Hey...it's only 64 feet :o).
Posted on 02/08/2007 2:00:16 PM PST by mdittmar
Pressures by media companies to generate ever-greater profits are threatening the very freedom the nation was built upon, former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite warned Thursday.
In a keynote address at Columbia University, Cronkite said today's journalists face greater challenges than those from his generation. No longer could journalists count on their employers to provide the necessary resources, he said, 'to expose truths that powerful politicians and special interests often did not want exposed.'
Instead, he said, 'they face rounds and rounds of job cuts and cost cuts that require them to do ever more with ever less.''In this information age and the very complicated world in which we live today, the need for high-quality reporting is greater than ever,' he told journalism students and professionals at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. 'It's not just the journalist's job at risk here. It's American democracy. It is freedom.'
Cronkite said news accuracy has declined because of consolidations and closures that have left many American towns with only one newspaper. And as broadcasters cut budgets and air time for news, he said, 'we're all left with a sound bite culture that turns political campaigns into political theater.'
The former anchor urged owners of media companies -- newspapers and broadcast alike -- to recognize they have special civil responsibilities.
'Consolidation and cost cutting may be good for the bottom line in the short term but that isn't necessarily good for the country or the health of the news business in the long term,' he said.
Michael Copps, a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, later said that looser broadcast regulations -- such as those that had required stations to regularly prove they serve the community interest -- have resulted in less local coverage, less diversity of opinion and fewer jobs for journalists over the past quarter century.
Without directly naming the nation's largest radio station operator, Clear Channel Communications Inc., Copps complained that many local musicians were being pushed aside when 'media behemoths' distribute playlists from a central office.
The FCC is considering relaxing the rules even more. The agency decided in June to reopen the hotly disputed issue of ownership limits, which currently restrict the number of radio and television stations that one owner can have as well as cross-ownership between newspapers and broadcasters.
Many of the broadcast television networks and large media companies such as the Tribune Co. and Gannett Co. have complained that current restrictions are outmoded in a digital age in which consumers also have the Internet and cable TV from which to choose.
Considering television alone, the nation saw the number of major networks grow from three to five, said Benjamin Compaine, author of 'Who Owns the Media?: Competition and Concentration in the Mass Media.' Add to that several 24-hour news channels on cable, he said.
But opponents of loosened rules worry that changes would hurt minorities' access to the airwaves, curtail children's and local programming and limit musical diversity.
'We have more outlets now, more in sheer numbers, engaged in news presentation than we've ever had,' said Tom Rosenstiel, a former political reporter for the Los Angeles Times and now director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. 'The problem is most of them are not engaged in a lot of serious news gathering. They are largely engaged in repackaging material that other people have produced.'
click,click,click,abc,click,click,click,cbs,click,click,click,nbc,I remember you, you a$$.
WALTER CRONKITE FEBRUARY 27,1968
But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.
This is Walter Cronkite. Good night.
He said it, no doubt, aboard his 150-foot yawl...
What profits?
Headline: "Job cuts threaten quality of buggy whips".
Yep, minorities and children hurt most. To think that communist was ever trusted by anyone.
Cronkite has publicly called for the US to give up "a little bit" of its sovereignty to a one-world government headed by the UN.
So really, anything he has to say about anything is not worth much more than its amusement value.
Hey...it's only 64 feet :o).
Who doesn't?
'It's not just the journalist's job at risk here. It's American democracy. It is freedom.'
What a pompous ass with a bloated ego.
'we're all left with a sound bite culture that turns political campaigns into political theater.'
Heck, that bloviating buffoon was in on the ground floor of the "sound bite culture" -- he practically invented it!
Walter Cronkite will never accept his portion of blame for the decline of the MSM. For decades America trusted him, only to find out after he left CBS, that he iced his reports with a liberal slant.
Dan Rather followed.
But the MSM still hasn't learned it's lesson, they still hire leftist shills to fill what should be unbiased positions. We're supposed to believe Tim Russert, George Stephanopolis, and Chris Matthews are honest news brokers??? Get real!
He said it, no doubt, aboard his 150-foot yawl...
Is it a restored Confederate blockade runner? ;^)
Ol' Walter just can't comprehend the free market. Put out a good product, Walter, and people will buy it. Put out a bad one, and we won't. Simple economics.
So how much of his personal fortune does he propose to return to CBS?
You are right. That's why there has never been true journalists, or journalism, ever. Just like there has never been true communism (just ask any socialist). The very ideas behind both are contrary to human nature and reality.
Far better an honest partisan who will tell you, or at least won't try to lie about, where he is coming from.
Heh, Heh...
Yup, Walter, that's right. The last thing you should want is for CBS to make profits. If you made profits, then it would be a conflict of interest because you can't make profits unless you sell out your journalistic principles. So whatever you do, just make sure that you don't make a profit.
In fact, the bigger the loss the better. If you have a big loss, then that just proves that you've been ethically true to your profession. And keep in mind, that you don't want to be in a situation where NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, or CNBC can brag that they had a bigger loss than you did, so better play it on the safe side by making the CBS loss as big as possible.
Thanks. I was trying to find a way to say that, but you nailed it completely.
Actually, what hurts the media is the fact that 85-90% of media employees who were polled admitted that they voted for Al Gore in 2000.
What hurts them is that they all think they are mainstream, middle of the road.
The old windbag never stops blowing.
Good question. If being a Teeee Veeee news reader is such a public service, why does one prekey little blond walk away with more cash in her check than the total payroll of most newspapers?
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