Cronkite was regarded with little of the skepticism with which many regard the news media today. Columnist Nicholas von Hoffman once called Mr. Cronkite America’s ‘‘national security blanket,’’ and public opinion polls often named him as the man Americans trusted most.

One such survey, in 1973, found that Mr. Cronkite led the runner-up, President Richard Nixon, by 16 percentage points. And unlike the public's trust in Nixon, their trust in Cronkite would endure.