"The most trusted man in America" dies: RIP Walter Cronkite

CNN) -- "Walter Cronkite, the CBS anchorman known as "Uncle Walter" for his easygoing, measured delivery and "the most trusted man in America" for his rectitude and gravitas, died Friday night in his New York home, CBS reported. Cronkite was 92. Cronkite covered World War II's Battle of the Bulge, the Nuremberg trials, several presidential elections, moon landings, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Watergate scandal of President Richard M. Nixon's administration. At his height of influence as CBS anchorman, Cronkite's judgment was believed so important it could affect even presidents. In early 1968, after the Tet Offensive, Cronkite traveled to Vietnam and gave a critical editorial calling the Vietnam War "mired in stalemate."

Noting Cronkite's commentary, President Lyndon Johnson reportedly said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." Johnson announced he would not seek re-election less than two months later."

At the time Cronkite entered the medium of television, TV was to the world, what the Internet is today. An infant, a newcomer. He was and always will live as a pioneer and sadly, throngs will not gather at the Staples Center for an all-star memorial service. Let's just bid him farewell quietly. He would have liked that. He will be missed.