Extra Word Sudoku Puzzle for Friday, 7/17/2009

A great man died this evening.

Walter Cronkite passed away after a long illness. He was 92.

Did you know that news anchors in Sweden are called “Kronkiters”?

The attribution “anchorman” was invented to fit Walter Cronkite.

I was a news anchor, reporter and producer for 20 years. I know what the job means. I was proud of being a reporter; I wanted to be an anchor to make money—because, the star system being what it is, anchors make more money than reporters. Not fair, but: there you are. Anchors get the easier schedule, and what fame comes with the job—not as much as you might think.

But reporting is where the action is. And if you take it seriously and do it right, where the importance lies: You’re responsible for delivering perspective to your viewers, listeners, readers. And with TV as your medium, you’re providing that perspective emotionally.

Walter Cronkite was a print/wire journalist long before he became a TV news reporter and anchorman. He embodied everything the next generation of TV news journalists—me and my colleagues, now in our 50’s!—wanted to be, wanted to do.

I never met Cronkite; I began my career in radio in 1980, but didn’t jump into TV until the fall of 1981, a few months after Cronkite passed CBS’s torch to Dan Rather. But I became a TV news reporter partly because of him.

I grew up with Cronkite in my living room. I heard him tell me President Kennedy was dead (Dan Rather actually broke the news, as a street reporter on the scene). Cronkite told us about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and RFK; Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis. He anchored the news that provided America perspective through the Vietnam War and landing on the moon, where he was almost giddy in his excitement: an excitement and awe we shared as a nation, through him.

Little wonder that Americans not only believed him: we believed in him.

Cronkite’s famous sign-off line will be remembered for all time.

IT HAD NEWS
9x9 Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column, 3x3 square and set of circled cells contains the letters in the phrase exactly once
Copy circled letters to the corresponding numbered cells in the quote grid to spell out the quote

Solution in the morning.

Thanks,
--Dave