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Cronkite honored at memorial service

President Obama remembered Walter Cronkite at a memorial service today, saying that the legendary CBS newsman earned the title of the most trusted man in America because of his “dogged pursuit of the truth.”

“He didn’t believe in dumbing down,” Obama told the crowd who gathered at Lincoln Center. “He trusted us.”

Obama said he did not know Cronkite personally, but, like millions, he was watched him on TV.

“I have benefitted as a citizen from his dogged pursuit of the truth, his passionate defense of objective reporting, and his view that journalism is more than a profession. It is a public good vital to our democracy.”

Earlier in the service, former President Bill Clinton remembered Cronkite as “a great citizen and a profoundly good human being.”

Clinton saluted Cronkite for having “an inquiring mind” and a “careful devotion to the facts.”

Jimmy Buffett belted out the classic ballad, “Son of a Son of a Sailor,” in honor of Cronkite, who used to sail with the singer.

Cronkite died on July 17 at 92. He anchored “The CBS Evening News” from 1962 until 1981. He came to be known as “the most trusted man in America.”

Former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw called him “a seminal force in the transformation of this country.”

Brokaw said, “Walter Cronkite and all those early (TV news) pioneers lifted a lamp and showed us the wider world and allowed us to understand it more clearly and coherently.”

The journalism and mass communications school at Arizona State University is named for Cronkite.

With AP