Editing Walter Cronkite (section)

=== Early years at CBS ===
In 1950, Cronkite joined CBS News in its young and growing television division, again recruited by Murrow. Cronkite began working at WTOP-TV (now [[WUSA (TV)|WUSA]]), the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.. He originally served as anchor of the network's 15-minute late-Sunday-evening newscast ''Up To the Minute'', which followed ''[[What's My Line?]]'' at 11:00&nbsp;pm ET from 1951 through 1962.

Although it was widely reported that the term "[[News presenter#News anchors|anchor]]" was coined to describe Cronkite's role at both the [[1952 Democratic National Convention|Democratic]] and [[1952 Republican National Convention|Republican]] National Conventions, marking the first nationally televised convention coverage, other news presenters bore the title before him.<ref name=OTM /> Cronkite anchored the network's coverage of the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952 presidential election]] as well as later conventions. In 1964 he was temporarily replaced by the team of [[Robert Trout]] and [[Roger Mudd]]; this proved to be a mistake, and Cronkite returned to the anchor chair for future political conventions.<ref>Brinkley, pp. 320–321.</ref>

From 1953 to 1957, Cronkite hosted the CBS program ''[[You Are There (series)|You Are There]]'', which reenacted historical events, using the format of a news report.<ref name="KTVN Channel 2" /> His famous last line for these programs was: "What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times ... and you were there." In 1971, the show was revived and redesigned to attract an audience of teenagers and young adults, hosted again by Cronkite on Saturday mornings.  In 1957, he began hosting ''The Twentieth Century'' (eventually renamed ''[[The 20th Century]]''), a documentary series about important historical events of the century composed almost exclusively of [[newsreel]] footage and interviews.  A long-running hit, the show was again renamed as ''The 21st Century'' in 1967 with Cronkite hosting speculative reporting on the future for another three years. Cronkite also hosted ''It's News to Me'', a game show based on news events.<ref name="NY times" />

During the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956 Cronkite hosted the CBS news-discussion series ''[[Pick the Winner]]''.

Another of his network assignments was ''The Morning Show'', CBS' short-lived challenge to [[NBC]]'s ''[[Today (NBC program)|Today]]'' in 1954.<ref name="CBS Trusted" /> His on-air duties included interviewing guests and chatting with a lion [[puppet]] named Charlemane about the news.<ref>{{cite news|title=Cronkite with Charlemane the Lion on CBS' ''The Morning Show'' (photograph)|work=CBS News|date=June 23, 2006|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2003/06/23/in_depth_showbiz/photoessay559943_1_9_photo.shtml?tag=page|access-date=August 2, 2009}}</ref> He considered this discourse with a puppet as "one of the highlights" of the show. He added, "A puppet can render opinions on people and things that a human commentator would not feel free to utter. I was and I am proud of it."<ref name="zurawik">{{cite news|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-zurawik-cronkitexxxx-story.html|author=Zurawik, David|title=Walter Cronkite, America's original anchorman, dies at age 92|work=The Baltimore Sun|date=July 18, 2009|access-date=February 17, 2022}}</ref> Cronkite also angered the [[R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company]], the show's [[sponsor (commercial)|sponsor]], by grammatically correcting its advertising [[slogan]]. Instead of saying "[[Winston tastes good like a cigarette should]]" verbatim, he substituted "as" for "like."<ref name="NY times">{{cite news|last=Martin|first=Douglas|title=Walter Cronkite, 92, Dies; Trusted Voice of TV|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=July 17, 2009|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/us/18cronkite.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries%20Martin,%20Douglas|access-date=August 2, 2009}}</ref>

He was the lead broadcaster of the network's coverage of the [[1960 Winter Olympics]], the first-ever time such an event was televised in the United States. He replaced [[Jim McKay]], who had suffered a [[mental breakdown]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/sports/19sandomir.html?ref=sports|author=Sandomir, Richard|title=Amid Blizzard, Cronkite Helped Make Sports History|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 19, 2009|access-date=August 2, 2009}}</ref>