How fortunate those of us were who grew up with Walter Cronkite and Eric Severeid as our broadcast journalist/role models. What we took for granted about them, then, was that they were not only scrupulous professionals but also persons who cared about the events they reported and the repercussions from those events that might unfold. What we can surmise about them, now, is that either they did not encounter heavy pressure from their corporate minders, or that they cared more about reporting the news and giving their honest opinions than they cared about ratings and internal corporate politics.
As a side note, when I was in my twenties, I once met Walter Cronkite when I drew the lucky straw among my work colleagues (literally) and was seated at his table at a press luncheon. There we were: Walter Cronkite(!); and wwstaebler, a neophyte magazine writer. I was completely tongue-tied, which was apparently obvious. And so, with the courtly courtesy for which he was justly renowned, he engaged me in small talk until I relaxed. And then, smiling encouragingly, asked my opinion about the news event of the day, to which answer he nodded, as if I had said something passably intelligent. And only then did he turn his attention to the serious journalists at the table.
So Rest in Peace, Walter Cronkite: Journalist of Unquestionable Integrity and Man of Consummate Kindness.