Rick Kaplan Pi fraternity at the University of Illinois. Kaplan's broadcast journalism career began at CBS News, where he served as an associate producer of "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" (1974–79) and an associate producer of the "CBS Morning News" (1971–74). He was a writer, assignment desk editor and producer at WBBM-TV, the CBS-owned station in Chicago (1969–71). As an associate producer for "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite", he produced news coverage of the American political campaigns and elections in 1974, 1976 and 1978. He was also a producer of the historic visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Israel
Walter Cronkite unsure about how much of an impact his editorial report had on Johnson's decision to drop his bid for re-election, and what eventually convinced him that the President had made the statement was Bill Moyers, fellow journalist and former aide to Johnson, telling him "The president flipped off the set and said 'If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America.'" Several weeks later, Johnson, who sought to preserve his legacy and was now convinced his declining health could not withstand growing public criticism, announced he would not seek reelection. During the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Cronkite was anchoring