I have just come from hearing Jim Lehrer speak at the Harry Ransom Center. It was a free talk, ostensibly about his new novel The Franklin Affair, and there was an large turnout. I arrived a half hour before it was to start and I couldn’t get into the auditorium. They had overflow seating in the lobby with a monitor and Bose speakers. I was vexed, but it turned out I knew the woman sitting in front of me so we had a lovely chat until Mr. Lehrer came on. “Who knew Jim Lehrer had so many groupies?” I asked her.
Jim Lehrer is my hero.
He talked for a while about the book and how it came about, and his history in Texas, where he grew up and began his journalism career. He was quite riled up about Ben Franklin and his role in the foundation of our country. Then came a question and answer period. Some of the folks made impassioned speeches about public broadcasting funding and he kept his patented “I’m listening keenly and calmly to every word you say, Mr. Premier” face the entire time. Some paraphrased quotes from his answers:
On the current brouhaha over public broadcasting funding:
“If this follows the historical pattern, and that’s a big IF, the funding for public broadcasting will not be cut and may indeed be increased. […] In the senate, some very powerful senators from states with small populations [are not interested] in cutting public funding. In Alaska, PBS is the only news broadcast there is. The senator from Alaska is the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.”
On the obligatory “where was the press’s outrage over the Iraq war” question:
“I don’t do outrage. We don’t do outrage. We report. If you’re looking for outrage, that’s your job. There has been an election since the war, there have been places for the public, not the press, to express themselves.”
On reporting in general:
“We don’t report the truth. We report facts. We take an issue and try to present the sides of it. It’s not up to me to say, ‘Well, you heard what those two blowhards said but here’s what I think.’ It’s up to you to decide the truth. It’s up to every one of you to decide the truth. That’s how democracy works. We all have to do our work. We try to show you the sides in 20 minutes and hopefully pique your interest enough for you to go out and learn more about it and decide for yourself.”
At the end, he wrapped up and then the somewhat discombobulated director had him draw two names from some Ransom Center surveys everyone had filled out to win a copy of his new book. And I won!
I hadn’t meant to do the book signing, but they gave me a book. What am I supposed to do but go be a groupie? I won’t tell you how I asked him to sign it. Maybe in a couple of years.
When I graduate from J-school.