Jim Lehrer sticks up for traditional media.

In an address at the University of Texas last night, PBS Newshour host Jim Lehrer warned against “spicing up” the news. “You want to be entertained? Go to the circus, please. Do not watch ‘The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,’” he said. Lehrer added, while increasing numbers of Americans are going online for their news, he’s not worried about the future of traditional media:

“The bloggers are talkers, commentators, not reporters. The talk-show hosts are reactors, commentators, not reporters,” Lehrer said. “The search engines can search but do not report. All of them, every single one of them, have to have the news in order to exist and thrive.”