An Open Letter to CBS News
July 20, 2009
Sean McManus
President, CBS News
527 W. 57th St. New York
Dear Mr. McManus:
On behalf of the faculty and staff of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, I would like to express our sadness at the passing of Walter Cronkite and extend our sympathies to the Cronkite family and those closest to him at CBS News.
In 1998, then Murrow School Director Dr. Alex Tan presented Mr. Cronkite with the Washington State University Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award, one of the mountain of such honors he so deservedly received over his career. Other CBS luminaries who have received the award include Sir Howard Stringer, Daniel Schorr, Don Hewitt and, this year, Bob Schieffer.
It was, of course, WSU alumni Edward R. Murrow who had the vision to hire Cronkite and we have always felt he was a part of our extended professional family. In this age of media fragmentation, it is hard to envision another journalist filling the shoes of those two giants of broadcast news, but it is our fervent hope that we can, in some small way, safeguard their legacy by instilling in future generations of reporters the integrity and ethics that Murrow and Cronkite brought to the newsroom.
On a personal note, as a young CBS News correspondent in the early 1980s, I vividly remember the sense of awe I felt when first ushered into Walter’s office, the warmth with which I was received, and the ongoing encouragement and support that he extended until his retirement. Reporting is about being in the right place at the right time and the vagaries of news meant that my report on a Middle East hijacking was among the stories on Walter’s final broadcast of The CBS Evening News. It was a piece of luck that I will always cherish.
Sincerely,
LE Pintak
Lawrence Pintak
Founding Dean
The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication
Washington State University