Wars begin and end, presidents come and go, but only a handful of men and women have been welcomed into America's living rooms during that half-hour to tell the nation what is going on in the world.
Some of those anchors, such as Walter Cronkite and the team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, became legends -- trusted voices trying to make sense of ever-changing American life. Even presidents
stopped and watched: Lyndon Johnson would not hesitate to call the CBS newsroom to scream at Cronkite during commercial breaks.
The men who followed Cronkite during the early 1980s -- Brokaw,
Dan Rather and Peter Jennings -- became bona fide stars of their respective networks whose exploits became the subject of magazine covers. But with ratings slipping and an aging viewership that no
longer looks to it as a one-stop news source, the evening newscast is fighting irrelevancy.
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Read the whole story at The Hollywood Reporter, March 8, 2005 »