"He never lost his fastball"

Over at "Beat the Press," Ralph Ranalli has a nice anecdote and some insights about Walter Cronkite by way of Emily Rooney.

More: The Boston Herald has a longer take on Rooney and Cronkite.

Walter Cronkite, 1916-2009

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The pioneering anchorman has died at the age of 92.

Dissecting the death of WBCN

Danny Schechter, the "News Dissector" whose progressive approach to the news was such a key part of WBCN's early years, has weighed in on CBS's decision to pull the plug. He writes:

The station's legacy and importance — the reason it built a national reputation and worldwide respect — was deliberately buried in the need to meet quarterly revenue projections and serve its corporate masters. Their goal was to compete with commercial drek by becoming commercial drek. And they did.

And where did it take them? To the radio graveyard. Shame.

Interestingly enough, Schechter says he had recently been approached about doing commentaries for WBCN's Web site — something that may yet come to pass, given that CBS is reportedly thinking about keeping the station semi-alive online.

Dan Rather's sad suit

Here's what I don't get about Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS. Before yesterday, he could at least maintain the façade that he was all over the story and that he messed up. Now he's saying that his role was nothing more than that of a trained monkey. Personally, I'd rather be known for messing up.