1/23/20
Jim Lehrer, the legendary debate moderator and former anchor of the "NewsHour" television program, died Thursday. He was 85. Lehrer's death was announced by his longtime network home, PBS, where he co-founded the "NewsHour" in 1975. PBS said Lehrer died "peacefully in his sleep at home" and did not share further information about the cause of death. Lehrer anchored the "NewsHour," the flagship newscast on public television in the United States, for 36 years. He retired in 2011. Lehrer grew up in Kansas and Texas. Upon graduation from the Missouri School of Journalism in 1956, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and served as an infantry officer. In a 2006 speech at Harvard, he said he expected to be drafted if he did not enlist. "I am grateful my country forced me to serve my country. Not for my country's sake, but for my own," Lehrer said in 2006. "In that diverse company, I learned to be responsible for others. I learned to be dependent on others. I learned there was more to life than me, me, me, me."
Lehrer appeared on CNN's "Reliable Sources" in December and discussed the importance of "old fashioned journalism values" at a time of division in American politics and a time of revolution in the media. Reflecting on his own coverage of past impeachment proceedings, Lehrer said that President Trump's impeachment probably has an "even a larger audience" than Nixon's or Clinton's, but most Americans are "using their own prism to watch it," from Fox to PBS. "They're not gathering around the TV set to watch it like we did in '73, '74," and "with Clinton later. We're not doing that anymore," he said. "We probably never will again."
