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Walter Cronkite, 1916-2009
Filed under: In Memoriam Tagged: Dana Fradon, In Memoriam, Michael J. Arlen, Walter Cronkite
Martin Schneider writes:
I think the people who do Emdashes are uniformly too young to remember Cronkite in the role that made him such a ubiquitously admired figure. Speaking for myself, to watch Dan Rather chafe so uncomfortably in the role he inherited was to witness the most palpable sign of Cronkite's distinction.
Every year, on January 1, the New Year's Concert, consisting mostly of waltz masterpieces, is broadcast worldwide from Vienna. I watch it most years. For as long as I can remember, Cronkite was the host for the American telecast, and he did a really good job every year. For someone who was supposed to represent "everyman" in some way, he did "high culture" awfully well too. In a way, he embodied the best of America, a sentiment I'm sure we'll be hearing plenty of in the days to come.
Judging from the archive, The New Yorker never really did a big Cronkite article. Perhaps I missed it. My guess is that he perhaps got very entrenched as a national icon a little too quickly, making a Profile almost irrelevant. As with Michael Jackson, The New Yorker generally approached Cronkite obliquely, in reviews, casuals, and cartoons.
Like this one:
About us
Hello! We are media enthusiasts and culture addicts—not to mention classically trained (as we like to say) professional journalists. This is our collection of generally civilized conversations about magazines, movies, politics, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
You'd like to read more about us individually? That's so nice! Here you can learn a lot more about the Emdashes team, the mysterious-sounding names of our daily and non-daily columns, and our guest contributors.
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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is currently written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. (Unsigned posts through October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.)
The site is designed and maintained by House of Pretty and illustrated by Jesse Ewing for Inkleaf Studio. Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (who also draws our daily comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The kissable Emdashes logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World; PDF, p. 20)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, man about town, and New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Report: Learning to read with comic books--that are edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
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