Jim Lehrer Interview: From Watergate to Today and The Power of Good Information

PBS Anchor Jim Lehrer discusses the basic rules of journalism, the importance of revealing lies without labeling people liars, fact checking, and how the concept of “on and off the record” no longer exists. Lehrer recalls his long friendship with Ben Bradlee who he said “believed very strongly that good information will, in fact, set you and keep you free.”

Jim Lehrer was born in Wichita, Kansas on May 19, 1934. He graduated from the University of Missouri in 1956 with a Bachelor in Journalism before joining the Marine Corps. From 1959 to 1966, he was a reporter for The Dallas Morning News and then the Dallas Times-Herald. He was also a political columnist at the Times-Herald for several years and in 1968 became the city editor. Lehrer's newspaper career led him to public television, first in Dallas, as KERA-TV's executive director of public affairs, on-air host and editor of a nightly news program. He subsequently moved to Washington, DC, to serve as the public affairs coordinator for PBS, and was also a member of PBS's Journalism Advisory Board and a fellow at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Lehrer went on to join the National Public Affairs Center for Television (NPACT) as a correspondent, teaming up with Robert MacNeil to provide NPACT's continuous live coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings, broadcast on PBS. He was the solo anchor for PBS coverage of the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment inquiry of Richard Nixon. Lehrer was executive editor and news anchor for the PBS NewsHour on PBS for over 30 years. He was known for his role as debate moderator during U.S. presidential election campaigns, moderating twelve presidential debates between 1988 and 2012. He has been honored with numerous awards for journalism, has won two Emmys and was the author of 20 novels, two memoirs, three plays, and a non-fiction work. Lehrer passed away on January 23, 2020.

From the HBO / Kunhardt Film Foundation (KFF) Documentary “The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee,” about one of America's most influential and celebrated newspaper editors, who found himself at the center of many of the 20th Century's most seismic storms, including: World War II, John F. Kennedy, Watergate and the fall of Richard Nixon.

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Jim Lehrer, Co-Founder, PBS NewsHour
Interviewed By: John Maggio
Interview Date: January 13, 2017

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:11 Getting into journalism
03:21 Having a sense of story
07:27 Ben Bradlee’s love for gossip
11:17 Ben Bradlee’s insistence on truth
14:48 Ben Bradlee’s distrust of Nixon
18:37 Watergate’s lasting legacy
20:47 Ben Bradlee’s persona
29:49 Ben Bradlee’s charisma
31:45 Lessons from the military
37:14 Ben Bradlee’s philosophy on life
42:42 Ben Bradlee’s friendship with JFK
43:34 Reactions to Ben Bradlee’s friendship with JFK
45:57 Journalistic integrity
51:40 Reporting on the private lives of public officials
01:00:03 How journalism has changed
01:02:53 The Kennedy assassination
01:10:00 The aftermath of JFK’s assassination on Ben Bradlee
01:12:44 Ben Bradlee’s relationship with Kay Graham
01:18:16 Ben Bradlee’s competitive spirit
01:19:36 The basic rules of journalism
01:24:21 Nixon vs. The Post
01:29:43 The impact of All the President’s Men on journalism
01:31:10 Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee
01:33:03 The use of anonymous sources
01:39:53 Getting the facts right
01:42:46 The importance of fact-checking
01:46:03 Janet Cooke’s fabricated reporting
01:47:19 The aftermath of the Janet Cooke scandal
01:49:58 The new world of digital journalism
01:51:25 Ben Bradlee’s lasting legacy

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