As the biographer took the stage and removed his tie, he began to tell the story of Walter Cronkite’s life to students and community members in the Walter Cronkite School, standing behind the podium bearing the same name.
Dr. Douglas Brinkley, author of the biography “Cronkite,” gave a brief recap of Cronkite’s life in the First Amendment Forum for the last Must See Monday of the semester, making sure to include exciting stories about the school’s namesake.
Brinkley told the story of when he first met Cronkite at the publishing party for Brinkley’s first book. Brinkley said he began to talk with Cronkite, who then brought up a story about the two of them sailing together in the past.
“It dawned on me that he thought I was David Brinkley’s son, who used to be the anchor of NBC News,” Brinkley said.
After informing Cronkite that he was not, in fact, the news anchor’s son, Brinkley said he saw Cronkite sneaking out.
Brinkley told stories of Cronkite covering wars, working for various news organizations and anchoring for CBS’s television station.
One particular story covered Cronkite’s dedication to factual journalism. When Cronkite was young and working at KCMO radio, Brinkley said his boss came in during a commercial break. He told Cronkite to report that people died in a fire at City Hall.
After asking for the source, the boss told Cronkite that his wife had told him. Cronkite refused to announce the story until it was double-checked. In the end, the boss took the microphone and reported that three people had died. No one died.
At the end, Brinkley addressed the students and said, “You’re going to be carrying the Cronkite name forward for the rest of your life.”
Many said they were pleased with Brinkley’s presentation, including Dean of the Walter Cronkite School and Vice Provost for the Downtown campus Christopher Callahan.
“Honestly, I could have listened to that all night,” Callahan said.
Callahan said around 170 people attended and that he was surprised so many showed up.
“That’s a big crowd for the day before the end of the semester,” Callahan said.
Before his presentation, Callahan said Brinkley was shown around the school and taped tonight’s episode of Channel 8’s Arizona Horizons.
“So while we were here listening to Doug, the rest of Arizona was at home listening to Doug,” Callahan said.
Earlier today, John Craft, professor and curator of the Cronkite Gallery, showed Brinkley the school’s museum.
Craft said Brinkley was interested in many things in the museum, but especially the Cronkite memorabilia, including Cronkite’s Emmy award and the typewriter he used to write the evening news.
Craft said he also enjoyed Brinkley’s presentation.
“He can talk about his topic as well as he can write about his topic,” Craft said. “Some people are talkers, some people are writers, but somebody who can do both, that’s fantastic.”
“Cronkite” was being sold at the event, and Brinkley signed copies after the presentation.
Brinkley said he had visited the school once before in the summer while writing his book, but this was his first time talking at the school. He said he would like to come back.
“I hope this is the beginning of a long-term friendship between ASU and myself,” Brinkley said.
Contact the reporter at danika.worthington@asu.edu
