With the Internet allowing anyone to distribute information widely, traditional journalists haven't done enough to highlight how their work is different from blogs and citizen journalism, two leading news broadcasters said Nov. 20.

"Those of us who do that have been derelict in my opinion for not separating the others from ourselves," said Jim Lehrer, who anchors "NewsHour" on PBS.

Lehrer and Robert MacNeil, his "NewsHour" partner until 1995, visited Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication a day before receiving an award bearing Cronkite's name.

MacNeil said journalistic standards transcend the way information is delivered.

"It's very distressing because what counts is what is transmitted, not how it's transmitted," he said.

Lehrer said journalists have allowed those who don't adhere to journalistic standards and practices to claim they are journalists when they're not.

"No one talks about a citizen doctor or a citizen lawyer," he said. "There are people who are journalists and people who aren't."

Lehrer and MacNeil have a long history of reporting together, including covering the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973. They continue to collaborate on documentaries.

Lehrer said he doesn't oppose the crush of opinions currently offered online and on cable television as long as they are clearly labeled as such. He said that applies to comments that many news Web sites allow readers to post with articles.

"The more comments the merrier, but that is not reporting, that's not journalism," he said.

Both said the Internet has left the future of journalism uncertain, but they said it also makes it an exciting time to be entering the field.

"This is a revolutionary time in journalism; you never know how it's going to end," he said.

Lehrer said journalism will survive, in large part because it is so vital to the country.

"Without journalists there ain't going to be no democratic society," Lehrer said.