Walter Cronkite

At last night’s 10th Annual Walter Cronkite Faith & Freedom Award Gala, held 64 stories above the street in Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room, Mr. Cronkite was talking about the role of religion in the upcoming presidential election. (It was also the eve of televangelist Pat Robertson’s no-doubt influential endorsement of “America’s mayor,” Rudy Giuliani.) “With all honesty, I don’t think we can expect it to be much greater than it has been in past years,” said the newsman, who is now 91. “I don’t see any great movement, unfortunately.”  read more »

Earlier this week, The Observer reported on newsman godhead Walter Cronkite's $4.275 million sale of a townhouse at 160 East 95th Street.

Walter “Chip” Cronkite III, who lived in the house with his actress-wife Deborah Rush (they were on the sales deed as well), returned a reporter’s call today to talk about the house: "An old gal in her 90s had been the previous occupant, since she was a teenager,” he said, “and she had not done much when they moved in the '40's or whatever, so there were quite untouched moldings."

Moldings be damned, his family has moved down to Lexington Avenue and 89th Street. “Six blocks make it a whole ball of wax! The dog has a whole new set of corners to sniff,” he said--plus there are “all new dry cleaners.”

So why did he cycle through three Manhattan brokerages when he was listing the townhouse? “We stopped and started over a couple of years,” he said. But: “As I recall, there was no ill feeling about any of them."

What about the federal IRS lien against the younger Mr. Cronkite, filed with the city in December 2004? “I’m happy it’s cleared up, I don’t know anything about it, or what city records reflect on that. I can go on record saying if there was any lien, I’m happy it was cleared up.”

“Any liens that might have existed were of no consequence to the sale,” he said later.

As for his famous father, Chip Cronkite said the newsman didn’t live in the townhouse, but that he loved the place. “And he was nice enough to help us with it… we all worked together on the investment. It was nice being in business with him, and we’re happy we sold when we did, it’s a good time to sell.”

Incidentally, the elder Cronkite’s companion is Joanna Simon, the singer-turned-real estate agent for Barbara Fox’s boutique brokerage. Speaking of show biz, Ms. Rush happens to have been a hilarious co-star in the godly cult comedy Strangers with Candy.

As The Real Deal magazine reported on its Web site late Friday, the godly anchorman Walter Cronkite just sold a townhouse at 160 East 95th Street for $4.275 million.

The deal has a few interesting back stories, starting with the fact that the 11-room house really belonged to his son Walter "Chip" Cronkite III, who lived there with his wife Deborah Rush (an actress from Strangers With Candy), according to a broker with knowledge of the deal. The couple is on the sales deed, along with the elder Cronkite.

The Real Deal named Thomas Carter as the buyer, but there are three more names listed on the deed, including Ginny and Guy Millner, the GOP big-shot who founded the staffing supplier Norrell. Mr. Millner poured millions into three anti-abortion, anti-crime campaigns--one for U.S. Senate (in 1996) and two for Georgia governor (in 1994 and 1998).

As for the Cronkite couple, they cycled through three brokerages--Warburg Realty, Leslie J. Garfield & Co., and then the Corcoran Group--before the house sold. "It was kind of a mess of a deal," said the broker Jed Garfield. Even though the Cronkites eventually took the townhouse listing away from Mr. Garfield and gave it to Corcoran, the buyers were brought in when he had the exclusive. (In case you were wondering, that means he gets the commission.)

The deed also shows that it took months for this deal to close. Maybe that's because the IRS put a federal lien on Chip Cronkite way back in December 2004 for $33,511.73, according to public records, though a "release of federal lien" wasn't registered until this July.

He did not return a call to his cell-phone. But considering that dozens of liens are filed in Manhattan every day, and that high-end Manhattan real estate brokers aren't quite easygoing, the family's townhouse troubles aren't all that surprising. And on the bright side, the elder Mr. Cronkite is supposedly coming out with a new show, on a network called Retirement Living TV.

Couric, Goodman, Pickford, Couric, Brook Barnes, Katie Couric, Couric, Couric, Couric, Couric, Stanley, Walter [Cronkite], Couric, Chung, [Katie] Couric, Bill Carter, Couric, Couric, Vargas, Williams, Couric, Rooney, Schieffer, Couric, Matea Gold, Murphy, Bob, Bob Schieffer, Katie Couric, Jim Murphy, Schieffer, Couric, Couric, Schieffer, Cronkite, Katie, King, Schieffer, Walter Cronkite, Larry King, Larry King, Cronkite, Roger Cohen, David Barstow, Moore, Roger Moore, Libby, [Vice President Dick] Cheney, Murry Waas, President Bush, Judith Miller, Scooter Libby, Bush, Libby, Deborah Caulfield Rybak, Couric, Brian Montopoli, Couric.

In it, Cronkite, 'the most trusted man in America', states:

"Today, our nation is fighting two wars: one abroad and one at home," Cronkite wrote. "While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on our own streets. Its causalities are the wasted lives of our own citizens. I am speaking of the war on drugs.

"With police wielding unprecedented powers to invade privacy, tap phones and conduct searches seemingly at random, our civil liberties are in a very precarious condition," he added. "Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on this effort-with no one held accountable for its failure.

He also recounted his experiences covering the Vietnam War.

"I remember the lies that were told, the lives that were lost—and the shock when, twenty years after the war ended, former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara admitted he knew it was a mistake all along."

So what, exactly, are you trying to say, Mr. Cronkite?