into a pundit.

I think he started much of what's wrong with journalism today. I'm sick of hearing what some reported thinks about an event. Cronkite should have gone to Vietnam in '68, as a journalist. But he never should have done the editorial after he came back. There are too many reporters doing editorials now. But you have to respect the way he handled the Kennedy assassination, and his heroic coverage of WW2. He was a real hero then. To me, that trumps much of what came after.

I was just a kid in the '70s. I remember seeing him on the news every night, and of course, every Saturday morning. He was another Texas boy who grew up to be somebody. May he rest in peace.