America's Greatest Newsmen

 

Harry Reasoner

Those of you who follow my blog know my respect for Walter Cronkite, who is generally regarded as the Greatest News Caster of all time.  However, this blog was inspired by a different man, who was the Evening News Anchor Man, as well as a correspondent for 60 minutes.  His name is Harry Reasoner.

Reasoner was respected for his honesty and his straight forwardness.  However, what I also admired about him was his beautiful mastery of words. I was a young high school English teacher in New England when I became particularly aware of Reasoner.  Having grown up in Kansas, I did not realize that I had any kind of accent.  My New England students were of another opinion.  I was required to teach spelling in my high school classes, and my pronunciations of words out of any context often confused them.  Inevitably, someone would raise their hand and ask, "Mrs. Fenwick, can you please say that word in a sentence?  As part of expanding my student's vocabularies, I suggested that they listen to Reasoner on the evening news. and I also took that advice for myself.  

By the time we went home to Kansas for a visit, I noticed the unique pronunciations of certain words in my own family.  Teaching in New England made me aware of various accents, but I had to be told by my students that I too had a regional accent.  Since then, having lived in many different regions of our nation, I have experienced many accents, often the remnants of their ancestors' origins before migrating to America.    

Harry Reasoner's, beautiful diction was worth listening to every evening, regardless of the content of the news he was reporting.  Many of my students were first or second generation Americans.  At that time, the various ethnic newcomers tended to cluster together, Germans in one locality, French in another, and so on.  My students generally spoke English, but I believe that they appreciated improving their accents by listening to Harry Reasner.  One of my students came to America without knowing a single word of English, but she taught herself at home by watching television before starting school.  She was a brilliant young lady. 

As men like Cronkrite and Reasoner retired, younger men took their place.  Three young men who assumed those positions gained the nickname of The Big Three.  All three were respected and had large followings.  They were Peter Jennings on ABC, Dan Rather on CBS, and Tom Brokaw on NBC.  

Peter Jennings came from Canadia but loved his adopted home of America so much that he became a dual citizen.  Dan Rather manned the CBS Anchor Desk for 24 years, but his desk was far from stationary, for he delivered the news from places around the world, such as reporting the Fall of the Berlin Wall, covering JFKs assassination, the Gulf War, Nixon's trip to China, the Watergate Scandal, and more.  Tom Brokaw Co-anchored the Today Show with Jane Pauley from 1976-1981 and then anchored NBC Nightly News for 22 years.  

I will close with Brokaw's good-bye address on New Years Eve, 2004, honoring a passing generation.  "They came of age in the depression, served in WW II, and came home to find common ground here and abroad in which to solve our most vexing problems.  They did not give up their personal beliefs and greatest passions, but they never stopped learning from each other and most of all, they did not give up on the idea that we're all in this together. We still are.  And it is that spirit that I say Thanks for all I have learned from you."

Those of that generation have passed.  A few of us listen to the evening news regularly, but it is not the same.  On previous blogs I have honored those early TV newsmen.  I miss them.