by D. Razor Babb
Every year network brass and broadcast elite gather on Miami Beach for an annual network affiliates convention. At least they did when I was a cub reporter for a CBS affiliate news station in Miami. Any chance to get away from the snow, sleet and slime of New York for a paid vacation amid warm sunny beaches and bikini clad tourists and locals must appear inviting to snow birds.
At one of these gatherings in the Fontainebleau Hotel ballroom one year, the keynote speaker was Walter Cronkite, CBS News anchor 
known as “The Most Trusted Man in America.”
To be honest, the attraction for a youngster just starting out was more focused on a particularly informative local weather girl than it was on the distinguished Mr. Cronkite, but after listening to his inspiring speech on reporting and the responsibility of the next generation of news people, I found myself cornering Cronkite and asking him what was his best advice for that generation of new reporters.
He focused those famous blue eyes on me and said, “The ION Principle. Integrity, objectivity, and non-biased reporting. If you lead with that, you won’t go wrong.”
Then he walked off with my weather girl crush and left me with the one piece of advice I’ve been following ever since.
And that’s the way it is.
