R.I.P., Jim Lehrer

It’s -30- for Jim Lehrer, co-founder of “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” on PBS.

Lehrer started out as a print guy, and maybe that’s why I liked him. He worked for papers in Dallas, where he covered the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and then shifted to TV, where he and Robert MacNeil were all over the Watergate hearings. He went on to moderate a dozen presidential debates.

MacNeil praised Lehrer for his “very direct manner of interviewing” and his “extraordinary ability to listen.”

“You know the hardest thing to do on TV is listen,” he added.

Sometimes the hardest thing is to watch, especially given the motley crew of talking heads that fills screens these days. Unlike the bulk of them, Jim Lehrer will be missed. You can read his obit in The New York Times here.

Tags: Jim Lehrer

This entry was posted on January 23, 2020 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Absent friends, Journalism, TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “R.I.P., Jim Lehrer”

Larry T. atCycleItalia Says:
January 23, 2020 at 12:45 pm | Reply
RIP Mr. Lehrer. PBS’s Judy Woodruff should take the hint and retire to enjoy the rest of her life, making way for someone younger to take over the NewsHour ship.
khal spencer Says:
January 23, 2020 at 12:48 pm | Reply
Damn. A good newsperson is hard to find.
Pat O'Brien Says:
January 23, 2020 at 1:13 pm | Reply
That is a loss to journalism, and we can’t afford to lose them these days.
The Flensburg Files Says:
January 23, 2020 at 2:35 pm | Reply
Reblogged this on THE FLENSBURG FILES.