By Becky Brisley and Danika Worthington
CBS News correspondent and “Face the Nation” anchor Bob Schieffer visited the Walter Cronkite School on Monday to discuss the evolution of journalism with students as part of the Must See Monday series.
Mark Lodato, assistant dean and news director at the Cronkite school, moderated the discussion focusing on Schieffer’s experiences in the field and his insight in regards to the world of journalism.
“I’ve been waiting to come to this specific Must See Monday for several weeks,” said Michael Gordon, a journalism post-graduate student. “People who can tell you insights about working with Walter Cronkite are exceedingly rare these days. He’s the last of a great generation, a breed that’s going by the wayside, a true journalist.”
Lodato began the discussion with the topic of the Kennedy assassination because the 50th anniversary of the incident is coming up in November. Schieffer immediately delved into his involvement with the assassination as a young reporter, even mentioning that he gave Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother a ride to a police station and interviewed her on the way.
“Nothing like this had ever happened,” Schieffer said. “Anyone who was alive at the time had never experienced anything like this; there was a feeling of terror, it was a very surreal time.”
Schieffer said that the Kennedy assassination completely changed the journalism world and how people got their news. For the first time, people saw the news gathering process. Rather than receive day-old news from their morning newspaper or wait until the evening newscast, they all watched the unveiling of the same tragic story as Walter Cronkite told the nation that the president had been killed.
“Back then, we didn’t really believe something until it was written down in black and white … All that changed that weekend, and television became what people turned to,” Schieffer said.
Lodato likened the innovation of television news to the rise of the Internet in the media today, asking Schieffer if television is still as prominent as before. Schieffer said that the amount of information available has increased immensely over the past few decades, from a few big television stations and newspapers to endless amounts of news available on the Internet.
“You can now get the news from every conceivable point of view …,” Schieffer said at a news conference Monday morning. “The result is many people tend to watch only the channels that validate their point of view. And what that means is that we are not all getting the same news.”
From that point on, Schieffer exemplified his personal philosophies and changes he has seen in politics in his time as a reporter and as a moderator for presidential debates. He touched on the NSA issue, the government shutdown and the disconnect he sees between politicians in Washington and their constituents. Schieffer said what journalists need to remember is that politicians and journalists have two entirely different jobs: It is a politician’s job to deliver a message and it is a journalist’s job to somehow get the truth.
“As someone who is interested in being a political reporter, I think it was really amazing to hear from one of the best political reporters that we probably have ever known,” journalism freshman Aubrey McCleve said. “He’s someone we’ve seen on T.V. growing up and he’s someone who captures the story better than almost anyone else. He and Walter Cronkite are legends for a reason.”
Schieffer reminisced about Cronkite within the discussion, recalling his natural curiosity and passion for the news. He said that the Walter Cronkite people saw everyday on television was the same person in real life — a man who cared about the true art and nature of journalism and the people it serves.
“I remember one time it was about 6:45 and the news goes on at 6:30, and Walter looked up and said ‘Oh, how long is Greenland?’ Well who the hell knows how long Greenland is?,” Schieffer said. “He was curious, but he made us such good reporters.”
Schieffer is the recipient of the 2013 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, the 30th to receive the annual award. He will be accepting the award at a luncheon today at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel.
“Many wonderful journalists have received this award,” Schieffer said in the news conference Monday morning. “But I will tell you, I can’t imagine that anyone will appreciate it more than I do.”
Contact the reporters at rebecca.brisley@asu.edu and danika.worthington@asu.edu
