Bob Schieffer receives Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism

Bob Schieffer, host of "Face the Nation" and CBS News correspondent, was awarded the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism by Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication on Tuesday.

The award is given annually to "a leading figure in journalism."

During his acceptance speech, Schieffer discussed the "revolution in communications" and the resulting "crisis in journalism."

"Forget the need for ink and a printing press. 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," Schieffer said. "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."

The longtime journalist said the news about the news isn't all bad though.

"The good news about the web is that news spreads fast. Those with a grievance can make others aware of it. As we saw in Egypt, a revolution no longer needs a charismatic leader," Schieffer said. "This ability (to) connect has turned our culture inside out and our journalism and politics upside down."

Walter Cronkite himself presented the first award in 1984 to William Paley, founder of CBS, and Frank Stanton, former president of CBS.

The last CBS News member to receive the Cronkite Award was Charles Osgood in 2004.

Past recipients have included Bob Costas, Christiane Amanpour, Diane Sawyer, Brian Williams, Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer, Tom Brokaw, Jane Pauley, Katharine Graham, Bob Woodward, Helen Thomas, Ben Bradlee and George Will.