Part of the trust he earned was a technical advantage. America at this time did not have half a dozen news networks. There were only a handful of men delivering

Part of the trust he earned was a technical advantage. America at this time did not have half a dozen news networks. There were only a handful of men delivering the news via this medium. CBS as a pioneer of the medium had an incredible amount of reach from a technical broadcasting perspective. More (powerful) transmitters reaching more homes. Better entertainment programming keeping channel dials on CBS. It's also important to remember that TV news was still a new concept in those days. TV itself was still an incredibly powerful medium to people. It certainly helps he was a top notch journalist and could rival the more mainstream print media.