Editing Walter Cronkite (section)

=== Anchor of the ''CBS Evening News'' ===
[[File:CBS News Anchor, Walter Cronkite, Interviews President John F. Kennedy.jpg|thumb|Cronkite interviews President [[John F. Kennedy]] to inaugurate the first half-hour nightly news broadcast in 1963]]
On April 16, 1962, Cronkite succeeded [[Douglas Edwards]] as anchorman of CBS's nightly feature newscast, tentatively renamed ''Walter Cronkite with the News'',<ref name="kansas" /> but later the ''[[CBS Evening News]]'' on September 2, 1963, when the show was expanded from 15 to 30 minutes, making Cronkite the anchor of American network television's first nightly half-hour news program.<ref>Brinkley, p. 256.</ref> Cronkite's tenure as anchor of the ''CBS Evening News'' made him an icon in television news.<ref name="kansas" />

During the early part of his tenure anchoring the ''CBS Evening News'', Cronkite competed against [[NBC]]'s anchor team of [[Chet Huntley]] and [[David Brinkley]], who anchored ''[[The Huntley–Brinkley Report]]''. For much of the 1960s, ''The Huntley–Brinkley Report'' had more viewers than Cronkite's broadcast. A key moment for Cronkite came during his coverage of [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|John F. Kennedy's assassination]] on November 22, 1963.<ref name="Tierney (JFK assassination)">{{cite news|last1=Sneed|first1=Tierney|title=How John F. Kennedy's Assassination Changed Television Forever|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/11/14/how-john-f-kennedy-assassination-changed-television-forever|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820010101/https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/11/14/how%2Djohn%2Df%2Dkennedy%2Dassassination%2Dchanged%2Dtelevision%2Dforever|access-date=August 20, 2017|agency=U.S. News & World Report|date=November 14, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 20, 2017}}</ref> Another factor in Cronkite and CBS' ascendancy to the top of the ratings was that, as the decade progressed, [[RCA]] made a corporate decision not to fund [[NBC News]] at the levels that CBS provided for its news broadcasts. Consequently, CBS News acquired a reputation for greater accuracy and depth in coverage. This reputation meshed well with Cronkite's wire service experience, and in 1967 the ''CBS Evening News'' began to surpass ''The Huntley–Brinkley Report'' in viewership during the summer months.{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}}

In 1969, during the [[Apollo 11]] (with co-host and former astronaut [[Wally Schirra]]) and [[Apollo 13]] Moon missions, Cronkite received the best ratings and made CBS the most-watched television network for the missions.<ref name="Barron" /> In 1970, when Huntley retired, the ''CBS Evening News'' finally dominated the American TV news viewing audience. Although NBC finally settled on the skilled and well-respected broadcast journalist [[John Chancellor]], Cronkite proved to be more popular and continued to be top-rated until his retirement in 1981.<ref name="kansas" />

One of Cronkite's trademarks was ending the ''CBS Evening News'' with the phrase "...And that's the way it is," followed by the date.<ref name="KTVN Channel 2" /> Keeping to standards of objective journalism, he omitted this phrase on nights when he ended the newscast with opinion or commentary.<ref name="kansas" /> Beginning with January 16, 1980, Day 50 of the [[Iran hostage crisis]], Cronkite added the length of the hostages' captivity to the show's closing in order to remind the audience of the unresolved situation, ending only on Day 444, January 20, 1981.<ref>''CBS News Transcripts, January 16, 1980''.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/14/AR2009051403597.html|title=And That's the Way It Is – Or Is It?|last=Goodman|first=Ellen|date=June 17, 1980|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=July 18, 2009}}</ref>