ONE GIANT LEAP FOR LEHRER

For more than seven years, former Dallasite Jim Lehrer has been co-host of the MacNeil/Lehrer Report, a 30-minute news program aired on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) that gives in-depth coverage of one news topic each day. Beginning in midsummer, the show will be expanded to one hour during prime time and will generally focus on three subjects per show.

Apparently, the idea of expanding the program has been around for a while, but PBS President Larry Grossman officially proposed the idea late last year. MacNeil liked it; Lehrer liked it; and luckily, so did corporate underwriter AT&T, which provided a $10-million grant for the program. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS stations together will match the AT&T grant.

According to MacNeil/ Lehrer spokesman Christopher Ramsey, there will be several changes in the show, starting with a new executive producer, Lester Crystal, former vice president of affiliate news services for NBC. In addition to Jim Lehrer in Washington and Robert MacNeil in New York, a third host in Denver will report news from the Midwest. Quick capsules of several of the days’ top news stories will be added so that MacNeil/Lehrer can replace the major networks’ evening news programs.

“There is a great proliferation of news available to the average American,” Lehrer says. There needs to be “one place to go every 24 hours and make sense of it all.” From a personal standpoint, he says he’s excited about the prospect. “At my advanced age [he’s 48], if you’re not willing to push, you’ll grow old fast.”