Jim Lehrer, executive editor and anchor of “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” on PBS, will deliver the Red Smith Lecture in Journalism at the University of Notre Dame at 8 p.m. Tuesday (March 19) in the Hesburgh Library’s Carey Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public, with a discussion period to follow.p. Lehrer, a correspondent and anchor at PBS for the past three decades, was teamed with Robert MacNeil on “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” and “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” for 20 years. During the 1995-96 season, Lehrer became sole anchor of “The NewsHour.”p. Winner of two Emmys and a member of the Television Hall of Fame, Lehrer received the National Humanities Medal in 1999. He also has won the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award, the George Foster Peabody Award and the William Allen White Foundation Award for Journalistic Merit. In 1991, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.p. During the last four presidential elections, Lehrer served as moderator for nine of the nationally televised debates among the candidates, presiding exclusively over all of the debates in both 1996 and 2000.p. A former newspaper reporter, columnist and city editor in Dallas, Lehrer is the author of 13 novels, two memoirs and three plays. His novels include six about a fictional lieutenant governor of Oklahoma as well as “The Last Debate,” which is about journalism.p. The Red Smith Lecture in Journalism was established in 1983 to honor the sportswriter and 1927 Notre Dame alumnus Walter W. “Red” Smith, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for distinguished criticism. At the time of his death in 1982, Smith was a columnist for The New York Times.p. The Smith Lectureship, which is administered by Notre Dame’s John W. Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics&Democracy, is made possible by a gift from John and Susan McMeel and Universal Press Syndicate.p. A South Bend native and 1957 Notre Dame graduate, John McMeel is chairman of Andrews McMeel Universal, the parent company of Universal Press Syndicate. He is a member of the advisory council for Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letter and a member of the advisory committee of the Gallivan Program.p. More information is available on the Web at:p. http://www.nd.edu/~isla/ISLA/webpages/thearts/gallivan/lehrer.htm
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