Jay Currie

Back when there were three American channels and a couple of Canadian I watched Cronkite. For thebody counts, the space launches – he was brilliant on Apollo – the scandals and, most of all, the sense that we were sharing “the news”.

The news has changed. I can’t remember the name of the next replacement. But, then again, I long ceased watching television news. It is always two days behind the net.

“News” itself has become contested. News used to be agreed upon facts. Now those “facts” have become uncertain. The Cronkite world ended when he left the air twenty years ago, before the internet, before Jon Stewart, before it was possible to simply assume that politicians were lying.

I will miss his convention coverage (back when conventions really were smoke filled rooms with back room deals and full of news) and the wonder he genuinely felt each time a human was hurled off the Earth atop an overgrown Roman Candle.

That the world has changed means that Cronkite will never be seen again. Which is sad. And right. And likely the way he would have liked it.