Distantly related to Dr. Samuel Mudd, as in "your name is --," he is the man who should have succeeded Walter Cronkite as the most trusted man in America at CBS instead of "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" Born in 1928, Roger Mudd finished a long and distinguished career at NBC.

Not incidentally, he did the nation an immeasurable favor by torpedoing the presidential campaign of the late Ted Kennedy by asking one simple question:

[youtube e5TkhNWPspM nolink]

Too bad newsmen don't ask that question any more.