Jim Lehrer Quotes
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I'm in the civil discourse business. I think it takes all kinds. And more power to everybody.
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Best I can do for them is to give them every piece of information I can find and let them make the judgments. That's just my basic view of my function as a journalist.
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I believe an invitation from the Commission on Presidential Debates is similar to a draft notice - a civic responsibility.
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We have increasingly fewer and fewer journalists who have any military experience and understand what life is like in the military and in combat.
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Well, I don't know about objectivity, but I know for certain that it's always possible for a professional journalist who understands what he or she's up to to be fair, and that's the key word. Fairness to individuals, fairness to ideas, and to issues and whatever - that is critical, and that is also part and parcel of what the job.
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I always wear blue shirts and I like wine or purple ties.
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People can say anything they want to. If they don't want to get the news from me, get it from somebody else. It's not something I'm going to worry about, I'm sorry.
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The best moderators are the moderators who are essentially invisible. A moderator who is there to be seen and heard and to be talked about either, 'oh, God, what a great question,' or, 'oh, God, what a lousy question,' that to me is a failed moderator.
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I'm a journalist and that's what I do.
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I'm not in the being-annoyed business.
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In my case, I was covering politics in Texas as a newspaper man in the 1960's.
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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.
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There's always a germ of truth in just about everything.
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I wanted to be a bus driver when I was a kid. I look at bus driving through the eyes of a little boy. I see it as glamorous.
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A skill required to be president is to explain to the American people any given thing they do.
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Most of the stories I have covered in 45 years have been gray stories.
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If we don't have an informed electorate we don't have a democracy. So I don't care how people get the information, as long as they get it. I'm just doing it my particular way and I feel lucky I can do it the way I want to do it.
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I started as a print reporter.
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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.
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One of the problems is that everybody is used to the old-fashioned debate system, which is very controlled, and where the moderator plays a more active role.
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My Marine experience helped shape who I am now personally and professionally, and I am grateful for that on an almost daily basis.
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In order to reduce the deficit, there has to be revenue in addition to cuts.
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People can get their news any way they want. What I love about what's happened is that there are so many different avenues, there are so many different outlets, so many different ways to debate and discuss and to inquire about any given news story.
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My writing is extremely important, so I write every day. I just enjoy it. I get a kick out of it.