Where Are Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer When You Need Them?

And why can’t PBS and NPR self-fund, like everybody else?

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Moderator Jim Lehrer speaks prior to the presidential debate at the University of Denver on October 3, 2012. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Way back when, the first time I ever appeared on television was in 1978. That was 46 years ago. It was smack in the middle of President Carter’s economic crisis, and I appeared on “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” on, wait for it, PBS.

Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer were two of the best journalists I have ever met. Knowledgeable, good questions, they seldom interrupted, and they were entirely unbiased and objective in their reporting and interviewing.

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