The weekend tributes to and retrospectives about Walter Cronkite were appropriate and not overdone. Nothing wall to wall on cable or the networks, although this was a man whose accomplishments and importance in the world clearly topped Michael Jackson, from whom some broadcasters still can't break away.

Cronkite started his journalism career as a newspaperman, and he was never far from his roots, even when he became the nation's No. 1 TV news anchor.

I remember Cronkite speaking to a newspaper editors' convention in Washington about 25 years ago, pointing out that in the course of his 30-minute evening newscast, he wouldn't have had sufficient time to read the front page of The New York Times.

Here's an Editor & Publisher story reinforcing that anecdote.