Interviewing the Interviewer in Fullerton

For 60 years, he asked the tough questions. But come January, legendary newsman Walter Cronkite will let the questions fly in his direction when he appears at a benefit for Cal State Fullerton.

Cronkite’s appearance Jan. 29 at the Pond of Anaheim will put him opposite television and movie producer/writer Carl Reiner for a Q&A; session.

A speechmaker can be “a talking head in spades,” Cronkite, 81, explains with a chuckle. “Speeches--no matter how well done, no matter how humor-laced, can seem long, drawn out. I think a faster format is better. Most lectures end up with a Q&A.; Why not make the whole thing that?”

No question will be verboten during the 45-minute exchange, says Cronkite, who covered almost every major story from D-day to Watergate during his 60-year career in journalism. “I’m willing to face the wall. I don’t promise to give an answer, but I don’t mind being asked.”

Cronkite selected Reiner as his partner onstage because “he’s so bright--has this highly developed sense of humor,” he says. “I think it will make for a wonderful evening.”

The appearance by Cronkite will be the third in the annual Front & Center speaker series organized by the university. Pasts events have featured retired Gen. Colin Powell and Disney chief Michael Eisner.

Since its launch, Front & Center has netted about $400,000 for student scholarships, says Milton A. Gordon, university president. “This event has come to be one of the best nights of the year for the community and the university.”

As did Powell and Eisner, Cronkite will speak for a fee, the amount undisclosed.

Benefit tickets range from $5 for stadium seating for students to $500 for people attending a black-tie dinner on the Pond floor.

Cronkite, who retired in 1981 from a 19-year career as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” says he welcomes the opportunity to appear at a benefit on behalf of educational opportunity.

The American people seem to ignore the fact that an educated population is the answer to many of the problems society faces, he says. “If you look at the problems of crime, teenage pregnancy, the ghetto, gang warfare as well as the problems of pollution, for instance, and peace in our time, you’ll see that they could be far more intelligently addressed if people were educated enough to see all sides of the question, make decisions.”

For a student wishing to pursue a career in journalism, Cronkite has this advice: “Be sure to get a broad academic education, first of all. Place at a much lower priority the matter of studying techniques of communication. Technical developments are coming so rapidly that you may not face the same kind of world out there in a few years. But if you are well educated, have learned the fundamentals of writing, reporting and editing, you can work anywhere, in any medium.”

Dubbed the Dean of Trust, a National Security Blanket and Uncle Walter by admirers, Cronkite went from copy boy at the Houston Post to Kansas City radio newscaster to UP reporter to TV news anchor. He has covered the birth of the Atomic Age, the Nuremberg Trials, the Civil Rights Movement, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the first moon walk and the Vietnam War.

And here in Orange County, in 1953, he says, he covered a Boy Scouts of America Jamboree at the Irvine Ranch for CBS. “Irvine Ranch was still a ranch then,” he recalls. “There wasn’t anything out there--incredible.”

Asked if there were any stories he’d like to be bringing to the American people today, Cronkite replies: “All of ‘em.”

He misses the old job? “I sure do,” he says. “I retired from the daily broadcast because I did not want that kind of daily schedule any longer.”

Perhaps he retired too soon, he acknowledges. “If I’d known my health was going to be this good for this many years, I probably would have stayed a little longer.”

These days, Cronkite--who has written a book, “A Reporter’s Life,” about his career--helps develop documentaries and special reports for distribution to PBS and cable. “If the right kind of job came along, I would love to do that for the network,” he says.

He also enjoys making personal appearances at events such as the Kennedy Center Honors, which he emceed over the weekend.

It’s one of the hottest black-tie galas in Washington, Cronkite says of the benefit for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. (“It’s like trying to get a ticket to the Super Bowl.”)

Cronkite, who admired Kennedy but is not without “criticism for his administration and Kennedy himself,” has little regard for the new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour M. Hersh, “The Dark Side of Camelot.”

“I’d have to say that, as fine an investigative reporter as Hersh has proved to be in the past, with this [book] he has simply done a catalog of rumors.”

Cronkite himself would like to be remembered as a “newsman who did his best to be fair, accurate and impartial in his reporting,” he says.

* For information on the Front & Center benefit for Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 29 in Anaheim, call: (714) 278-3480.