Although I grew up on a small Caribbean island, Bob Schieffer is such a familiar face to me. And I admit I was a bit star-struck to see that face that I’d often viewed on a small TV screen in a humble living room transformed to real life.
What an honor it was to be among the audience to witness the CBS News correspondent and host of “Face the Nation” receive this year’s Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism and to hear his caution to us in this new age of an overabundance of information and communication channels to show responsibility both in how we distribute and consume information.
“Anybody who owns a computer, or an iPhone can be a publisher and many choose to be just that – qualified or not, well meaning or not, honest or not, informed or not. The result: we’ve discovered many smart new voices out there and excuse me for being blunt, a lot of people who have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. We get more information but access to information does not always equate with wisdom. Even worse, much of what we get is just wrong, not just wrong but sometimes deliberately false, hateful and meant to harm.”
In case you missed it see Schieffer’s remarks here.
Cronkite Luncheon 2013: Bob Schieffer from Cronkite School on Vimeo.
@rhondajaipaul
Great summary of Schieffer accepting the award, I was not at the luncheon so I’m glad you included the video!