Editor’s Note: wOw’s Love Goddess promises nothing less than celestial wisdom regularly to her readers. Today, however, she brings us something slightly different: a conversation she had with the late Walter Cronkite, whose death on July 17, 2009, marks the loss of an American icon.

Only 25 years ago — in 1985 (a mere moment ago in a Goddess’s life) — I sat down with magazine editor Bard Lindeman and spoke with Walter Cronkite about work, retirement and aging.  

Love Goddess: You are said to be a tough competitor, even in family games. In fact, I’ve heard that you tend to make up games as you go along. Your wife said so.

Walter Cronkite. My wife is not trustworthy.

LG: How can you make up rules when you’re supposed to be such an ethical person?

WC: I make up rules only when I make up the game itself. I don’t try to change the rules that have been provided in the instructions … unless there’s a way I can improve them.

LG: A-ha. I see. A perfectly ethical solution.

WC: I’ve started telling people I’m a widower just to keep them from interviewing my wife. She’s got a pixie sense of humor. Once, after Time interviewers finished a story about me, they decided I looked too cool, and nobody could be that cool. When they got toward the deadline and the fact checkers started working, they called us up in the middle of the night — at two o’clock AM Betsy answered. They said, "We can’t find anything that seems to bother your husband. Doesn’t anything worry him?"

Betsy said, "Yes, he worries about shrinking." I never said anything like that in my life that I know of.

LG: No wonder you say she’s not trustworthy. Seriously, though, why do you think you’re so trusted by Americans?

WC: I think because, in doing my job in the news business, I really have held just as firmly as I could to what I believe to be the ethics and principles of good journalism. I have tried desperately, particularly in television, to hew to the middle of the road in the presentation of any given story — the pros and cons, allegations and denials — and to see that facts are well pinned down and secure. That is integrity in news presentation, and I guess that through the years that showed through. I was always annoyed when the presentation got in the way of the facts — and show business aspects. When graphics and pictures got in the way of telling the story, it was always a source of annoyance for me.

LG: You maintained a low profile as far as your own views are concerned. Do you feel freer now to say what you really feel?

WC: I think I’ve frequently surprised people with my views, but I don’t broadcast them. I don’t appear on panel programs and talk about them — I’m not seeking outlets for my views. On the other hand, when I’m called upon to make a public speech, I don’t try to disguise them.

LG: What annoys you about television news today?

WC: I do not think they make the best use of the limited amount of time that’s available to them. I think there is too much editorialization; too much "featurizing." There is so much of importance to communicate to a population that’s getting most of its news from television that we shouldn’t spend the time doing anything except cramming news down their throats.

LG: Barbara Walters said in an interview recently that while she and Dan Rather are about the same age, she is considered the elder statesman, he the new kid on the block. I think that this is true because most of the women on TV news are youthful, whereas many of the men are a good deal older than Rather. Do you think there will be a time when a woman journalist’s credentials are more persuasive than her age?