追悼Walter Cronkite
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT MEMORIAL SERVICE IN HONOR OF WALTER CRONKITE
Lincoln Center New York, New York
12:37 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much.
To Chip, Kathy, and Nancy, who graciously shared your father with a nation that loved him; to Walter's friends, colleagues, protégés, and all who considered him a hero; to the men of the Intrepid 1 ; to all of you who are gathered here today; I am honored to be here to pay tribute to the life and times of the man who chronicled our time. 海口景点
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I did not know Mr. Cronkite personally. And my regret is made more acute by the stories that have been shared here today. Nor, for that matter, did I know him any better than the tens of millions who turned to him each night in arch of the answer to a simple question: "What happened today?" But like them and like all of you, I have benefited as a citizen from his dogged pursuit of the truth, his passionate 2 defen 3 of objective reporting, and his view that journalism 4 is more than just a profession; it is a public good vital to our democracy.
Even in his early career, Walter Cronkite resisted the temptation to get the story first in favor of getting it right. He wanted to get it first, but he understood the importance of getting it right. During one of his first jobs in Kansas City, Walter's program manager urged him to go on the air reporting a massive blaze -- and we just heard how much he loved fires -- a massive blaze at city hall that had already claimed lives. When Walter reached for the telephone, his boss asked, "What are you doing; get on the air!" Walter replied that he was calling the fire department to confirm the story. "You don't need to co
nfirm it," the manager shouted, "my wife is watching the whole thing!" Needless to say, Walter made the call, and even as the program manager took to the air himlf to broadcast the unfolding tragedy, Walter discovered that it had been nothing more than a small fire that hadn't resulted in any injuries. He lost his job -- but he got the story right.
Walter wasn't afraid to rattle 5 the high and the mighty 6 , either; but he never dared to compromi his integrity. He got along with elected officials, even if they were wary 7 of one another's motives 8 . One politician once remarked, "Walter, my friend, you've got to believe me, fully 9 85 percent of everything I told you today is the absolute truth." (Laughter.)
He shared a complicated relationship with Presidents of both parties, who wanted him on their side even as they were convinced that he wasn't. President Johnson called Walter after the evening news from time to time to voice his displeasure over a certain story. But Walter knew that if he was receiving vociferous 10 complaints from both sides, he must
be doing his job.
His endless inquisitiveness 11 about our world, I can imagine, came from a mother who sold encyclopedias 12 for a living. As a boy, Walter spent countless 13 hours getting lost within their pages, endlessly sidetracked by new and interesting entries that branched off from one another, fascinated by the world around us and how it worked.
And that's the way he lived his life -- with curiosity, exploring our planet, eking to make n of it and explaining it to others. He went everywhere and he did everything. He raced cars and boats; he traveled everywhere from the Amazon to the Arctic; he plunged 14 8,000 feet below the a, trekked 15 18,000 feet up into the Himalayas, and experienced weightlessness in the upper reaches of our atmosphere -- all with one mission: to make it come alive for the rest of us.
And as our world began to change, he helped us understand tho changes. He was for
祝大家除夕快乐ever there, reporting through world war and cold war; marches and milestones 16 ; scandal and success; calmly and authoritatively 17 telling us what we needed to know. He was a voice of certainty in a world that was growing more and more uncertain. And through it all, he never lost the integrity or the plainspoken speaking style that he gained growing up in the heartland. He was a familiar and welcome voice that spoke 18 to each and every one of us personally.
So it may have emed inevitable 19 that he was named the most trusted man in America. But here's the thing: That title wasn't bestowed 20 on him by a network. We weren't told to believe it by some advertising 21 campaign. It was earned. It was earned by year after year and decade after decade of painstaking 22 effort; a commitment to fundamental values; his belief that the American people were hungry for the truth, unvarnished and unaccompanied by theatre or spectacle. He didn't believe in dumbing down. He trusted us.
When he was told of this extraordinary honor that he was the most trusted man in America, he naturally downplayed it by saying the people had not polled his wife. (Laughter.) When people of both political parties actually tried to recruit him to run for office, without even asking for his stances on the issues, he said no -- to the relief of all potential opponents. And when, even a decade and a half after his retirement 23 , he still ranked first in ven of eight categories for television journalists, he was disbelieving that he hadn't won the eighth category, "attractiveness." (Laughter.)
Through all the events that came to define the 20th century, through all our moments of deepest hurt and brightest hope, Walter Cronkite was there, telling the story of the American age.
And this is how we remember him today. But we also remember and celebrate the journalism that Walter practiced -- a standard of honesty and integrity and responsibility to which so many of you have committed your careers. It's a standard that's a little bit har
der to find today. We know that this is a difficult time for journalism. Even as appetites for news and information grow, newsrooms are closing. Despite the big stories of our era, rious journalists find themlves all too often without a beat. Just as the news cycle has shrunk, so has the bottom line.
咨询出国留学 And too often, we fill that void with instant commentary and celebrity 24 gossip and the softer stories that Walter disdained 25 , rather than the hard news and investigative journalism he championed. "What happened today?" is replaced with "Who won today?" The public debate cheapens. The public trust falters 26 . We fail to understand our world or one another as well as we should –- and that has real conquences in our own lives and in the life of our nation. We em stuck with a choice between what cuts to our bottom line and what harms us as a society. Which price is higher to pay? Which cost is harder to bear?
"This democracy," Walter said, "cannot function without a reasonably well-informed elect
甜杨桃orate 27 ." That's why the honest, objective, meticulous 28 reporting that so many of you pursue with the same zeal 29 that Walter did is so vital to our democracy and our society: Our future depends on it.
Walter was no naive 30 idealist. He understood the challenges and the pressures and the temptations facing journalism in this new era. He believed that a media company has an obligation to pursue a profit, but also an obligation to invest a good chunk 31 of that profit back into news and public affairs. He was excited about all the stories that a high-tech 32 world of journalism would be able to tell, and all the newly-emerging means with which to tell it.
Naturally, we find ourlves wondering how he would have covered the monumental stories of our time. In an era where the news that city hall is on fire can sweep around the world at the speed of the Internet, would he still have called to double-check? Would he have been able to cut through the murky 33 noi of the blogs and the tweets and th
pretended
e sound bites to shine the bright light on substance? Would he still offer the perspective that we value? Would he have been able to remain a singular figure in an age of dwindling 34 attention spans and omniprent media?
俯卧撑可以减肥吗 And somehow, we know that the answer is yes. The simple values Walter Cronkite t out in pursuit of -- to ek the truth, to keep us honest, to explore our world the best he could -- they are as vital today as they ever were.
Our American story continues. It needs to be told. And if we choo to live up to Walter's example, if we realize that the kind of journalism he embodied 35 will not simply rekindle 36 itlf as part of a natural cycle, but will come alive only if we stand up and demand it and resolve to value it once again, then I'm convinced that the choice between profit and progress is a fal one -- and that the golden days of journalism still lie ahead.
Walter Cronkite invited a nation to believe in him -- and he never betrayed that trust. That
's why so many of you entered the profession in the first place. That's why the standards he t for journalists still stand. And that's why he loved and valued all of you, but we loved and valued Walter not only as the rarest of men, but as an indispensable pillar of our society.
He's reunited with his beloved Betsy now, watching the stories of this century unfold with boundless 37 optimism -- every so often punctuating 38 the air with a gleeful "oh, boy!" (Laughter.) We are grateful to him for altering and illuminating 39 our time, and for the opportunity he gave to us to say that, yes, we, too, were there. 猜灯谜活动
Thank you very much. (Applau.)
END 12:50 P.M. EDT
