And that's the way it was

Walter Cronkite, legendary newscaster, has passed away at the age of 92.

I wasn't even born when he retired, but I certainly realize what a tremendous influence he had on America. He was a reporter's reporter: every night he sat down in front of a camera and said what happened. Sometimes he did let his emotions show: he expressed his amazement and excitement at the Apollo 11, he shed a tear at Kennedy's assissnation, and - most famously - he laid bare his concerns about Vietnam, but only after plainly stating that what followed was his opinion, not fact.

He did not understand the idea of a newscaster as a celebrity and clearly wanted no part of that. He wanted to spread information, nothing more, and he did so magnificently. With his death, we perhaps lose the last of his breed: honest, trustworthy, hard-working television reporters, who see TV as a medium to communicate and inform for the greater good. Generations of Americans grew up trusting him, maybe more than any other public figure, and that's something not likely to ever happen again.

Rest in peace, Mr. Cronkite.