The Origins of Television's “Anchor Man”: Cronkite, Swayze, and Journalism Boundary Work

Abstract

Journalism history honors Walter Cronkite as television's first “anchor man” for his work on the 1952 political convention telecasts even though John Cameron Swayze had that title years earlier for his work on a quiz show. We remember Cronkite as the anchor and Swayze is forgotten because of a subtle competition and a case of journalism boundary work that took place during the last decades of the twentieth century in interviews, memoirs, and media history books over the origin of what has become one of the most powerful positions in journalism. The accepted “anchor man” origin story implies a coherent progression from early television to today with a recognizable role model, while the real beginning of the term reveals a more nuanced picture of the chaotic and uncertain time when television's direction and the delineation of roles on the visual medium had yet to crystallize.

Notes

Marybelle Lull to Robert Trout, April 17, 1951; Audience Mail; Box 309; National Broadcasting Company Archives, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, WI (NBC-WHS).

While the accepted spelling today is one word, “anchorman,” because of its historical use as two words, this article will default to “anchor man.” Since gender and number considerations have increased the usage of alternate forms including anchorwoman, anchormen, and anchorperson, the article will also use the more neutral term anchor, without quotations, when appropriate.

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Ibid., 784.

Ibid., 783.

Ibid., 792.

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Ralph Renick, “News on Television,” May 1950, Pamphlet 3637, Library of American Broadcasting, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (P-LAB).

Mike Conway, “See It Now: Television News Pictures,” in Getting the Picture: The History and Visual Culture of the News, ed. Jason E. Hill and Vanessa R. Schwartz (London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming). The program, in both formats, was sponsored by the Camel cigarette brand.

Television set numbers from Christopher H. Sterling, Electronic Media: A Guide to Trends in Broadcasting and Newer Technologies 1920–1983 (New York: Praeger, 1984), 237; television and radio news from The Roper Organization, Public Perceptions of Television and Other Mass Media: A Twenty-Year Review 1959–1978 (New York: Television Information Office, 1979).

Susan Murray, Hitch Your Antenna to the Star: Early Television and Broadcast Stardom (New York: Routledge, 2005); Kurt Lang and Gladys Engel Lang, “The Television Personality in Politics: Some Considerations,” Public Opinion Quarterly 20, no. 1 (Spring 1956): 103–112.

Steven Barnett, The Rise and Fall of Television Journalism: Just Wires and Lights in a Box (London: Bloomsbury, 2011); Stephen Cushion, Television Journalism: Journalism Studies: Key Texts (London: Sage, 2012); Martin Conboy, Journalism: A Critical History (London: Sage, 2004); John Hartley, Uses of Television (London: Routledge, 1999).

Daniel C. Hallin, “The Passing of ‘High Modernism’ of American Journalism,” Journal of Communication 42, no. 3 (Summer 1992): 14–25.

Douglas Kennedy, “The Real Anchormen: The Rise and Fall of the American Newsreader,” New Statesman, January 9, 2014, 102.

ABC ran its news an hour earlier than CBS and NBC during the survey. Herbert J. Gans, Deciding What's News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Newsweek, and Time (New York: Pantheon Books, 1979), 217.

Alex S. Jones, “The Anchors: Who They Are, What They Do, the Tests They Face,” New York Times Sunday Magazine, July 27, 1986, 13.

Thomas Fensch, “The Present: Faces,” in Television News Anchors: An Anthology of Profiles of the Major Figures and Issues in United States Network Reporting, ed. Thomas Fensch (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1993), 155.

Robert Goldberg and Gerald Jay Goldberg, Anchors: Brokaw, Jennings, Rather, and the Evening News (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1990), 330; James Fallows, Breaking the News: How the Media Undermines American Democracy (New York: Pantheon, 1996); Penn Kimball, Downsizing the News: Network Cutbacks in the Nation's Capital (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1994).

Jacques Steinberg, “Peter Jennings, Urbane News Anchor, Dies at 67,” Washington Post, August 8, 2005.

Hank Stuever, “Barbara Walters Retires: So Long to One of America's Last Listeners,” Washington Post, May 14, 2014. Other stories on Walters's career include Bill Carter, “Walters to Announce 2014 Retirement on ‘The View,’” New York Times, May 12, 2013; Alessandra Stanley, “In Barbara Walters's Highlight Reel, TV's Rise and Fade,” New York Times, May 13, 2013.

Matthew C. Ehrlich and Joe Saltzman, Heroes and Scoundrels: The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, forthcoming); Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, directed by Adam McKay (Dreamworks Home Entertainment, 2004), DVD.

Network was directed by Sidney Lumet, who started his career at CBS. Sidney Lumet, director, Network, motion picture, 1976, IMDb database, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/; James L. Brooks, director, Broadcast News, motion picture, 1987, IMDb database, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092699/?ref_=nv_sr_1.

“The Image of the Broadcast Journalist in Movies and Television, 1937–2006,” The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture website, http://ijpc.org/page/ijpc_broadcast_video_2006.htm.

Berkowitz and Gutsche, “Drawing Lines in the Journalistic Sand.”

Sig Mickelson, From Whistle Stop to Sound Bite: Four Decades of Politics and Television (New York: Praeger, 1989).

Barbara Matusow, The Evening Stars: The Making of the Network News Anchor (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983); Gary Paul Gates, Air Time: The Inside Story of CBS News (New York: Berkley, 1978).

“CBS Television Will Bring Most Exciting Presidential Conventions,” CBS News, June 1952; Box 3E22; Chester Burger Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin (CB-BCAH).

“Fan Mail Pours in to CBS-TV's Walter Cronkite,” CBS News, July 24, 1952; Publicity; 2P23; Walter Cronkite Papers 1932–2007, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin (WC-BCAH).

Mickelson, From Whistle Stop to Sound Bite, 29.

Sig Mickelson, The Decade That Shaped Television News: CBS in the 1950s (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998); Sig Mickelson, interview by Don Carleton, August 24–25, 1999, San Diego, CA; videotape recording; Archive of American Television; Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation (SM-OH).

Jeff Kisseloff, The Box: An Oral History of Television, 1920–1961 (New York: Penguin, 1995), 380.

Don Hewitt, Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), 51.

“Paul Levitan, Directed Special Events for CBS,” New York Times, October 12, 1976, 31; J. P. Shanley, “Special Events Expert,” New York Times, October 20, 1957, X15.

Walter Cronkite, A Reporter's Life (New York: Knopf, 1996), 176.

Walter Cronkite and Don Carleton, Conversations with Cronkite (Austin, TX: Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, 2010), 116.

Gates, Air Time; Mickelson, From Whistle Stop to Sound Bite; Mickelson, The Decade That Shaped Television News; Hewitt, Tell Me a Story; Cronkite, A Reporter's Life; Edward Bliss Jr., Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991); Ronald Garay, “Sig Mickelson,” in Encyclopedia of Television News, ed. Michael D. Murray (Phoenix, AZ: Oryx, 1999), 148–149; Goldberg and Goldberg, Anchors; Kisseloff, The Box; Julius K. Hunter and Lynne S. Gross, Broadcast News: The Inside Out (St. Louis, MO: C. V. Mosby, 1980).

Sgt. Innis Bromfield, “Sergeant Quiz,” Collier's, November 6, 1943, 79; Eric Pace, “Fred W. Friendly, CBS Executive and Pioneer in TV News Coverage, Dies at 82,” New York Times, March 5, 1998, B10; Ralph Engelman, Friendlyvision: Fred Friendly and the Rise and Fall of Television Journalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009); Val E. Limburg, “Fred W. Friendly,” in Encyclopedia of Television News, 83–84.

“Who Said That?” audition script, April 5, 1948; NBC Radio Who Said That? Script; Box 179; Fred Friendly Papers 1917–2004, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York City (FF-CU); “Who Said That?” premiere script, July 2, 1948; Who Said That? Scripts 1948–1951; Box 4ZE286; Robert Trout Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin (RT-BCAH); “On the Air Today,” New York Times, July 2, 1948, 40.

Harriett Van Horne, “‘Who Said That?’ Can Improve Its Quotes,” New York World-Telegram, October 27, 1948, attached to memo, Thomas C. McCray to Francis C. McCall, November 5, 1948; Who Said That?; Box 285 (NBC-WHS); John Crosby, “‘Who Said That?’ Hits Bullseye,” Washington Post, July 25, 1948, L4; “Radio and Television,” New York Times, December 4, 1948, 28; “NBC Sums Up the Year—1948,” NBC Press Department, December 31, 1948; Press; Box 286 (NBC-WHS).

“Who Said That?” script, August 20, 1948 (NBC-WHS).

“‘Who Said That?’ Guests”; Television; Box 288 (NBC-WHS).

“Who Said That?” script, October 1, 1948; Who Said That? Scripts; Box 4ZE286 (RT-BCAH).

“Who Said That?” script, October 10, 1948; Who Said That? Scripts; Box4ZE286 (RT-BCAH).

I first came across the Swayze–anchor man connection while viewing a kinescope recording of “Who Said That?” at the Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media) in New York City in 2005. I spent the next few years collecting scripts and other primary sources from various media archives. In 2012, I came across a Slate column by Ben Zimmer, in which he mentioned a 1949 Washington Post article that referred to Swayze as “anchor man.” Zimmer argued the article called into question the Cronkite–anchor man origin. He mistakenly thought Swayze was the “host” of “Who Said That?” and equated “anchor man” as “host.” Ben Zimmer, “Was Cronkite Really the First ‘Anchorman?,’” Slate, July 18, 2009, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2009/07/was_cronkite_really_the_first_anchorman.html, accessed January 4, 2012.

“Who Said That?” Guests (NBC-WHS).

It is obvious as well that the script writer had a hard time spelling Swayze's name. On the script, the spelling varies from Swazye, Swazey, and Cammeron during the first year of the program.

Frederick Jacobi Jr., “Video Newscaster,” New York Times, September 10, 1950, 109.

“Who Said That?,” April 9, 1949, kinescope recording, Paley Center for Media, New York City (PCM-NY).

Sidney Lohman, “News of Television,” New York Times, April 10, 1949, X9.

Lohman, “News of Television.”

Donald G. Godfrey, “CBS World News Roundup: Setting the Stage for the Next Half Century,” American Journalism 7, no. 3 (1990): 164–172; A. M. Sperber, Murrow: His Life and Times (New York: Freundlich, 1986).

“Edward R. Murrow Narrator of ‘I Can Hear It Now,’” CBS News, November 11, 1948, and untitled Friendly profile, United Press, November 19, 1948; I Can Hear It Now Clippings; Box 168 (FF-CU); “Runaway,” New Yorker, January 15, 1949, 22–23; Engelman, Friendlyvision.

Fred W. Friendly, Due to Circumstances beyond Our Control… (New York: Random House, 1967), xvii.

Engelman, Friendlyvision, 50.

The Engelman biography of Friendly, Friendlyvision, is an exception.

One example is “Who Said That?” script, January 23, 1949; Who Said That? Scripts; Box 179 (FF-CU); John Crosby, “Who Said It? Most Bigwigs Can't Answer,” Washington Post, July 24, 1949, L1; Jack Fones, “Hey! Who Said That?,” The Nichols Alumnus, March 1949, 3, in Writings about Friendly; Box 193 (FF-CU).

G. Y. Loveridge, “Now They Can Afford Omelets Anytime,” Providence Sunday Journal, April 2, 1950, 8, in I Can Hear It Now Clippings; Box 168 (FF-CU).

Safer quote from Engelman, Friendlyvision, x; Sandburg quote from Pace, “Fred W. Friendly,” “electronic journalism” from Friendly, Due to Circumstances, 3.

Engelman, Friendlyvision, 50.

British politician from “Dalton Is Praised on British Budget,” New York Times, October 25, 1945, 9; FDR bodyguard from Cabell Phillips, “President's Bodyguard,” New York Times Book Review, September 14, 1947, 27; “State of Union” from Brooks Atkinson, “State of the Union,” New York Times, September 8, 1946, X1.

John Crosby, “Who Said That?,” New York Herald-Tribune, n.d. (unedited version of column that ran in Washington Post on July 24, 1949) attached to Charles Denny to William Brooks, July 21, 1949; Who Said That?; Box 287 (NBC-WHS); Fred Friendly to Al Capp, August 10, 1948; Who Said That?; Box 285 (NBC-WHS).

“Heil Five Bowls into A.B.C. Lead,” New York Times, March 31, 1946, 84; “Mastro Bowls a 300 for 785,” New York Times, November 4, 1946, 44; “Six-Man Egyptian Team Swims English Channel,” New York Times, September 7, 1949, 18; “Columbia Mermen Lose,” New York Times, January 15, 1949, 12; “Hoosier Quartet Clips Meet Mark,” New York Times, April 20, 1941, S3; “Navy Steaming Home First,” New York Times, April 28, 1946, S1; “Harper Books for Children” advertisement, New York Times Book Review, November 16, 1947, 21.

Robert A. Palmatier and Harold L. Ray, Sports Talk: A Dictionary of Sports Metaphors (New York: Greenwood, 1989), 3.

“A Disqualification and a Collapse Mar Day for American Athletes at Games in London,” New York Times, August 8, 1948, S1; Wilfrid Smith, “US Wins Protest in Olympic Relay Race,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 11, 1948, B1; Allison Danzig, “Olympic Jury Voids Disqualification and Awards Spring Relay to Americans,” New York Times, August 11, 1948, 25.

“Who Said That?” script, October 1, 1948 (RT-BCAH).

Cronkite, A Reporter's Life, 176.

Hewitt, Tell Me a Story, 50.

Bliss, Now the News, 224–225.

Conway, Origins of Television News in America; Bliss, Now the News; Patsy G. Watkins, “John Cameron Swayze,” in Encyclopedia of Television News, 250–251; “John Cameron Swayze,” NBC Biography, February 15, 1951; Swayze; Box 310 (NBC-WHS); Randy Kennedy, “John Cameron Swayze, 89, Journalist and TV Pitchman,” New York Times, August 17, 1995, B12.

“Who Said That?” NBC program information index cards; Horace W. Hostile 1948–1968; Box 13107536; Reuven Frank Archives, Tufts University, Boston. Reuven Frank's nickname for Fred W. Friendly was Horace W. Hostile.

“John Cameron Swayze,” February 15, 1951 (NBC-WHS); “John Cameron Swayze,” NBC Feature, March 15, 1951; News Releases; Box 310 (NBC-WHS).

“John Cameron Swayze,” February 15, 1951 (NBC-WHS).

Jacobi, “Video Newscaster.”

“Who Said That?,” YouTube video, 29:36, from an NBC television broadcast in 1952 or 1953, posted by “videoarchives1000” on November 15, 2011, http://youtu.be/2CYoMqSbh5I.

Murray Schumach, “TV Panel Anchor Man,” New York Times, December 10, 1950, X15.

David Halberstam, The Powers That Be (New York: Knopf, 1979); David Schoenbrun, On and Off the Air: An Informal History of CBS News (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1989); Bliss, Now the News.

Reuven Frank, Out of Thin Air: The Brief Wonderful Life of Network Television News (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991); Kennedy, “John Cameron Swayze”; Matusow, The Evening Stars; Watkins, “John Cameron Swayze.”

Friendly, Due to Circumstances beyond Our Control; Bliss, Now the News; Alexander Kendrick, Prime Time: The Life of Edward R. Murrow (Boston: Little, Brown, 1969); Sperber, Murrow; Edward R. Murrow, In Search of Light: The Broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow 1938–1961, ed. Edward Bliss Jr. (New York: Knopf, 1967); Erik Barnouw, The Image Empire: A History of Broadcasting in the United States from 1953 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970); Mickelson, The Decade That Shaped Television; Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly, eds., See It Now (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955); Cloud and Olson, The Murrow Boys.

Matusow, The Evening Stars; Hewitt, Tell Me a Story.

Matusow, The Evening Stars, 61.

Gieryn, “Boundary-work,” 792.

Berkowitz and Gutsche Jr., “Drawing Lines in the Journalistic Sand,” 645.

Cronkite finished first in a survey of public figures using a trust index by Oliver Quayle and Co. in 1972. “Walter Cronkite… CBS News Special Correspondent,” June 1981; Publicity; Box 2P23 (WC-BCAH).

Sidney Lohman, “News and Notes of Television,” New York Times, June 26, 1949, X7.

Douglas Brinkley, Cronkite (New York: Harper, 2012); Mike Conway, “The Extemporaneous Newscasts: The Lasting Impact of Walter Cronkite's Local Television News Experiment,” American Journalism 26, no. 3 (Summer 2009): 33–54; Walter Cronkite, interview with author, November 11, 2005, New York City, videotape recording (BCAH); Cloud and Olson, The Murrow Boys; Ginger Rudeseal Carter, “Walter Cronkite,” in Encyclopedia of Television News, 57; Cronkite, A Reporter's Life; Cronkite and Carleton, Conversations with Cronkite; Gates, Air Time; Bliss, Now the News.

Ron Powers, The Newscasters: The News Business as Show Business (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1977); Jackaway, Media At War; Conway, Origins of Television News in America.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mike Conway

Mike Conway is an associate professor at Indiana University Journalism, Ernie Pyle Hall, 940 E. 7th St., Bloomington, IN 47405-7108, [email protected].