Cronkite: "Need for high-quality reporting is greater than ever"

Former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite spoke to journalists and journalism students at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism today and addressed the challenges journalists are facing in the midst of budget cuts and job losses. Cronkite argues that these changes mean journalists are having "to do ever more with ever less," but that "in this information age and the very complicated world in which we live today, the need for high-quality reporting is greater than ever. It's not just the journalist's job at risk here. It's American democracy. It is freedom." He added that "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."