Well, in the case of Walter Cronkite’s death this past Friday, there was another question: You spelled it how?

On Twitter, Friday night saw the legendary anchorman’s name spelled “Walter Kronkite” by so many people that it became one of the site’s trending topics. (The Huffington Post has a screengrab.) An Examiner article spelled it “Cronkite” in the headline but “Kronkite” in the lede; at the Calgary Sun, that was reversed.

On the fourth day since his death, after all sorts of coverage in print, on TV and online where the correct spelling would presumably have been used, “Kronkite” is still returning a healthy stream of results on Twitter. There is also a #Kronkite hashtag. (Says one Tweeter using it, who knows better: “Wish we could trust Twitter like we could trust #Kronkite.” Ha. Indeed.)

Over at the Huffington Post, they have a nice little exclusive: Cronkite blogged for Arianna Huffington just a few days after the site first launched (concluding with the rather adorable, “See you on the Blog!”), and submitted two other posts, about global warming and and the war on drugs. Over the weekend they played up links to those posts. But as the website where I first saw the trending Twitter story, I couldn’t help but double-take when I clicked on over and saw this:

As someone who worked there (and works here!), I know damn well how many balls they have to juggle and, more to the point, that is clearly a typo that has gone unnoticed since sometime in mid-2005. But even so, that’s the way it is.

Photo of Arianna and Walter Cronkite found in a Google image search for “Walter Kronkite” and subsequently discovered to have been taken by fellow ex-Fishbowl-er Dylan Stableford at a book party for Arianna, which I also attended. So, I was once at a party with Walter Kronkite.

Here are a few of those moments:

Walter Cronkite announcing the death of President John F. Kennedy, November 22, 1963:

Cronkite signing off after JFK’s funeral, on November 25, 1963: “Today is a day that will live in memory, and in grief.” Cronkite narrates over a photo montage – particularly striking is the shot of people all reading the news, together, from the newspaper, on a train:

Cronkite’s famous editorial against the Vietnam war, February 27, 1968, which is credited with turning the tide of public opnion against the war:  “It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.” Cronkite had traveled to Vietnam earlier that year, and after the night’s report about the Tet Offensive, he made a rare editorial pronouncement, declaring his lack of faith in the war – and in its leadership. President Lyndon Johnson’s famous reaction: “”That’s it. If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.” Embedding on the video is disabled (watch it here), so here is an excerpt from his closing comment:

“We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds….For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer’s almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster.”

See Cronkite talk about his Tet Offensive editorial here.

Cronkite reporting the assassination of Martin Luther King, April 4, 1968: During his report, Cronkite referred to him  as “the apostle of non-violence” “the Nobel Peace Prize winner,’ and, in a sign of the times, “the 39-year-old Negro leader.”

Cronkite reporting on the moon landing, July 20, 1969: Today marked the 40th anniversary of liftoff for the Apollo  mission to the moon – and Monday marks the 40th anniversary of that historic lunar landing. Cronkite called it a highlight of his career. (Here’s a longer tape of raw footage from CBS; you can hear Cronkite exclaim, “Man on the Moon!” at 7:25.)

Cronkite reporting on the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster on March 30, 1979: “The world has never known a day quite like today – it faced the considerable uncertainties and dangers of the worst nuclear power plant accident of the atomic age. And he horror tonight is that it could get much worse.” It is an incredibly detailed broadcast.

Cronkite’s first newscast, on September 2, 1963, which also kicked off nightly news as we now know it: “Good evening from our CBS newsroom in New York, on this, the first broadcast of network television’s first daily half-hour news program.” The opening story was the battle over desegregation in Alabama.

Cronkite on the genesis of his signoff, “And that’s the way it is”: This is wonderful. In an interview with the Archive of American Television in 1998, Cronkite told the story of how he searched for a good signoff that would segue from the final story of the half-hour. He didn’t tell CBS News president  Dick Salant, who heard “and that’s the way it is” on the broadcast along with everyone else – and hated it.

Cronkite, who died Friday evening at age 92, has been the voice announcing the CBS Evening News since September 5, 2006, when Katie Couric took over as anchor of the broadcast that Cronkite helmed for 19 years. Last night, that familiar voice welcomed viewers for the last time: CBS News will be be retiring the Cronkite voiceover.

The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter reported via Twitter last night that the voiceover would be retired, “probably immediately”; Mediaite confirmed early this morning that the voiceover will not be used on further broadcasts.

Update, July 20, 2009: Stelter expands on the story in today’s New York Times:

The recording of Mr. Cronkite’s deep Midwestern voice was retired over the weekend after Mr. Cronkite died Friday evening at the age of 92. Once Mr. Cronkite was known to be in poor health, CBS executives concluded that they would stop playing the voice-over when he died. “It just didn’t feel right,” said Sean McManus, the president of CBS News

In Reality Show: Inside The Last Great Television News War, Howard Kurtz described how Cronkite came to do that voiceover:

At least they would have a good introduction. Couric had approached Walter Cronkite, who at eighty-nine was hard of hearing but still had the same growl of an anchor voice, about recording a few opening words for her. Cronkite had a good deal of respect for Couric, dating back to her days as a reporter, and after being frozen out during the Rather years, he was delighted to be asked.

On the Saturday before the debut, they sat around — McManus, [Rome] Hartman, Couric, and Bob Peterson, the newly installed “creative director,” who had come with Couric from NBC — and listened to the tape. The vote was unanimous. The old man would be vouching for the new gal.

Here is that opening moment, now part of CBS News history:

(NB: I think CBS ought to have kept the voiceover – it’s a proud link to the past and, if the outpouring over the weekend is any indication, a truly beloved piece of it. Whatever new voiceover they come up with now can’t possibly measure up.)

> Monday Update: CBS has decided to keep the voiceover, reports Stelter today. “Walter’s family was very clear that if we continued to use his voice, they would consider it an honor,” said Sean McManus, President of CBS News & Sports.