PBS NewsHour and The Jim Lehrer Memorial Fund Create Journalism Fellowship to Honor the Memory of Late PBS NewsHour Co-Founder Jim Lehrer

PBS NewsHour, with financial support from The Jim Lehrer Memorial Fund, recently launched the Jim Lehrer Journalism Fellowship in honor of award-winning, longtime PBS NewsHour anchor and co-founder Jim Lehrer. Lehrer, who co-anchored the NewsHour alongside co-founder Robert MacNeil for 20 years before solo anchoring the nightly news broadcast for nearly 16 years, passed away in January 2020 at the age of 85. 

“There never has been a greater need for bright young journalists. There never has been a better model than Jim Lehrer,” said Judy Woodruff, anchor and managing editor of the PBS NewsHour. “Jim would be thrilled to know a young journalist has a chance to learn about newsgathering from the program created in his name. We all look forward to welcoming the Jim Lehrer fellows to the NewsHour.”

The year-long program, open to a college graduate pursuing a career in journalism, will offer hands-on experience across NewsHour’s broadcast and online editorial and production units. The fellowship is geared toward individuals who demonstrate financial need and those whose life experiences will enhance the diversity of the NewsHour staff.

Slated to begin in Summer 2020, the fellowship is currently accepting applications through May 8th.

Jim Lehrer was known as one of the nation’s most respected political journalists. He began his journalism career as a reporter for both The Dallas Morning News and Dallas Times – Herald, during which he covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1973, MacNeil and Lehrer reported on the Watergate impeachment hearings for the National Public Affairs Center for Television, which led to the launch of The Robert MacNeil Report in 1975. The following year, with MacNeil in New York and Lehrer in Washington, the program was renamed The MacNeil/Lehrer Report. 

Lehrer interviewed numerous international newsmakers throughout his career, including Margaret Thatcher and Yasser Arafat in the 1980s, South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, and Chinese leader Jiang Zemin in the 1990s, and Jordan’s King Abdullah and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the 2000s. He served as moderator for 12 presidential debates – more than any other person in U.S. history – before his retirement in 2011. 

Remembering Jim Lehrer

About PBS NewsHour

PBS NewsHour is a production of NewsHour Productions LLC, a wholly-owned non-profit subsidiary of WETA Washington, DC, in association with WNET in New York. Major corporate funding is provided by BNSF and Consumer Cellular, Fidelity, and Raymond James, with additional support from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ford Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Kendeda Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Lemelson Foundation, National Science Foundation, Skoll Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Friends of the NewsHour and others. More information on PBS NewsHour is available at www.pbs.org/newshour. On social media, visit PBS NewsHour on Facebook or follow @NewsHour on Twitter.

Media Contact: Nick Massella
nmassella@newshour.org