Who were/are some of the other American journalistic titans?

[Posteritatis]

With Helen Thomas' passing it's pretty obvious that the US media lost a pretty major figure (and that, retired or no, American presidents past and future probably feel a little safer). It's got me wondering though. I only really recognize a few big names from American journalism, and a lot of those are because I see them all the time in contemporary news as opposed to because they were necessarily people with a major impact, who Changed Things(tm) or left the government nervous or anything else along those lines.

So I figured in the interest of General Discussion's general discussionness I'd try to get a thread going on those major figures in general. Who would you consider some of the colossi of American news, past, present, or possibly even future if someone out there's looking promising? What did/do/might they do to earn that spot?

[Le Taz Hot]

1. Believe it or not,

Walter Cronkite. He was known as "the most trusted man in American" and it was highly significant and influential when he went to Viet Nam and came back to report that the war was unwinnable and we were wasting millions of dollars and tens of thousands of American lives for nothing. It's when the rest of the country turned against the war.

[hootinholler]

2. Uncle Walter is the first that came to mind for me. n/t

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Uncle Walter will always be the standard that other journalists should live up to...

Dan Rather is a close second.

[hootinholler]

4. Edward R. Murrow Comes to mind

But oddly enough I can't think of any particular story off the top of my head.

Until we can reinstate the fairness doctrine, corporate news won't allow a new titan, so any new news titan will not be on corporate news.

[Brewinblue]

5. Many of the best are and were cartoonists.

Growing up, I recall Paul Conrad of the LA Times skewering Nixon almost daily, starting well before the Watergate story broke. But his unrelenting assault on Nixon and his administration over Watergate is what really made Conrad a national figure. He, as much as any journalist, helped turn the tide of public opinion against Nixon.

Mike Luckovich and Tom Tomorrow would be great examples among current journalists.

[Brickbat]

12. Bill Mauldin.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Many of them are thought of first as literary figures...a few I'd think of include

W.E.B.DuBois, Dorothy Thompson, Hunter S Thompson, Ernie Pyle, Randy Shilts, Mary McCarthy, Langston Hughes, Murrow, John Steinbeck, Seymour Hersh, Barbara Ehrenreich, Truman Capote, Joan Didion......

[Brewinblue]

7. My personal favorites from the past 10 to 20 years

Molly Ivins, Jon Stewart and Keith Olberman, each fearless, brutally honest, and truly feared by the right.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

8. Bob Woodward

[avaistheone1]

9. I would add William Moyers to the list.

He just keeps getting better and better. His PBS show "Moyers & Company" is an incredible revelation.

k&r

[Lars39]

10. Ernie Pyle

[Brickbat]

11. Ida Tarbell. Nellie Bly. Marie Colvin.

[avaistheone1]

14. k&r