Walter Cronkite 13 moon missions, Cronkite received the best ratings and made CBS the most-watched television network for the missions. In 1970, when Huntley retired, the "CBS Evening News" finally dominated the American TV news viewing audience. Although NBC finally settled on the skilled and well-respected broadcast journalist John Chancellor, Cronkite proved to be more popular and continued to be top-rated until his retirement in 1981. One of Cronkite's trademarks was ending the "CBS Evening News" with the phrase "...And that's the way it is," followed by the date. Keeping to standards of objective journalism, he omitted this phrase on nights when
Walter Cronkite to confirm their suspicions). At 2:38 pm EST, while filling in time with some observations about the security presence in Dallas, which had been increased due to a disastrous visit by United Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson to the city earlier in 1963, Cronkite was handed a new bulletin. After looking it over for a moment, he took off his glasses, and made the official announcement: After making that announcement, Cronkite paused briefly, put his glasses back on, and swallowed hard to maintain his composure. With noticeable emotion in his voice he intoned the next sentence of the news report: With