Walter Cronkite dies

In 1996, Paul Taylor, a former politics reporter at The Inquirer and the Washington Post, persuaded Mr. Cronkite to serve on the board of Taylor's Alliance for Better Campaigns. The goal of the alliance was to pressure television to improve its coverage of politics.

Mr. Cronkite "felt passionately that the broadcast industry had an obligation to keep people informed about elections and that they weren't doing a very good job of it," said Taylor, now executive vice president of the Pew Research Center in Washington. "He did not like the 30-second ad or the 8-second sound bite."

And Mr. Cronkite "was quite willing to use the moral authority he had gained as a broadcaster," Taylor said. "He used his halo to bash his former employers over the head."

Mr. Cronkite underwent heart bypass surgery in 1997, but he soon went back to work in cable TV, his haven after his long association with CBS ended.

In 1998, for CNN, he coanchored the coverage as former Mercury astronaut Sen. John Glenn returned to space at age 77 aboard the shuttle Discovery. In 1962, Mr. Cronkite had covered Glenn when he became the first American to orbit Earth.

To the end, Uncle Walter lived up to his description by the National Review: "A legend, a national father figure, a symbol of decency and good character."

He is survived by daughters Nancy and Kathleen, and his son, Walter Leland Cronkite 3d, called Chip.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.

Contact staff writer Michael D. Schaffer at 215-854-2537 or mschaffer@phillynews.com