Why we need to remember Jim Lehrer
The sad news last week of the passing of legendary American news anchor Jim Lehrer was a poignant moment for me. It took me back more than 30 years, to the summer of 1989, when I managed to secure a prized internship on PBS’ MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour. The famous hosts were, of course, Jim Lehrer in Washington D.C. and Robert MacNeil presenting from the offices of WNET Channel 13 in New York. It was there on West 58th Street that I spent several months with my fellow interns helping to get ‘the nation’s hour of news’ on air every night.
1989. What a year for news that was. In America, George H. W. Bush became the 41st President. Oliver North went on trial for the ‘Iran-Contra’ affair that had almost destroyed the latter part of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Jim Wright became the first Speaker of the House to resign after an ethics scandal. He chose the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour to try to explain himself to the American public. New York itself was plagued with a terrible crime wave. Long-time Mayor Ed Koch found himself thrown out of office. Perhaps that’s why ‘Batman’ made his comeback on the big screen in June 1989. Who else could save Gotham?
Overseas, truly historic events were taking place. In the summer of 1989, Poland elected its first non-communist Prime Minister, then protests began appearing across Eastern Europe. Within just a few weeks — astonishingly — the Berlin Wall came down and the entire Communist Bloc collapsed in a heap.
The Newshour was at the frontline of reporting all of these world-shaking events, helped by a stellar panel of regular guests. Henry Kissinger would turn up to explain the collapse of the Soviet Union as it happened in front of our eyes. A young Governor called Bill Clinton often appeared ‘down the line’ from his home state of Arkansas to talk about the future of the Democratic Party as he saw it (few people realized at the time that he WAS the future).
In the middle of it all were Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil, a contrasting pair in many ways. One was the classic Texas newsman and Washington insider, the other a cool Canadian who had made his name at the BBC in London before returning to the United States to create the Newshour. Yet they shared a strange history. Both had been reporting from Dallas on November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy was shot and killed, and both had separate, chilling encounters with Lee Harvey Oswald.
But these reporters also shared a deep bond, one based on values and the strongest possible commitment to the news business. They hired outstanding reporters in their own image, such as Judy Woodruff and Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who documented the civil rights movement from its very early days.
As a humble intern, it was my privilege to be included in the daily news conferences where these living legends laid out the day’s events and how the Newshour would cover them. Their over-riding focus was always the same — how do we get to the truth of this story, and how do we best tell it to the American people? Lehrer and MacNeil also cared passionately about the English language, and would spend hours editing their own scripts until they were, in their eyes, perfect.
Why does all of this matter? Because with the passing of Jim Lehrer, MacNeil long-since retired, and that whole generation of reporters disappearing from view, something precious is being lost. It’s the idea that the highest quality journalism has a vital role to play in the functioning of our democracy. In order to do that, it has to be incorruptible and never deviate from its mission to get to the truth — no matter what it takes.
I understand that, in the era of fake news, sponsored journalism, and politically partisan reporting, this is a deeply unfashionable and perhaps hopelessly romantic idea. Let’s face it, 2019 wasn’t exactly a great year for broadcast news in America, following the disturbing revelations in Ronan Farrow’s best-seller, ‘Catch and Kill’.
How can we hope to turn the clock back to the much simpler, pre-social media age? Well, of course, we can’t — no more than I can go back to being a young intern in the summer of 1989. But I would argue, keeping the flame of public interest journalism alive is even more important now than it was 30 years ago. If we lose that idea completely, democracy itself becomes endangered. Let’s not forget Jim Lehrer, Robert MacNeil, or the other heroes of the golden age of journalism. They mattered. They really mattered.
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