Jim Lehrer

(Updates at end with response from NewsHour) With the word Tuesday that "NewsHour" was shutting down offices and laying off employees, it's time to ask the question: Just how much of the this one-time PBS bedrock is actually left? In fact, let's go a step further and ask if it is even accurate to call it a nightly newscast any more -- and if what's left is worth trying to save? I know I've been avoiding asking those questions for at least four years even though they begged to be asked.

(Updates at end with response from NewsHour) With the word Tuesday that "NewsHour" was shutting down offices and laying off employees, it's time to ask the question: Just how much of the this one-time PBS bedrock is actually left? In fact, let's go a step further and ask if it is even accurate to call it a nightly newscast any more -- and if what's left is worth trying to save? I know I've been avoiding asking those questions for at least four years even though they begged to be asked.

One of the nation's most respected journalists gave McDaniel College graduates in Westminster yesterday a list of guidelines that he practices while working in the news business. Jim Lehrer, who received an honorary doctor of journalism degree at the college's 134th commencement, listed integrity, impartiality and diligence before ending with, "Finally, I am not in the entertainment business." The remark earned him rousing applause. Still, as they stood at the podium together, Lehrer and his wife, Kate Lehrer, did entertain the crowd, he with a rendition of announcements he used to make while working at a small-town bus terminal in his youth.

After 14 years of going solo at the PBS anchor desk, Jim Lehrer is expected to announce Tuesday at a programming conference in Baltimore that The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer will return to a co-anchor format in the fall. Lehrer, who will turn 75 next week, will be joined at the anchor desk by a rotating cast of correspondents, including Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff and Jeffrey Brown. Lehrer, who had a heart bypass operation in 1983, underwent a heart valve procedure last year that left him away from the show for several months.

For years, Walter Cronkite defined integrity in television news. At once commanding and calm, the veteran newsman elicited trust from viewers, competitors and public figures alike. Two decades after Cronkite's departure from CBS, network news programs are drawing a smaller share of the viewing audience, and softer stories on consumer and health trends often dominate. Many cable talk shows are more likely to generate 1,000 points of heat than shed any light. So who has inherited the mantle of the nation's most trusted newscaster?

All the talk these days about how the era of the anchorman has ended amuses Jim Lehrer. With good reason. With Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather all leaving their newscasts during the last 11 months, there has been monumental change in TV news. But the Texas native, who has put in more years as anchor than any of them, each weeknight still brings 2.5 million Americans the most dependable hour of information and analysis on television. And Lehrer, who heads the PBS broadcast now known as the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, which this week marks its 30th anniversary, has no plans for change.

As programmers and public broadcasting executives from across the country come together starting Monday in Baltimore for the annual PBS Showcase conference, they face what could be the most challenging time in the history of American public broadcasting. The people responsible for producing and distributing such iconic TV series as The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Nova must confront a world financial crisis, deep cuts in funding, increased competition, and vast technological and cultural shifts in the way viewers demand content and broadcasters try to provide it. Indeed, attendance at the annual conference is expected to be lower than usual as public TV stations cut back on travel budgets.

After 14 years of going solo at the PBS anchor desk, Jim Lehrer is expected to announce Tuesday at a programming conference in Baltimore that The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer will return to a co-anchor format in the fall. Lehrer, who will turn 75 next week, will be joined at the anchor desk by a rotating cast of correspondents, including Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff and Jeffrey Brown. Lehrer, who had a heart bypass operation in 1983, underwent a heart valve procedure last year that left him away from the show for several months.

McDaniel College will award more than 850 bachelor's and master's degrees at its 134th commencement at 2 p.m. Saturday in Gill Center. Journalists and authors Jim and Kate Lehrer will be this year's honorary degree recipients. Jim Lehrer will receive a doctor of journalism, and Kate Lehrer a doctor of letters. Jim Lehrer, executive director and anchor of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, has won numerous awards for journalism, including several Emmys, the George Foster Peabody Broadcast Award, William Allen White Foundation Award for Journalistic Merit and the University of Missouri School of Journalism's Medal of Honor.

ABC (Ch. 2) From: ABC News headquarters in New York When: Starts at 6:30 p.m. Anchor: Peter Jennings CBS (Ch. 13) From: CBS News studios on West 57th in New York When: Starts at 7 p.m. Anchor: Dan Rather NBC (Ch. 11) From: Rockefeller Center in New York When: Starts at 7 p.m. Anchor: Tom Brokaw PBS (Chs. 22, 67) From: WETA in Washington When: Starts at 10 p.m. Anchor: Jim Lehrer CNN From: Nasdaq Tower in New York's Times Square When: Starts at 7 p.m. Anchor: Wolf Blitzer Fox News Channel From: Studio D in New York When: Starts at 7 p.m. Anchor: Brit Hume

As programmers and public broadcasting executives from across the country come together starting Monday in Baltimore for the annual PBS Showcase conference, they face what could be the most challenging time in the history of American public broadcasting. The people responsible for producing and distributing such iconic TV series as The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Nova must confront a world financial crisis, deep cuts in funding, increased competition, and vast technological and cultural shifts in the way viewers demand content and broadcasters try to provide it. Indeed, attendance at the annual conference is expected to be lower than usual as public TV stations cut back on travel budgets.

Election night finally arrives, and virtually all of the major networks and cable channels are blowing out all other programming to bring viewers the historic election results live. The major networks - ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox - will all have live coverage starting at 7. ABC News has been the most watched news operation for political coverage this year, but since the national conventions, CBS News has been the most aggressive. The 24/7 cable channels will start their election specials an hour earlier on MSNBC and CNN. If you are looking for some razzle-dazzle technology, CNN is using hologram photography to "transport" images of correspondents from remote locations.

While the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain was still undecided last night about a scheduled debate with Sen. Barack Obama, network and cable TV news executives across the board were preparing their coverage as if the event would definitely be held tonight. "We are proceeding as if it's on until someone tells us it's officially not," Natalie Raabe, a spokeswoman for ABC News, said late yesterday. Most of the correspondents and crews that will provide on-scene coverage at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, starting at 9 p.m. if the debate is held, were already in place or on the way last night.

The Phony Marine Jim Lehrer Random House / 212 pages / $23.95 Hugo Marder leads a life of mind-boggling dullness. After a mildly bitter divorce that ended a childless marriage, the 54-year-old marks his days as a sales associate at Nash Brothers (your grandfather's haberdasher, remember?). This protagonist of newsman Jim Lehrer's new novel carries on without friends, vices or passions, quietly going to seed. He disdains politics despite the fact that - or because - he lives near Dupont Circle in Washington.

Speeches at college graduation ceremonies are pretty rote: "Congratulations, graduating class. Believe in yourself. The sky is the limit. Best of luck." Most of the time, there's so much else going on - families snapping photographs and making videos, friends tossing beach balls back and forth - that you don't hear much anyway. If you think about it, though, some top-notch world leaders, writers and musicians speak at graduations. And they often share tips or personal experiences that they culled on the way to success.

PBS tonight offers three hours of programs celebrating standout TV comedians ranging from Milton Berle to Steve Martin. The lineup of comics and writers interviewed and shown in performance is dazzling: Larry David, Carl Reiner, Lily Tomlin and Sid Caesar. Yet, for all the comedic talent onscreen, it is an evening surprisingly devoid of laughs. Worse yet, by the standards of PBS, viewers are not likely to come away from the programs much enlightened about the role of comedy in American life.

Network news was torn between the sacred and profane yesterday.As anchormen, each with 100 reporters and technicians, waited in Havana for the pope's plane to touch down, Washington lit up with new allegations of sexual impropriety on the part of President Clinton.NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw voiced the confusion yesterday afternoon, saying, "Good afternoon from Havana. And, in a remarkable set of coincidences, as we await the arrival of Pope John Paul here on the island, in Washington, indeed across the country, attention was focused on President Clinton and allegations that he had an improper relationship with a young White House intern."

PBS and NBC will team up again to provide coverage of the 1996 Republican and Democratic national conventions, PBS President Ervin S. Duggan announced yesterday."

All the talk these days about how the era of the anchorman has ended amuses Jim Lehrer. With good reason. With Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather all leaving their newscasts during the last 11 months, there has been monumental change in TV news. But the Texas native, who has put in more years as anchor than any of them, each weeknight still brings 2.5 million Americans the most dependable hour of information and analysis on television. And Lehrer, who heads the PBS broadcast now known as the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, which this week marks its 30th anniversary, has no plans for change.

ABC (Ch. 2) From: ABC News headquarters in New York When: Starts at 6:30 p.m. Anchor: Peter Jennings CBS (Ch. 13) From: CBS News studios on West 57th in New York When: Starts at 7 p.m. Anchor: Dan Rather NBC (Ch. 11) From: Rockefeller Center in New York When: Starts at 7 p.m. Anchor: Tom Brokaw PBS (Chs. 22, 67) From: WETA in Washington When: Starts at 10 p.m. Anchor: Jim Lehrer CNN From: Nasdaq Tower in New York's Times Square When: Starts at 7 p.m. Anchor: Wolf Blitzer Fox News Channel From: Studio D in New York When: Starts at 7 p.m. Anchor: Brit Hume