The State of the Fourth Estate Through the Eyes of Two CBS News Icons

CBS News icons Lesley Stahl and Morley Safer offered a rare look inside their experience "growing up" with the Tiffany Network, working alongside newsman Walter Cronkite during some of the biggest stories in history.  The conversation touched on topics like how the 60 Minutes legends met Cronkite, women in the media, and the current state of the Fourth Estate.

Stahl, an eloquent speaker, told the audience inside the LBJ Auditorium at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas that she got her start, as many women did in broadcast journalism, because of affirmative action.

"There was a lot of concern the audience would not accept women as authoritative because we had never been in that position to tell the public what went on today," said Stahl.  "Would they accept us?  So we all had to lower our voices.  I remember very deliberately wearing glasses, which I do need.  But I could have taken them off for the camera.  My mother was always fighting me on this.  She kept saying, 'no one's ever going to ask you on a date if you wear your glasses!'  We were always trying to present ourselves as people of gravitas, people who had authoritative sounding voices, look serious."

Stahl remembered the time she smiled during a standup, when a reporter speaks directly into the camera for a story.  "I remember I told a funny story and I smiled.  The producer was livid at me because it was late and on deadline.  I had to go out and do it again.  It was funny but I wasn't allowed to smile because I was a woman and it would take away from my image."

Image in that day was very important as the evolving role of journalism slowly took hold of the American audience.  Safer said he learned Cronkite, who had a humorous side - throwing parties, doing impressions, and acting out a "strip tease" for his guests - would always stick up for his correspondents.  "He was a wonderful friend.  As a correspondent working 13,000 miles away, you really felt secure that he was somehow watching your back."

Stahl met Cronkite twice.  The first was at the local CBS affiliate, where she worked, in Boston.  Later, she was invited to a dinner party, similar to Safer, where she earned even more respect for him than she had before.  "My first story with having my first dinner with Walter Cronkite, getting to meet him personally,  was such a head spinner, I walked out kind of almost as if I was punch drunk in a funny way."  Stahl believed she became 'one of the guys' because Cronkite told these vile jokes with a woman present.  If he could do that with a woman in the room, she figured, she was in the club.

Broadcast Journalism, A Changing Scene

As time goes on, journalism has changed.  It's hard to believe, considering broadcast news still seems in its early years, that the media is changing even more.  Technology has a lot to do with it.

"We worked in film," Stahl said of her early career.  "Film had to be developed.   So you had actual time to think.  You had hours to make phone calls.  You could actually call people and get opposing views.  You could call an analyst and get some depth.  Then video came in and that time shrank.  The deadline wouldn't be so early.  And now it's instant.  They don't think at all.  The President speaks and two seconds later, the reporter's right there and he's telling you.  Or the story happens and before you can make a single phone call, you're called upon."

Safer, who credits 60 Minutes for still using the old fashioned formula of story telling and important investigations, believes the shrinking think time for journalists nowadays is sad.  "It really does a disservice to the audience."

Asked of the legacy Walter Cronkite left behind, and if it's still around:  "I think the legacy diminishes each year.  Part of it is the whole nature of broadcast news has changed so much," said Safer.

Stahl had a different take on Cronkite's legacy, saying the newsman actually shaped history.  "Time and again because Walter Cronkite was so trusted, the public listened to him more than they listened to the politicians.  He was able to affect the course of history and I would say his legacy is strongest in that sense."

Plenty has changed in broadcast journalism, but many things remain the same.  Despite the critics who choose not to trust the news, there are many journalists like Safer and Stahl who continue to make journalism an honored profession with people who work hard for viewers and the people whose stories they tell.