Jim Lehrer died today at age 85. He was a throwback to a better time in journalism. After graduating from the University of Missouri, he served three years as a Marine Corps infantry officer, an experience he viewed as extremely valuable in teaching him about the world. He will always be remembered as half of the McNeil-Lehrer news hour on NPR. It was a favorite show of mine and the co-anchors did seem to attempt to give an objective factual account of the events of the day, a lost art now in Journalism. He and his one and only wife were just shy of their 60th anniversary. I will miss him. May he now be covering the big stories in the Kindgom of Love Eternal.
There was a time in the late 80’s I watched the McNeil-Lehrer news hour every day. It was good then. At some point I stopped watching when the time was no longer convenient. Several years later it was quite a changed show and since the late Bush 2’s years, impossible to watch. I pray he’s in a better place.
Like JFK above, I too once watched the McNeil-Lehrer news hour until it became so hopelessly biased leftward in contradiction to Jim Lehrer’s stated principles. In the 2000s I stopped watching it altogether. Right now I think govt financing of all public broadcasting like NPR and PBS should cease.
As for Jim Lehrer, may his soul rest in peace.