Watch Robert Feder: 'Where's our Walter Cronkite today?'

As an aspiring journalist back in his teenage years, Daily Herald Media Columnist Robert Feder struck up a connection with the legendary Walter Cronkite, "the most trusted man in America."

Many decades later, with the news media under attack, Feder wonders "Where is our Walter Cronkite today?"

That became a central question in a keynote speech Feder delivered last week at the annual Illinois Associated Press Media awards ceremony.

In comments peppered with a nostalgic look back at Feder's career, he recalled Cronkite staunchly defending the value of journalism when it was under assault in the 1970s and said journalism - and the country - need defenders again today.

Here's the full 20-minute recording of that speech.