Walter Cronkite: Authenticity and Honesty
Post by Danny Lamas. Follow me on Twitter.
I was never lucky enough to grow up watching Walter Cronkite on CBS, but I knew who he was and I knew what he stood for. Perhaps the most lasting impact he left on my life was a vivid memory from my childhood. From around the time I was born until 1994, he was the narrating voice of EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth at Walt Disney World, which I visited many times a year as a Florida resident.
I have always associated him with dreams of taking flight into outer space, the spectacle created by Disney, and his prophetic voice ushering in a bright future that would be made possible by the information age (and this was recorded before the dawn of social networking, let alone the internet). Boy was he right.
Seth Godin wrote the following on his blog on ‘marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread’:
“At every turn, he acted as if he had a responsibility to his audience. He didn’t do the right thing because he thought it would help him get ahead and then one day he’d get his share. Instead, he always did the right thing because that’s who he was. No sellouts, no political consulting, no false transparency.”
Authenticity and honesty are what he leaves behind, and Godin nails this one right on the head. Rest in peace, Walter Cronkite.
Walter’s lesson [via Seth's Blog].
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