And that’s the way it is.

Walter Cronkite’s signature closing line on the CBS Evening News became a cultural shorthand for his authoritative, steady style of broadcast journalism. Used at the end of nightly newscasts during his long tenure as anchor (most famously in the 1960s–1970s), the phrase functioned as a verbal full stop after a summary of the day’s events. Cronkite’s reputation as “the most trusted man in America” made the sign-off especially resonant: it conveyed that the report had been delivered plainly and without embellishment, before handing viewers back to ordinary life. The line is widely remembered as part of the ritual cadence of network news in the pre-cable era.

The sentence presents the news as a settled account: not an argument, not speculation, but a report of record. Its power lies in its simplicity—an assertion that what has just been presented is the state of the world, at least as responsibly verified and narrated by the broadcast. The phrase also performs a rhetorical gesture of closure, inviting viewers to absorb the facts and move from information to reflection. In cultural memory it has come to symbolize a period when a single anchor’s voice could stand in for institutional credibility, raising questions today about how authority, consensus, and “the way it is” are constructed in public discourse.

“And that’s the way it is.”
“That’s the way it is.”
“And that’s the way it is, [date].”