A Reporter's Life by Cronkite, Walter - 1996

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Stated First Edition. Quarter black cloth with black paper over boards and gilt titling on spine. Fine/fine. INSCRIBED "For Michael Keith - Any friend of Steve Scarpa's is a frend of mine! All the best Walter Cronkite", 6.25" x 9.25", pp. 4-384 with 16 pp. of black and white photos. Book is in fine condition with DJ having shelf neighbor book light rub on the black glossy cover and a dab of tag adhesive on rear.<br /> <br /> Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (1916 - 2009) was once called "the most trusted man in America" for his renown journalism as the anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years ('62-'81). He informed 22 million Americans nightly with his reporting on such historical events as the bombings in World War II; the Nuremberg trials; combat in the Vietnam War; Watergate; the Iran Hostage Crisis; and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Beatles musician. His cultural legacy is the sign-off salutation; "And that's the way it is." Extensive coverage of the U.S. Space program earned him the Ambassador of Exploration award as well as his cumulative career work which earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. "Can a potential voter really take a campaign seriously after he or she has been escorted by television backstage to be shown how the managers transform their candidates into actors? Certainly if that is the way the political game is going to be played, we citizens had better know about it. But the healthy skepticism that the television coverage invites can soon give rise to unhealthy, potentially mortal, public cynicism about government." (p. 378).