Jim Lehrer
Jim Lehrer
James Charles "Jim" Lehreris a former American journalist and novelist, and is the former executive editor and a former news anchor for the PBS NewsHour on PBS. He is also known for his role as a debate moderator in U.S. presidential election campaigns, and is an author of numerous fiction and non-fiction books, which draw upon his experience as a newsman, and his interests in history and politics...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth19 May 1934
CountryUnited States of America
I've traveled around the country and I read local newspapers and all of that, and it's a sad, sad thing to go from city to city and see the small newspapers and they're tiny. They're tiny not only in size but also in scope.
I've always said this and finally I had a chance to demonstrate it: The moderator should be seen little and heard even less. It is up to the candidates to ask the follow-up questions and challenge one another.
Preparation is based on one driving force for me and that is to be relaxed enough to be able to listen to what the candidates are saying and react appropriately.
I am now finding more and more journalists saying, 'It has taken a tragedy of enormous proportions, but maybe, maybe we are returning to our roots,' and those roots are in the business of information, not entertainment,
In television there are only about 12 people who do what I do.
Most of the stories I have covered in 45 years have been gray stories.
My writing is extremely important, so I write every day. I just enjoy it. I get a kick out of it.
Well, to tell you truth, I have learned a long time ago that the trick when doing a debate, any kind of debate, is to just turn off the judgment switch in my head.
No two people see things the same way.
A debate has one purpose, one purpose only, and that is to facilitate the exchange of ideas directly between two candidates, and that's it.
We have increasingly fewer and fewer journalists who have any military experience and understand what life is like in the military and in combat.
I'm not in the being-annoyed business.
A skill required to be president is to explain to the American people any given thing they do.
I came from a family of Marines into the family of Marines.