Cronkite mulls MTV assignments

Veteran newsman Walter Cronkite may be working at the presidential nominating conventions this summer -- for a channel whose viewers weren’t even born when he retired as CBS News anchor in 1981: MTV.

Cronkite, 87, appeared on an installment of the cable channel’s “Choose or Lose” this week, and now both he and MTV News boss Dave Sirulnick say they’re open to the idea of future assignments, including the possibility of an on-air role during the conventions and on election night. Cronkite hasn’t had a significant election-year TV role since the first time Ronald Reagan was elected president.

“That’d be interesting, certainly.... How much I participate in the remaining election year is, I think, just kind of up for grabs,” Cronkite says. “They [MTV] know I’m interested in doing pieces for them that come along, but they have some excellent young reporters who will be doing the basic coverage of the campaign. If they call upon me to be the senior citizen, I’ll be the senior citizen.”