Cronkite's moral concern that was shown throughout his carrer began at a young age when he witnessed an event that his father perceived as unjust. His family and another sat on the front porch, and African American delivery boy came to deliver ice cream. However, the moment he set foot on the porch, his neighbor jumped up and hit the delivery boy in the face and said, "That'll teach you, nigger, to put your foot on a white man's front porch." His father immediately moved the family, and Walter's view of injustice would be forever changed.
On the reporting front, he was known as "the most trusted man in America" and while he served 18 years as the lead anchor of the "CBS Evening News." Cronkite gained recognition for the first time during World War II as he reported from the fields of war. As a correspondent for the United, Walter reported on forces landing in Sicily and North Africa, the invasion of Normandy beach by the Allied forces many battles across Germany and France.
U.S. television journalist Walter Cronkite in Viet...
A title card still from the April 4, 1968 edition ...
English: Legendary CBS newsman Walter Cronkite spe...Cronkite was also well known for his membership in the "Writing 69th," a group of reporters that rode along during many Allied bombing missions over German lands. Again, in 1968, Cronkite got dirty on the battlefield to report on military offensives in Vietnam. However, Cronkite took a turn from his normal "unbiased" reporting and publicly stated that the war would end in a stalemate. Cronkite's statement would be regarded as an important one that publicy criticized the war in Vietnam.
http://www.pbs.org/weta/reportingamericaatwar/reporters/cronkite/