That didn't fly.
"The suits -- as we used to call them -- went crazy," Socolow told CNN, referring to CBS executives. "From their perspective, Cronkite was sending people to read newspapers instead of watching the news. There was a storm."
CBS News President Richard Salant met with Cronkite, who initially resisted, then agreed to change his sign-off, Socolow said.
"In the absence of anything else, he came up with 'That's the way it is.'"
But that too ruffled feathers, Socolow said.
"Salant's attitude was, 'We're not telling them that's the way it is. We can't do that in 15 minutes,' which was the length of the show in those days. 'That's not the way it is.'"
Still, Cronkite persisted and that's the way it was from then on.
In 1960, in an attempt to emulate the success of NBC's "Huntley-Brinkley Report," CBS tried to make Cronkite and fellow broadcast legend Edward R. Murrow co-anchors at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.
But "it just didn't work out," said Socolow, who was then producing for Cronkite. "There wasn't a particular chemistry there."
Though the two men were cordial, and it was Murrow who had brought Cronkite to CBS, "they were never drinking buddies," Socolow said.
In 1968, Cronkite returned from a visit to Vietnam disillusioned with America's role there. He told Salant what he thought but said he did not want to report his personal opinion on air, Socolow said. Only "after much haggling" did he agree to do so, and not on the regular newscast but on a 10 p.m. special.
