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If we're going to have debates, let's have real debates.

Jim Lehrer

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Jim Lehrer
Age: 85 †
Born: 1934
Born: May 19
Died: 2020
Died: January 23
Journalist
Military Officer
News Presenter
Novelist
Television Presenter
Writer
Wichita
Kansas
James C. Lehrer
James Lehrer
James Charles Lehrer
Debates
Debate
Real
Going

More quotes by Jim Lehrer

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People can say anything they want to. If they don't want to get the news from me, get it from somebody else. It's not something I'm going to worry about, I'm sorry.
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A skill required to be president is to explain to the American people any given thing they do.
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The death rate among Marines in Iraq has been more than double that of the other services.
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Most of the stories I have covered in 45 years have been gray stories.
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People can get their news any way they want. What I love about what's happened is that there are so many different avenues, there are so many different outlets, so many different ways to debate and discuss and to inquire about any given news story.
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In my case, I was covering politics in Texas as a newspaper man in the 1960's.
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I'm a gatekeeper, and the gatekeepers all used to be mostly old, white men.
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If we don't have an informed electorate we don't have a democracy. So I don't care how people get the information, as long as they get it. I'm just doing it my particular way and I feel lucky I can do it the way I want to do it.
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Let me be clear: Despite Roger Clemens' statements to the contrary, I never injected Roger Clemens, or anyone else, with lidocaine or B-12.
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The shouting and opinion and jokes don't exist if there isn't first a story.
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Best I can do for them is to give them every piece of information I can find and let them make the judgments. That's just my basic view of my function as a journalist.
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I'm in the reporting part of journalism.
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If people want bells and whistles and all of that, there are bells and whistles available. If they don't want bells and whistles there are places to go where they are not available.
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I'm not in the being-annoyed business.
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There's only one interview technique that matters... Do your homework so you can listen to the answers and react to them and ask follow-ups. Do your homework, prepare.
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On a daily basis there are some huge ones that are, sure, from time to time, but it is helping the reader sort through all this sort of gray stuff out there.
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Make no mistake: When I told Senator Mitchell that I injected Roger Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs, I told the truth.
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A debate has one purpose, one purpose only, and that is to facilitate the exchange of ideas directly between two candidates, and that's it.
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I have no reason to lie and every reason not to. If I do lie, I will be prosecuted.
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We have increasingly fewer and fewer journalists who have any military experience and understand what life is like in the military and in combat.
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