Cronkite, Walter Leland, Jr (1916– )

US broadcast journalist. He was one of the first US journalists to cover World War II, writing about the European front for United Press, a news agency, and was anchor of the national evening news programme for CBS, a US television network, from 1962 to 1981. He covered nearly every presidential election and convention 1952–1980. An influential journalist and public figure, he was identified as ‘most trusted man’ by the American public in opinion polls during the Watergate scandal.

Born in St Joseph, Missouri, he worked for the Houston Post after leaving university, before joining the United Press in 1937. On hosting the CBS Evening News, he became a household name in the USA and his reports began to influence public opinion greatly. After retiring as news anchor, Cronkite served on the CBS board of directors until 1991, and produced a number of television programmes, including The Cronkite Report on the Discovery channel, which examined social problems in America. At the age of 82, in 1998, he was the co-presenter (with Miles O'Brien) of the CNN news coverage of the space flight of the 77-year-old astronaut John Glenn. Cronkite had covered Glenn's first orbital flight in 1962 for CBS.