Cronkite Will Be at Atlanta for CBS

NEW YORK — Former anchorman Walter Cronkite, whom CBS has been trying to keep as a correspondent, will offer commentary and analysis at the July 14-18 Democratic National Convention, CBS News said Friday.

But its announcement left unclear whether Cronkite, who has reported on political conventions for CBS since 1952, will be at the GOP convention in August, or if he will continue with CBS News past Nov. 4. On that date, he turns 72 and starts a new 10-year contract as a CBS Inc. consultant. Last April, he said the new pact doesn’t call for him to continue as a “special correspondent” for CBS News.

Cronkite reportedly was angered that Dan Rather, his “CBS Evening News” anchor successor, refused to give him election-night air time in 1984.

Cronkite’s assertion that he is free to work elsewhere as a reporter after Nov. 4 startled CBS executives when he made it, and touched off talks to keep him in the CBS News fold.