How did the three major American TV networks cover the news in their heyday, before 24-hour cable news networks debuted in 1980? The Off Ramp presents a 1966 interview with CBS TV Anchorman Walter Cronkite by newsman Don Michel. Off Ramp host Bob Smith and Michel discuss the evolution of journalism since the 1960s, lamenting the loss of integrity and objectivity. In the 1966 interview, Cronkite emphasizes the importance of honesty, accuracy, and responsibility in reporting, and details how his 30 minute daily product is prepared and produced. Cronkite also discusses the challenges of reporting on complex issues in the pre-satellite era, when 16 mm film footage was shuttled by jet plane from battlefields in Vietnam.
Outline
Journalism ethics with Walter Cronkite circa 1966.
- Speaking with Don Michel in 1966, Walter Cronkite discusses the importance of responsible journalism, emphasizing the value of truthful and unbiased reporting.
- In 2018, Michel and Bob Smith highlight the differences between modern and historical news coverage, including the lack of internet and instant access to information in Cronkite’s era.
- Walter Cronkite on reporting without bias: “We must simply be reporters of what is going on to the best of our ability – and truthfully – and then the people must make the decision as to what is right and what is wrong.”
- Bob discusses the many celebrities Michel interviewed. Michel reveals he trained as a classical musician, and eventually went into broadcasting, first as an engineer and then as an entrepreneur who owned a little radio station deep in Southern Illinois.
News media and Walter Cronkite’s career.
- Don Michel recounts his encounters with Buckminster Fuller and his wife.
- Don Michel and Bob Smith discuss the decline of journalism with a focus on Walter Cronkite as an exceptional figure in truthful reporting.
News broadcasting with Walter Cronkite.
- Cronkite discusses his career as a news anchor and his passion for informing the public.
- He shares his personal interests, including racing cars and space exploration, and how he would like to go into space if the opportunity arises.
- Cronkite discusses his desire to meet leaders in Africa, particularly those in developing nations, to understand their motivations and goals.
- He describes in detail the process of putting together the CBS Evening News, the gold standard for news reporting in the network TV era, including the roles of producers, correspondents, and affiliates in selecting and editing footage for the 30-minute nightly news summary.
- Cronkite describes how news stories are often updated in real-time during commercial breaks.
- Cronkite emphasizes the importance of original local news gathering vs. relying on network sources.
Responsible journalism and government interference.
- Cronkite discusses the responsibility of TV news anchors to present accurate and unbiased information, and how they make difficult decisions about what to air.
- Decisions are made in-house by the executive producer, line producers, and anchor — and can be controversial at times.
- Cronkite expresses regret over the arrogance of Washington officials towards the press vs. the public’s right to know.
- He continually emphasizes the importance of truthful reporting, noting that journalists have an obligation to speak the truth, not lies and distortions.
- Cronkite and Michel discuss the difficulty of distorting news in the Vietnam War era due to the obvious presence of television cameras.
- Cronkite and Michel whether the vividness of color broadcasting – then on the ascent –would distort Vietnam War coverage due to its vividness.
Radio broadcasting and interviews with notable figures.
- Smith and Michel discuss their experience at Michel’s small town radio station WRAJ, which featured interviews with world personalities despite its limited coverage area.
- Smith asks Michel how he overcame disadvantages to successfully interview so many major figures.
Politics, crime rate, and news coverage.
- Walter Cronkite and Michel discuss architect Buckminster Fuller and his potential for an episode of Cronkite’s documentary series The 20th Century.
- Cronkite speculate on the Republican presidential nomination of 1966, mentioning California Governor Ronald Reagan and others.
- Cronkite expresses alarm at US crime rates, suggesting a lack of imagination in solutions.
- Cronkite desires miniaturization of camera equipment and greater satellite use for cost-effective news coverage.
- Cronkite and his team aim to provide efficient news coverage for upcoming events, including an election and President Johnson’s Pacific trip to the Vietnam warzone.
Walter Cronkite and Don Michel’s interviews with famous people.
- Don Michel impressed Walter Cronkite with his deep questions concerning the network’s Vietnam war coverage interview – leading to a job offer from CBS news.
- Michel, a radio host and entrepreneur, had a diverse career spanning radio, writing, kitty litter products, consulting and the export of fine Russian crystal.
Bob Smith 0:01
It was a very different time.
Walter Cronkite 0:03
We all in the news business, understand our responsibility. There are a few irresponsible news people around. This is part of the training of a good journalist. Each word is weighed for its impact, for its honesty for its integrity. We must be simply reporters of what is going on to the best of our ability and truthfully, and then the people must make the decision as to what is right and what is wrong. If
Bob Smith 0:32
you’re a person of a certain age, that voice should sound familiar. It’s Walter Cronkite, the Dean of network TV newscasters from the 1960s through the early 1980s. He and his generation of journalists served up news in a far different fashion than today. Coming up on the off ramp, we’ll dip back in time to a reporter’s remarkable 1966 interview and hear how news used to be prepared with an interview with Walter Cronkite here on the off ramp with Bob Smith.
Welcome to the off ramp with Bob Smith. A chance to slow down steered clear of crazy take a side road to Saturday and get some perspective on life. Today we have a remarkable interview by a man I once worked for named Don Mitchell. One October day in 1966. Don caught up with one of the busiest men in the world. A Globetrotter named Walter Cronkite, who anchored what was then the most watched news program in America, the CBS Evening News. Now younger generations may tire of their elders bemoaning how news coverage today differs from what they grew up with. But unless you lived through that era, you don’t know how true that is. It was comparatively a golden era, when you could pretty much trust what you saw and heard. That’s because news was curated, gathered, shaped and validated by professional journalists. For a long time. There was no room for bias. To be sure it was a different time. There was no internet, no World Wide Web, no cable news, no way to instantly know what was going on at any time of the day somewhere else. And as a result, people lived their own lives, not vicarious ones. There was little fear of missing out. That’s not to say people were uninformed. We had newspapers every morning, and radio provided headline news. Hourly papers arrived again in the afternoon. And then at 6:30pm. Eastern Standard Time, the nation sat down to watch it’s prime time source of information, a 30 minute news summary of what was going on in the world broadcast by one of the three television networks.
Announcer 3:25
Direct from our newsroom in New York in color. This is the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and Eric Severide in Washington, Charles Collingwood in Paris. Morley Safer in London, Dan Rather at the White House, George Herman in Inglewood, California, Bill plant in Los Angeles, Hill stout in Los Angeles, and Howard Walker in Washington. Good evening, Senator Robert Kennedy remains in extremely critical condition tonight, the victim of an attempted assassination. Doctor say it is too early to determine the damage done to his brain.
Bob Smith 3:59
Ironically, Network News didn’t make money it drew people in but it didn’t pay the bills. TV networks made their money from entertainment news was a prestige product. Each network competed to become the most trusted source of information to attract the most viewers. They bent over backwards to be neutral, unbiased, giving voice to every side of an issue. That was the business model. The very best at this was CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System. And the man who headed up that effort was Walter Cronkite, not a news reader, but a news editor, a journalist with pretty experience who not only determined what went on the air, but how it went on the air. We
Walter Cronkite 4:44
must be simply reporters of what is going on for the best of our ability and truthfully, and then the people must make the decision as to what is right and what is wrong.
Bob Smith 4:54
That was recorded by Don Mitchell, one of the mentors early on My career, Dawn was amazing. He trained as a classical musician, and eventually went into broadcasting, first as an engineer and then as an entrepreneur who owned a little radio station deep in Southern Illinois. WR AJ in Anna was small in audience but big and stature. All thanks to Don broadcasting magazine wrote articles about him. He served on the United Press International Board of Directors. And year after year, he secured interviews with all kinds of people of note, thanks to his remarkable powers of persuasion. What kinds of people well, Buckminster Fuller, Ralph Nader, Peter Jennings, George Wallace, Ann Landers, Norman Vincent Peale. Nancy Reagan, heart surgeon Michael DeBakey. And Walter Cronkite are just a few of the scientists, politicians, activists, journalists, and entertainers he interviewed for his local audience. Don Mitchell was and is an inspiration today at age 88. He lives in Dallas, Texas. How did the Walter Cronkite interview come about? He
Don Michel 6:07
was going to come to Carbondale, Illinois to interview Buckminster Fuller and I mentioned that to Monico, my longtime receptionist and bookkeeper whom you know, and manita said he used to go with a girl from Adam. I should really so I made the race bus to meet him in Carbondale, and they’ve appointed time. I was sitting at a rental car outside of Buckminster Fuller’s dome home where he was going to do his interview. And as a restaurant guy now understand, used to go with the girl for a while I thought everybody’s forgotten about that. And before he left town, the chartered plane, he said, you asked about bed wetters that was her name. And I was on my way to the sea bed. And she actually got married on me. He was lucky that she did because she was a very beautiful but fickle girl. She was just graduated from high school and was killed in an auto accident less than a year later out with another man. So he was beautiful but fickle.
Bob Smith 7:30
Career wise, I think wasn’t he on his way to Kansas City at that point?
Don Michel 7:34
Yeah, she was he stopped in Kansas City and got a job and met his wife there. And they had a long happy marriage.
Bob Smith 7:44
Walter Cronkite at that time, he was probably the top anchor. And CBS News was king of the airwaves, NBC probably a close second. ABC was always the third cousin.
Don Michel 7:56
No doubt about it. He could have been elected president. He was so well respected at that time. And
Bob Smith 8:02
ever since then, I think his stature has grown even more as people look back and go Gee, I wish that’s the way they did the news today, where there was very little indication of what the person’s individual bias or preference might be politically.
Don Michel 8:19
So I’m afraid our profession has gone way down. You
Bob Smith 8:25
were lucky to or I should say you took the initiative to interview other news people Peter Jennings, Eric Severide, Marvin Kalb, Roger mod Harry reasoner, these people also were at the peaks of their careers at that time. How would you describe those men versus maybe the way you see the news media today?
Don Michel 8:46
Well, it was an entirely different world that the news media today is too concerned with celebrities. They need to go back more coverage of the truth period.
Bob Smith 9:04
Well, let’s take a listen to the man who is credited today with doing just that. Here is Don Mitchell and his interview from 1966. With Walter Cronkite,
Speaker 1 9:13
our guest on inside this week is Mr. Walter Cronkite, who is featured on the cover of this week’s Time magazine, a man who time calls the single most convincing and authoritative figure in television news. Mr. Cronkite certainly stands alone in his realm enjoying a unique position in his field. The name Walter Cronkite is synonymous for many with the term Space Shot coverage, special documentary series like the 20th century and everything that’s most important in general. Walter, it’s wonderful to have you as our guest this week on insight.
Walter Cronkite 9:41
Don, it’s good to be here. Carbondale in this rather rainy morning.
Speaker 1 9:45
I believe you did the CBS Evening News last night in New York, didn’t you? That’s
Walter Cronkite 9:49
right. But Benjamin are the executive producer of this documentary series that we’re here for and I flew out after the program last night
Speaker 1 9:57
and I understand it’s your to be on hand for the News again this evening in New York. I
Walter Cronkite 10:02
doubt we’re gonna make that I think I’m gonna have a substitute in there tonight. But I’ll be back on Wednesday.
Speaker 1 10:06
It’s a bit unusual to say the least for you to be on this side of the table being interviewed. You are a native Midwestern er, aren’t you?
Walter Cronkite 10:13
I was born in St. Joe, Missouri and brought up money my years in Kansas City, Missouri. And I have worked and traveled through this area very much. Actually, there are quite a few crime gates scattered around this part of the country and a number of them in the nation that the name and the family goes back to the original New Amsterdam colony. And it’s an old Dutch name.
Speaker 1 10:36
You’re no doubt best known to our listeners for your lead role in the CBS Evening News. And what size audience do you have for that newscast?
Walter Cronkite 10:44
Well, I think it runs around 15 to 20 million, and I, I can’t quite explain my calm and the face of that many viewers but it exists.
Speaker 1 10:54
What do you find most enjoyable about your work? Well,
Walter Cronkite 10:57
I’ve always been a newsman all my life. And I I like working with the product. News, I don’t think there’s a more important role than informing the public trying to inform them, keeping them abreast of the world in which they live. And merely doing the best job of getting the most information across and the time allotted to us, is a challenge and a satisfaction. You’re an old radio broadcaster, aren’t you? I did radio off and on from the very early days at the University of Texas and on through until I finally settled into the United Press, and spent 11 years there, many of them as a foreign correspondent before I came back to the states and joined CBS in 1950.
Speaker 1 11:40
Walter, do you ever have the urge to go up yourself on one of these space shocked?
Walter Cronkite 11:44
Well, I’ll admit that at the very beginning of the space program, I don’t think they could possibly have gotten me into a rocket or spacecraft. But now that the reliability seems to have been fairly well proved out, I have a tremendous urge to Yes, I certainly would like to
Speaker 1 12:00
go I saw a picture of you in the Time article in that the racing car and do you do much of that? And
Walter Cronkite 12:05
not any longer? I raced for a good number of years and enjoyed it immensely. And I still think it’s a marvelous sport. And, and a good one, but I don’t do it anymore.
Unknown Speaker 12:14
How long have you been with CBS now?
Walter Cronkite 12:16
I’ve been with CBS 16 years.
Unknown Speaker 12:18
You’re a family man, aren’t you? Oh, yes,
Walter Cronkite 12:20
I’ve got three children, two daughters, 18 and 16 and a boy nine.
Speaker 1 12:25
What sort of handicaps do you find in your social life considering your work and it’s unusual hours and demands upon your energies, things like making trips to the Midwest, overnight and being back in New York? I
Walter Cronkite 12:36
don’t find many handicaps but my would be hosts and hostesses find it pretty impossible. It’s very difficult to plan ahead any any event. And all social invitations are accepted on a if and as basis. One tonight in New York, for instance, which I may or may not make.
Speaker 1 12:56
Are you an apartment dweller? Or do you live in the suburbs?
Walter Cronkite 12:59
We live in Manhattan. A few doors from the mayor’s mansion and Gracie square. We’re known as mayor watchers in that community, in a brownstone house, a four story house that we bought about 10 years ago when, as Betsy says, We bred ourselves out of our apartment.
Speaker 1 13:20
You’ve met I believe most of the leaders of the world and probably interviewed a good many of them. I wonder, are there any that you’ve not met and have a deep desire to meet for some reason or the other? Oh,
Walter Cronkite 13:31
I think that probably most of them who I have not met, I would like to, I would like to see. I think I’d particularly like to spend time right now in Africa. I’m intrigued with the developing nations in Africa. And I have not had the opportunity to spend much time there and spend much time with the leaders of those nations. But I think that that is a coming continent, still an unknown one to us, what motivates them and what makes them go. And these are things that I’d like to know. Would you
Speaker 1 14:04
tell us how you put together the CBS Evening News? It’s a half an hour news cast and I’m sure that requires many hours of work on the part of many people. Just how is it put together? Well,
Walter Cronkite 14:14
it’s put together very much like a newspaper is put together. We have three producers for the program, executive producer and two assistants who are actually listed as producers one for news content that day and one for the sort of advance pieces the small pocket instant documentaries we do. In the morning we meet discuss the day’s news, what looks like coming up where our correspondents and cameramen are where we should disperse them to cover what we believe should make a part of the evening news. And then from there on out. It’s a matter of getting the film in viewing it looking at film, televised stories coming in from affiliates. stations on the circuit. Choosing that which we believe is the most important. And writing it and putting it together. It’s a complicated process to go through detail by detail. But that’s the basic foundation on what
Speaker 1 15:18
time do you actually do your newscast? And how is it showing in different parts of the country?
Walter Cronkite 15:24
Well, eastern time we broadcast for the first time at 630. And then that program is repeated at half hour intervals, right on up until the program was shown on the west coast at 930. Eastern Time 630 West Coast time. If there are no developing stories, no late film coming in, nothing that would change the program, that 630 program is repeated in TAC. Otherwise, we stand by and we update the program as needed.
Speaker 1 15:55
Is the program seen live in the New York area then?
Walter Cronkite 15:59
No, it’s not actually unless we do a repeat that’s shown there at seven o’clock half hour after it’s originally done. Since
Speaker 1 16:06
you started your career in radio. Mr. Cronkite, have you any thoughts on how radio as it stands today could benefit by certain changes? In other words, any ideas for the betterment of today’s radio?
Walter Cronkite 16:18
Well, I think the principal thing to do better radio and I assume we’re talking about radio news is simply expansion. I think that all stations local and the network’s as well. could use more correspondence more news gathering more original news gathering rather than dependence upon the old new sources of Associated Press, United Press, etc.
Speaker 1 16:42
I promised my sixth grader daughter Jane that I’d asked you a question for her to this morning, Walter. Gene would like to know what you do during the commercials on your CBS Evening News? Well,
Walter Cronkite 16:53
I suppose honestly, I pay attention to the commercial. Honestly, we’re updating the program even as we’re on the air. One of the facilities that we have built into our evening news program is a we photograph that program right in the news room, right where we work all day, and I moved from that chair. When I finished looking over the last piece of coffee, I simply put on my jacket and we go on the air. This gives us the facility to continue to work right through the program. And we don’t make a big thing of this by announcing bulletin or flash or we just had this off the hot off the wire anything of the sort, we simply update as we go along. And if we have not yet gotten to an item and there’s a new top on that items and new developments, writer handles that or he tells me and I ad lib into it so that we are absolutely current with a program. This we do quite honestly during the commercials or during a film piece which I have previously seen and do not have to watch at that moment. Here.
Speaker 1 17:53
Certainly one of the most influential persons living today with millions of people depending on you each evening for their news of the day. Some surveys have shown that people tend to believe TV news more than other media. Does this great responsibility ever weigh heavily on your shoulders, Walter Cronkite? Well,
Walter Cronkite 18:10
I think it weighs heavily on all of our shoulders in this business. And that goes for the our opposition news programs as well as our own. We are conscious of the responsibility we have. However, I think that despite the fact we have our viewers and listeners in the millions, you have yours in the 10s of 1000s that we all in the news business, understand our responsibility. There are a few irresponsible news people around. This is part of the training of a good journalist. Each word is weighed for its impact for its honesty for its integrity. This is true of all newsmen. Yeah,
Speaker 1 18:52
we get calls from very important persons indignant because they didn’t feel you dealt properly with today’s topics. In other words, there’s bound to be differences of opinion. Do they come to you?
Walter Cronkite 19:03
Yes, they do. We have we have phone calls at the end of programs, sometimes from the very highest people asking why we treated a story in a certain way. I must say that, that I think I can say with great honesty that this does not influence us.
Bob Smith 19:18
We’ll continue with Don Mitchell’s 1966 interview with Walter Cronkite in just a moment. And now back to Walter Cronkite as interviewed by Don Mitchell in 1966.
Speaker 1 19:33
In the field of news, there are oftentimes difficult decisions to make and where the decisions are so far reaching as in the case of an entire TV network are no doubt doubly difficult. The Time article refers to a picture report in August of 65, showing us Marines burning a Vietnamese villages the villagers wept. CBS correspondent Morley Safer related the story of how the Marines put the village to the torch. Wounded three women killed one baby wounded one Marine and netted for prisoners leveling 150 homes in retaliation for a burst of gunfire, which had come from the village earlier. Now this film footage I’m sure was the subject of much discussion on your part before it was aired on CBS, and a good bit of controversy after it was aired. Who has the decision to make in cases difficult ones such as this,
Walter Cronkite 20:19
that the decision is made right in our shop on the evening news on our executive producer analyzer, our producers Sandy Sokolow, and Ross Bensley. And I, we make them sometimes, in particularly difficult cases where we can’t agree among ourselves. We take the matter up with the higher echelon, but we’re under no directive. In any of this matter, its individual decision on each case,
Speaker 1 20:49
that same correspondent Morley Safer, was recently quoted in a news item that we came across a saying that the Assistant Secretary of Defense Arthur Sylvester, when he visited Saigon, that same summer of 65 told the correspondents there that they had a patriotic duty to disseminate only news that made the US look good. And network correspondent was quoted as saying, Surely, Arthur, you don’t expect the American press to be the handmaidens of government. And that Mr. Sylvester replied, Yes, that’s exactly what I do expect. He also quoted Assistant Secretary of Defense Sylvester saying, Look, I don’t even have to talk to you people. I know how to deal with you through your editors and publishers back in the States. He then has reported Sylvester is reported to have stuck out his tongue and made faces at the assembled correspondents in this encountered Saigon. Now the reason I’m going through this lengthy explanation is Walter Cronkite, since you are managing editor of the CBS Evening News, to which Mr. Safer sends his reports, you surely must have some thoughts on this story. Would you care to share them with it?
Walter Cronkite 21:48
I have some very specific thoughts. And they are said in regret more than an anger. There is a certain arrogance in Washington and not just in this administration, it’s been going on for some years, toward the press and the people’s right to know it is one of the dangers current in our democracy, that the management of news has become a philosophy in Washington and elsewhere. And it’s something that all of us in the news business must combat. And I assume we carry on that fight with the full support to the people who do have the right to know, these are our public servants. After all, Arthur Sylvester does have an obligation to speak to us, and to speak the truth to us not not lies and distortions. We do not have an obligation to support the administration or its policy in any way. We have an obligation, only one obligation that’s to tell the truth and all the truth. And that that’s the full statement of the situation at the moment. I think that we are more aware today of the dangers of managed news, and we have been in the past, Mr. Sylvester himself is on record as having said he believes it’s proper for the administration to manage the news. He said this during the Cuban Missile Crisis, I think we’ve pretty well knocked that down. But that’s not going to stop the attempts. We all want to create the news and our own image. I don’t mean we in the news business, I mean, all of us as citizens and people, we want the world to think the best of us. There are always cases a man whose news society pages a worst case a man whose news whoever heard about of a marriage announcement to telling who the girl used to go with. But, but this is no excuse. And in certainly the handling of the people’s business in Washington. We have no obligation, as I say, repeat again to the any administration. We do not even have an obligation in the sense of patriotism. We must be simply reporters of what is going on to the best of our ability and truthfully. And then the people must make the decision as to what is right and what is wrong.
Speaker 1 24:07
This particular story is really rather puzzling to the layman out in the out here in the Midwest, let’s say in that. Far as we’ve seen, there’s been no denials that this press conference was held to that Mr. Sylvester was incorrectly quoted. There’s been no legal action that I know of. And other words, the story stands and yet yet in itself is rather shocking. It seems what what is the layman to make of them? Well,
Walter Cronkite 24:30
I think the layman has to accept that at face value. on its head. It’s a shocking story and it’s shocking behavior on the part of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for information star Arthur Sylvester, it can’t be denied because the correspondents were all there. It wasn’t a one man story. It’s not one man’s word against another man’s. It’s a one match word against the entire News Corp practically in Saigon. And
Speaker 1 24:52
very recently we noticed a story about a a village that had been burned and the authorities in Saigon denied this and then acknowledged it the day later when news film was showing of the very event, World
Walter Cronkite 25:07
on interesting thing is they denied the story that common a burning that was denied for 24 hours until the film came in. They’re finding it a little difficult. I think this is one of the reasons that Mr. Sylvester is antagonism has been aroused. They’re finding it difficult to distort news today. Thanks to the that all seen and honest I have the camera. How
Speaker 1 25:28
do you achieve your daily picture coverage of the war in color? It is all in color, isn’t it?
Walter Cronkite 25:32
Yes, it’s we found that we can work in color as bad as well as worked in black and white. We were concerned about that for a while. But the technical considerations have not given us any major problems. And certainly, the war is vivid, almost too vivid in color. Interesting
Bob Smith 25:50
talk about color there and the use of it in covering the Vietnam War. Dawn, maybe we should just let’s talk about WR AJ for a minute.
Don Michel 26:00
Well, it was a small town music and news operation. And I don’t think we have many of those anymore.
Bob Smith 26:07
And Illinois was not a major metropolis in the United States.
Don Michel 26:11
population was 4800 souls.
Bob Smith 26:17
What was the power of WR AJ 500 Watts 500 Watts, a
Don Michel 26:22
three kilowatts FM. And in
Bob Smith 26:25
the scheme of things that’s a very small coverage area. Population
Don Michel 26:29
of our county was about 16,000. And that’s about our coverage area. Amazing.
Bob Smith 26:36
And yet you’re getting these world personalities, internationally known personalities. Pierre Salinger, who was JFKs. Press Secretary, you interviewed him? How did you get those folks? Well,
Don Michel 26:49
you know, the simple answer, just ask a follow up to that is, you’ve got to be ready to not waste their time number one, because their time is very precious. And they really appreciate that. There
Bob Smith 27:08
were other folks, you used to bring back interviews from your trips. And you’d come back in Oh, here I had an interview with Ann Landers, or here’s Norman Vincent Peale, who was one of the preeminent religious thinkers at the time. Michael DeBakey, the heart surgeon, it was just amazing how you did that? Well,
Don Michel 27:27
it’s just amazing how easy it is to get people if you’re thoroughly prepared, like a reasonable request to them. And it’s it’s amazing how easy it is to get people to, to do your answers.
Bob Smith 27:46
I remember one day coming down to the station in the evening. And Colonel Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken comes out the door and you said, Bob Smith, I’d like you to meet Colonel Harland Sanders.
Don Michel 28:00
Remember that well, he was in town to to give an award to the couple who owned Kentucky Fried Chicken and Adam for the extra claim.
Bob Smith 28:14
Now you say you just have to be well prepared. But I would imagine today it’s much harder to get to these kinds of personalities. There’s so many people to go through. Was it that way back then and you just happen to navigate through their people easily. It’s
Don Michel 28:29
amazing how easy it is to navigate through people issues, know where you’re going and are very well prepared and and make reasonable request. Okay,
Bob Smith 28:41
let’s continue now with your interview with Walter Cronkite from October 1966. We
Speaker 1 28:49
did the first portion of our interview this morning with Walter Cronkite sitting in a car outside the dome home of our Buckminster Fuller the man who is the reason for Walter Cronkite’s visit to Southern Illinois with a CBS film crew. Now after that CBS interview has been completed at mid afternoon we are enroute with Walter Cronkite to the airport where where he will catch a charter plane to return to New York. Walter Had you met Buckminster Fuller before today?
Walter Cronkite 29:13
No, I had not certainly a delightful experience. We we filmed him for our 21st Century program, which is the successor debuting in January to our long run 20th Century program. And of course, he’s one of the outstanding futurists thinkers in this area. It was a little bit like coming to Mecca to come here to Carbondale I’m talking to
Speaker 1 29:36
you do expect to use this in the 21st century you say starts in January? Well, it’d be a program devoted to our Buckminster Fuller, will this be an insert in one of the programs?
Unknown Speaker 29:45
Well, it’s
Walter Cronkite 29:46
a little hard to answer that question quite yet done. We have intention to use much of the material and probably several of the programs the 21st century since his range of knowledge and compasses so many areas of of the future. But I must say that the the material we gathered today was so fulsome that by Benjamin Our executive producer I can see the wheels turning even now, it’s thinking about a Buckminster Fuller program. Maybe it’ll turn out to be 21st century presents Buckminster Fuller for the whole series. Actually,
Speaker 1 30:21
he shot some 20 or 30 reels of 400 foot reels of color film in there, didn’t you? I think we did. How many people were involved in this particular flying trip for CBS?
Walter Cronkite 30:33
10? I think the answer is it’s a but Benjamin holding up both hands. And I think he’s got five fingers on both.
Speaker 1 30:39
When you get to make any predictions at this point as to who the Republicans will nominate for President in the next presidential election. There’s quite a bit of speculation arising on that now. Well,
Walter Cronkite 30:49
no, the election of course, and next month is going to make a great deal of difference. It’s going to perhaps place some candidates before the Republican Party. The kind of run Romney makes in Michigan, of course will be influential. First he’s raised here in Illinois will be influential Mark Hatfields race in Oregon. Ronald Reagan has to be considered a possibility and his race and California will have a lot to say.
Speaker 1 31:21
I noticed on your CBS Evening News last evening, speaking of Ronald Reagan that he was interviewed there by Eric Severide. And Eric asked him if he cared to make a pledge that he wouldn’t run for President if he were elected for for governor in California. And what did you make of the answer?
Walter Cronkite 31:37
Well, I made the answer that Ronald Reagan has the same problem every politician has when he’s asked that question, what do you say when you’re running for a state office? As to whether you’re going for the Big Apple or not? You obviously can’t say that. This is I’m just using this as a stepping stone. Although it’d be refreshing if some congressmen or some gubernatorial candidates said it sometime. Obviously, any man in politics is going to be open to a bid for the presidential nomination. And I think the fact that we correspondents keep asking the question is not that we expect to elicit a a straightforward answer, but to just sort of tease the candidate into seeing what kind of answer he can come up with and papers about hope that we’ll hit that Bonanza someday, and they’ll say, I’m going for the presidency. This is just a waystation.
Speaker 1 32:34
It’s been a great deal of discussion about the increasing crime rate here in the US the alleged the degradation of morals in the country. Do you feel there’s cause for alarm in this matter?
Walter Cronkite 32:45
Well, yes, I think there’s cause for alarm. I think perhaps the greatest cause for alarm is not so much that it’s increasing is that we don’t seem to be tackling it with a very much of imagination or initiative. Of course, the long range solutions and education and then economic Betterment is, is obviously fundamental. What we do about it right now is something that seems to me it should be attracting some more interesting solutions and have been brought forward so far. According
Speaker 1 33:21
to that article in Time about you, Walter Cronkite, you consider the network’s to be doing a first rate job of news dissemination. But still, depending on the two wire services, AP and UPI for their basic news. If this is a direct quote, do you foresee a change in that situation? Do you have any suggestions on how it can be improved or overcome? Well,
Walter Cronkite 33:43
obviously, the ideal solution is to have more reporters for the great news organizations of the network’s to put out more people on the street, so to speak. But I don’t really know economically, how we’re going to handle this problem in the future. I think that we should have more people in Washington and more people in no news generating areas. But whether we’re in ever duplicate the wire services and have a network of correspondents all over the United States around the world is something else again,
Speaker 1 34:18
Walter Cronkite, if you had your druthers, as regards news coverage in this country, is there something that you would like to see happen more than anything else?
Walter Cronkite 34:28
You mean a news event?
Speaker 1 34:29
Well, if as regarding the means of news coverage, the the development of news coverage, what would you like to see in
Walter Cronkite 34:37
our own field? Yes, I’d like to see miniaturization of camera equipment, primarily. That and something which I think will come very shortly and that’s the use of satellites to to reduce the cost of long range transmission of video pictures, but primarily the miniaturization of film equipment which would give have us so much greater mobility and flexibility than we have now.
Speaker 1 35:04
I think we’re enjoying a good demonstration of that as far as the radio end of it right now, because had it not been possible for us to have a transistor tape recorder today, I don’t imagine I’d have gotten the chance to have this detail interview with you. And we’re enjoying the last part of it now, as we’re nearing the Southern Illinois airport. And you’re a very efficient young man, Bob Puglisi. There is taking us on a half flying ride. You have a charter plane to catch her, don’t you? Because
Walter Cronkite 35:28
we’re hoping to make a connection in St. Louis, and with some good fortune. Well, Megan,
Unknown Speaker 35:34
do you think you’ll make your newscast this evening? No, I’m
Walter Cronkite 35:37
not trying to do that. We’re just trying to get back to take care of some other business we got an election to prepare for in New York, which takes a great deal of time and effort. We got another Space Shot coming up the day after the election. And we got President Johnson up winging over the Pacific, which involves a great deal of coordination for us and news coverage. I need to get back for all of those things. Well, Walter Cronkite,
Unknown Speaker 35:59
thank you very much.
Walter Cronkite 36:00
Thank you, Don.
Bob Smith 36:02
Listening to that 50 some odd years later, that is a very impressive interview. But Walter Cronkite was impressed by you too.
Don Michel 36:10
Well, I really was impressed him about the interview was that I got into some rather deep questions regarding coverage that was happening in Vietnam at that time. It piqued his interest and my interest in truth and reporting. They gave me a copy but note that he wrote that said, I met this young man, a man of Illinois and one of the things you see impressed me with was he did not ask me for a job in New York. Don
Bob Smith 36:45
is actually selling himself a little short there because Walter Cronkite actually described Don Mitchell to CBS corporate brass as quote, the brightest young man to come into my focus in some time, unquote. That was about 35 years old at the time and weeks later, the network called him to Chicago to offer him a job. But Don didn’t want to move to Chicago where CBS wanted to make a place for him. They
Don Michel 37:11
called to Chicago. And I was thrilled by the
Bob Smith 37:16
recognition. And I believe it was WB BM called you up that was the Chicago owned and operated radio station, Chicago and that
Don Michel 37:25
I did not pursue it as aggressively as you might imagine. Because Anna, Illinois, where I was living, that was an idyllic place to raise a family. My daughter, Jane, who is now a TV anchor here in Dallas, and my son, David, who has started four different companies. They went through the Anna Jonesborough Community High School, public high school, of course,
Bob Smith 37:55
I was always impressed by the fact that your family came first. And the small community where I worked for you was was such an idyllic place and obviously a great education because your kids went on to do great things. Don Mitchell was truly a Renaissance man. He didn’t need CBS to be successful. In addition to his radio work, he authored articles for Reader’s Digest and Norman Vitsin peels, guideposts magazine. He was into other businesses as well. For a time he became one of the nation’s top kitty litter manufacturers. His father in law owned hundreds of acres of clay soil along the Ohio River and Don and his in laws turn that into gold with their absorbent clay products company. On many of those business trips, Don would stop at various cities along the way and continue interviewing celebrities he arranged to meet in the late 1870s he sold the radio station and went to kitty litter full time. Next, he started a consultancy that specialized in helping manufacturers develop products from factory waste. And in the 1990s when the Iron Curtain fell, Don and his wife Marian began exporting fine china crystal and other products from Russia and Eastern Europe. I learned a lot from Don Mitchell. He didn’t put all his eggs in one basket. He saw life as a smorgasbord, not a single entree meal. He was content to live comfortably in a small town where through sheer force of will, he was able to attract all kinds of famous people to speak on his radio station.
Don Michel 39:32
Well, I’ve had I’ve had a thrilling career. I really have. I had a lot of fun interviewing these wonderful, well known people.
Bob Smith 39:43
And Thank you Don for giving us permission to listen to more of those interviews in upcoming episodes of the off ramp. Don’s interviews can be accessed anytime anywhere from the Southern Illinois University collections website. Just go to the web and search for Don Mitchell spelled mi ch E L. Insight interviews. We hope you’ve enjoyed this look at Walter Cronkite. And how the news was gathered, curated and presented in the not so long ago. This has been the off ramp with Bob Smith. Thanks for listening.
The off ramp with Bob Smith is produced in association with CPL radio and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
