Newswatch: The Age of Cronkite Passes

For nearly 20 years now, millions of Americans have first learned about the bad news—and sometimes the good—from the reassuring baritone of Walter Cronkite. With his retirement this week as anchorman from the CBS Evening News goes the man who more than anyone else has shaped and given stature to the role. In the fickle high-risk arena of television, where admiration swiftly changes to boredom or dislike, Cronkite, "the most trusted man in America," has been the stablest on-screen presence of them all. His departure is forcing a restudy, at all three networks,...