Most of you probably know me as the cutting edge host of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. I was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1934 and graduated from Victoria College in Texas and the University of Missouri. After three years as an infantry officier in the Marine Corps, I worked for ten years in Dallas as a newspaperman and then as the host of a local experimental news program on public television.
I came to Washington with PBS in 1972, teaming with Robert MacNeil in 1973 to cover the Senate Waterate hearings. That began The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, and then in 1973, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour program on television. When MacNeil retired in 1995, it became the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
I've been honored with numerous awards for journalism, including a presidential National Humanities Medal in 1999. In the last five presidential elections, I've moderated ten of the nationall televised candidate debates.
