No one will see Jim Lehrer raise his voice on television.
He seems so unflappable, but the host of what started in 1973 as “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” on PBS (6 p.m. weekdays, KRMA-Channel 6) can be opinionated and even a proficient swearer.
He’ll share, just his opinions, at a Friday luncheon celebrating Rocky Mountain PBS’ 50th anniversary.
When we chatted by telephone from Washington, D.C., I asked him whatever happened to civil debate in this country.
That was enough to set him off. “I think what’s happened is, as readership and ratings dropped, some of the folks thought, ‘Ohmygod! We’ve got to do something about the news! Make it more entertaining.’ One starts shouting and another starts shouting.
“I have a simple theory. The fact of the matter is that the day of straight news reporting is returning. All these people who are shouting and screaming about the news have to have news to begin with. There is always a news story.”
His particular beef is interviewers who ask a question, then don’t listen to the answer. Even he fears a misstep. “I don’t want to make an ass of myself on national television.”
A recurring nightmare has him interviewing a prominent senator:
Lehrer: “Senator, should we send grain to Cuba?”
Senator: ” Yes, but first we should bomb Havana.”
Lehrer: “What kind of grain?”
A one-time newspaperman, Lehrer has written 19 books and three plays and moderated 10 presidential debates. His interviews of the famous number in the hundreds and, he’s found, “The percentage of jerks and losers is about the same as it is of journalists.” He has his favorite politicians. “Not the most brilliant people but they are public servants who want to get things done. If the parties are smart, they’ll turn to these people,” including Jack Danforth, Warren Rudman and David Pryor.
A known lover of buses and bus history, Lehrer will sign copies of his newest novel, “The Phony Marine,” at 7 p.m. Friday at The Tattered Cover-LoDo. He’s penning another novel, about the Super Chief train in the 1950s, with “dead bodies, movie stars and Harry Truman.”
Around the dial
All gone: The 18th volume of “KBCO Studio C” sold out in five hours Saturday. Sales of the 30,000 copies benefit the Boulder County AIDS Project … There’s still time to send entries to KVOD 90.1-FM’s birthday-card contest for Beethoven’s 236th birthday. Winners will be read on the air on Dec. 16. Details at kvod.org … “All Songs Considered,” NPR’s live listener poll of 2006’s most popular CDs, airs at 3 p.m. Tuesday on KVOD … Quotable: “Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially in politics.” Thomas Jefferson
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303- 954-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
