Maybe not since Walter Cronkite said “and that’s the way it is” for the last time after 19 years at the “CBS Evening News” has there been as significant a torch-passing as when “PBS NewsHour” anchor Jim Lehrer does his last anchor broadcast tonight.
Add Lehrer: The Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik interviews Lehrer and reflects on his legacy. As for the NewsHour succession plan, that appears to have been well-thought-out:
In December, 2009, the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" was renamed the "PBS NewsHour," and he was joined by a panel of anchors that includes Gwen Ifill, Ray Suarez, Jeffrey Brown, Judy Woodruff and Margaret Warner. That quintet remains in place.
"I kind of decided a couple of years ago that I wanted to consider kind of gliding away so to speak," Lehrer says. "And, you know, there can be all kinds of false drama involved in who replaces Anchorperson A and Anchorperson B, and I wanted to make damn sure that this did not happen in our situation. So, I kind of prepared the way, the glidepath."
