A Reluctant Big Shot

"A Reluctant Big Shot" is an article first published in The Nation on March 7, 1981 and reprinted in the collection Vonnegut By The Dozen in 2013.

Summary

Walter Cronkite

At the press conference announcing the coming retirement of Walker Cronkite from the CBS Evening News after nearly two decades, there was an unspoken solemnity which recognized that Cronkite had become America's accidental "electronic monarch." Fortunately, no one has the sense that America has lost a leader, but rather a wise and kindly village teacher, even if the village is a whole nation. Cronkite himself has made this possible by always being clear that he had no political ambitions and would have been content remaining an obscure print journalist.

This baffles the American mind which demands that everyone snatch each opportunity for power, wealth, and fame made available by life. Just as George Washington could have been king, Cronkite could have used his nationwide forum to his own benefit, but refused. He has refrained from "rudeness to any political faction," but in so doing may have encouraged Americans to believe that there is more sanity, wisdom, and agreement that there really is in this "acrimoniously pluralist society." His only political concern seems to be for freedom of the press, and he still thinks that his assistants are the ones doing all the real work, which is what he'd rather be doing. In the end, Cronkite's departure is less an abdication than the end of the era of old newspapermen.