Journalism Legends Worry About Future

Michael Walsh

The 35th Edward R. Murrow Symposium at Washington State University offered a sense of irony. Helen Thomas and Bob Schieffer were presented with lifetime achievement awards while they spoke about the uncertain future of journalism.

“The technological marvels which have allowed us to deliver news as it happens, has caused a seismic shift,” said Schieffer, the recipient of the 2009 Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcast Journalism, as he addressed a crowd of about 500 people Tuesday night at the Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum.

Schieffer, 72, carries more than 50 years of broadcast journalism experience, 40 of them at CBS News. He has covered all four major beats in the nation’s capital –the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and Capitol Hill –and has been a floor reporter at every Democratic and Republican National Convention since 1972.

His biggest fear for the future of journalism is that online media will bring a lack of accountability and integrity, the very pillars for which the industry stands.

“The web is the only vehicle we have ever had to deliver news to the world without an editor,” Schieffer said.
Thomas, the recipient of the 2009 Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism, also voiced her concern about the current state of journalism.

“Unfortunately, everyone with a laptop thinks they are a journalist,” she said.

Often referred to as the “First Lady of the Press,” Thomas has been a White House correspondent since John F. Kennedy was in office. Thomas spent 57 years with United Press International, from 1943 to 2000, eventually becoming the first female United Press bureau chief. She has traveled the world with seven presidents in the past quarter-century and now writes as a syndicated columnist for Hearst Newspapers.

Having a lifetime of experience covering politics, both honorees are worried about how the American government will be affected by the decline of newspapers.

“American democracy, as we know it, cannot exist without access to independent coverage,” Schieffer said.

Thomas said the future looks grim because in the last decade, reporters have failed the public by going along with the censorship the government is trying to enforce. She is also worried journalism may never return to where it was because great reporters that have been around for years are losing jobs everyday.

“I’m not trying to stop progress,” Thomas said, “but I am going to miss traditional journalism.”

Schieffer, while also pessimistic about the future, argues the values and ethics of traditional journalism can still be upheld. He said the advances put an added pressure on schools to instill the values of conventional journalism, but as long as there are writers who understand the ethics, they will be sought.

Elizabeth Boss, a public relations major at WSU, was happy they addressed the shift in journalism and appreciated Schieffer’s message for everyone to continue to support media and read newspapers instead of going on the internet to only find what you want.

Schieffer also said it could become very difficult to support media though.

“Technology is moving so fast that no one can say where this is going,” Schieffer said after admitting he does not know what he will do if the day comes he has to start his morning without a coffee and a newspaper.

Spokane resident, Mary Stanley, came to the symposium with a friend to hear the two honorees speak. She came away impressed their stances on priorities in news coverage.

“They were great,” Stanley said. “I liked what Schieffer said about integrity. It is really important to get the truth.”

The Murrow Symposium is an annual event to recognize the accomplishments of a national figure in print or broadcast journalism. Previous recipients of the lifetime achievement award include Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Don Hewitt. The symposium is named after legendary journalist and WSU graduate, Edward R. Murrow.

Both recipients this year spoke to the legacy of Murrow.

Thomas said Murrow set himself apart because he realized the historical relevance of the daily drama he covered, and was able to relay that emotion to his audience.

Schieffer was flattered to be mentioned with his fellow CBS icon.

“To be given an award with Ed Murrow’s name on it is beyond anything I could have ever imagined,” he said.