![](\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SRBqycrcPwI\/AAAAAAAADQs\/nnvpetnv1rI\/s200\/WalterCronkiteCBS-711665.jpg\")
<\/a>I came of age at CBS News hearing tales told around the campfire, from Those Who Were There: how Bill and Babe Paley used to host a black-tie cocktail party at their Manhattan apartment, and it was the most sought-after invitation in the city. Writers, editors, and titans of business would gather to sip champagne and predict the next morning\u2019s headlines. They\u2019d watch grainy black-and-white images of Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid, announcing the results as the hours dragged on. At the end of the evening, the Paleys would climb into their limo and head cross town to the CBS television studios, and Bill Paley would pop into the control room, still wearing his tux, to congratulate everyone on a job well done. <\/p>\nFlash forward a few decades, and election night 2004. Dan Rather\u2019s reputation was in tatters after his report on Bush and the Air National Guard. There were growing whispers around the water cooler that his days were numbered; certainly, this would be his last presidential election. The ratings had slid into the basement, and cable was the dominant force. People didn\u2019t gather in living rooms to watch CBS anymore. If they gathered it all, it was to watch CNN. And a growing number weren\u2019t even doing that. They were clicking on the computer for the latest returns. <\/p>\n
Four years ago, I was working election night as one of two writers for Rather. Late in the evening, I noticed someone unfamiliar lurking around the studio. The guy was alone. He looked tired. He was carrying a Styrofoam cup, filled with the day-old coffee we\u2019d all been swilling since morning. He found an empty chair and sat down and hunched over and sipped from his cup. Dan Rather was up at the anchor desk, and we were sitting behind him, with a perfect view of his back. This guy with the coffee cup just watched and sipped and looked around. I wondered if he was lost. People seemed to be ignoring him. Then I got a closer look. It was Les Moonves, President and CEO of CBS. <\/p>\n
I can only imagine what was going through his mind that night. <\/p>\n
But I did notice this: he wasn\u2019t wearing a tuxedo. <\/p>\n
Do I miss working election night? Not on your life. For the first time in a long time, I\u2019m looking forward to watching it unfold at home. <\/p>\n
Oh: and no, I won\u2019t be wearing a tuxedo, either. <\/p>\n
Pajamas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A friend of mine recently sent me an e-mail, asking if I was going to miss working this election night. I\u2019d toiled into the wee hours for more election nights than I can remember and now, for the first time in 26 years, I\u2019ll be following it from my own living room. Of course, for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-my-world"],"yoast_head":"\n
That's the way it was - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/thats-the-way-it-was.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"That's the way it was - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A friend of mine recently sent me an e-mail, asking if I was going to miss working this election night. I\u2019d toiled into the wee hours for more election nights than I can remember and now, for the first time in 26 years, I\u2019ll be following it from my own living room. 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I\u2019d toiled into the wee hours for more election nights than I can remember and now, for the first time in 26 years, I\u2019ll be following it from my own living room. Of course, for…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/thats-the-way-it-was.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2008-11-04T10:12:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SRBqycrcPwI\/AAAAAAAADQs\/nnvpetnv1rI\/s200\/WalterCronkiteCBS-711665.jpg"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/thats-the-way-it-was.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/thats-the-way-it-was.html","name":"That's the way it was - The Deacon's Bench","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/thats-the-way-it-was.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/thats-the-way-it-was.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SRBqycrcPwI\/AAAAAAAADQs\/nnvpetnv1rI\/s200\/WalterCronkiteCBS-711665.jpg","datePublished":"2008-11-04T10:12:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-11-04T10:12:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/5a7b3c6e9d155e382842aa310ff9b1ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/thats-the-way-it-was.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/thats-the-way-it-was.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/thats-the-way-it-was.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SRBqycrcPwI\/AAAAAAAADQs\/nnvpetnv1rI\/s200\/WalterCronkiteCBS-711665.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SRBqycrcPwI\/AAAAAAAADQs\/nnvpetnv1rI\/s200\/WalterCronkiteCBS-711665.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/11\/thats-the-way-it-was.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"That’s the way it was"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic Deacon Ponders the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/5a7b3c6e9d155e382842aa310ff9b1ee","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/114\/1144d939be636f641ea021e1d347f9fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/114\/1144d939be636f641ea021e1d347f9fdx96.jpg","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"description":"A Roman Catholic deacon serving the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, Greg Kandra is News Director for the diocese's cable channel, NET (New Evangelization Television.) Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SRBqycrcPwI\/AAAAAAAADQs\/nnvpetnv1rI\/s1600-h\/WalterCronkiteCBS-711665.jpg\")
<\/a>I came of age at CBS News hearing tales told around the campfire, from Those Who Were There: how Bill and Babe Paley used to host a black-tie cocktail party at their Manhattan apartment, and it was the most sought-after invitation in the city. Writers, editors, and titans of business would gather to sip champagne and predict the next morning\u2019s headlines. They\u2019d watch grainy black-and-white images of Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid, announcing the results as the hours dragged on. At the end of the evening, the Paleys would climb into their limo and head cross town to the CBS television studios, and Bill Paley would pop into the control room, still wearing his tux, to congratulate everyone on a job well done. <\/p>\n