Missing Newsman

[SquireJons]

Does anyone know where Jim Lehrer is? I watch the News Hour pretty regularly and I haven't seen him in several weeks. On the Monday that the Abu Ghraib pictures broke, Ray Suarez (co-host) said that Mr. Lehrer was out on vacation, but there had not been an announcement the previous week regarding his absence. Now it's been 3 weeks and still no sign of him and no mention of him either. What's going on? Since when do anchormen take off a month at a time? Is he sick? Or was he forced off of the air?

I'm worried.

[Jim Sagle]

1. I believe he's been forced out.

[SquireJons]

3. Got any info on that?

That's my fear as well. Looks like the pugs have boarded the good ship PBS and killed the captain. I noticed that they gave wolfie yet another opportunity to lie his ass off tonight. It's so sad; how far we have fallen in just over three years.

Thanks Ralph.

[oldhat]

8. No no no! He's just on a book tour!

Guys, geez, calm down. He's on a book tour in support of his new novel. He was on "Forum" with Michael Krasny on KQED in SF yesterday. He's just on tour. He said he was nowhere near retirement.

He's just on a short break.

[Jim Sagle]

10. Sorry, I was thinking of Bob Edwards.

:dunce:

[democrank]

2. I think he`s out

hawking his new novel.

[Gin]

4. yep..he wrote a book and is on the road promoting it..

gin

[SquireJons]

5. What is your source on this?

Is he coming back to PBS?

[Taverner]

6. I saw him on KTVU with his wife

He and is wife are doing book tours together. I forgot the name of his book, but his wife's is "Confessions of a Bigamist."

[catzies]

7. First Bob Edwards of NPR, then Bill Moyers says he's stepping down

and now this. x(

[kerry-is-my-prez]

9. People were on his case re: "Towing the Bush Line on Iraq paper shutdown

Ironically - one of the few times he "towed the line" with the Bush Administration.

http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert181.shtml

How the "NewsHour" Changed History
By Norman Solomon
MediaChannel.org

NEW YORK, April 15, 2004 --
-snip-
with war intensifying in Iraq, a bizarre episode raises some very troubling concerns about the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." Here's what happened: During a panel discussion April 7 on the NewsHour.... a retired U.S. Air Force colonel referred to the American authorities' closure of a newspaper that had served as a megaphone for the anti-occupation Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr. "The immediate problem we have to remember is we started this ... with the aggressive policies towards Sadr that came from us, shutting down his press," Col. Sam Gardiner said.

The program's anchor spoke next.
Jim Lehrer: "The reason we shut down his press is because it was calling for violence and anti-American --"

-snip-


When I asked whether a decision had been made, one way or the other, about doing a correction on the NewsHour to set the factual record straight, the last piece of stone in the damage-control wall moved into place. I got the message: "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer stands behind the 'Iraq: What Now?' discussion segment from April 7 and will not be making a correction."

Journalists should scrutinize U.S. government spin, not contribute to it. Here we have what some people believe to be the nation's most credible news program compounding a factual error by refusing to make a correction. First-rate journalists change history. But not this way.