LCB: At one point during the interview, Bradlee said he considers embedding “a mixed blessing.” And you?


JL: I think it’s a terrific thing. We have increasingly fewer and fewer journalists who have any military experience and understand what life is like in the military and in combat. It isn’t the only reporting that needs to be done, but it’s a part of the reporting on the war and I think it’s a very legitimate thing to do. A lot of good stories have come out that wouldn’t have come out otherwise — mostly about what it’s like for these young men and women who are engaged in combat in your and my name and our country’s name. And that, to me, is a very, very legitimate function of journalism. Now, of course, that’s only part of the story.


LCB: One of your questions to Bradlee was, “Why do people not want journalism any more?” What did you mean by that, exactly?


JL: I don’t remember … I really don’t feel that way at all. I may have been asking about …


LCB: I think you were talking about newspaper circulation going down — it was in that portion of the interview. Any thoughts on what you might have had in mind?


JL: I must have been talking about circulation and ratings. My own view, there is a need for and a demonstrated need for more journalism now than there ever has been. The serious, real journalists of this country are more needed now than they ever have been because the blogs and the mp3s and the iPods, they’re all talking about the news, but where does the news originate? It originates with a reporter. It originates with a news organization. And whether it’s the NSA surveillance story or the Randy Cunningham story … all those started with reporting. And so there is increasingly evidence that the folks are understanding that, yes, it’s a terrific thing to be able to go on a radio show and shout about something or to exchange strong opinions on a blog and all of that, but in the beginning there has to be a story. All of that original reporting is being done by journalists.


LCB: About a month ago a Chicago Sun-Times reporter wrote, in a piece about Katie Couric moving to CBS, “Let’s face it: Most of us would rather hear the news from Survivor’s Jeff Probst than Jim Lehrer any day.” You thoughts on that?


JL: Be my guest. I don’t care what anybody like that says.


LCB: Do you think it’s true? What about the whole entertainment-ification of the news?


JL: I haven’t even got time to consider [that]. Look, we have a considerable audience for our program. We do serious journalism. We’ve been on the air for 30 years. We just celebrated our thirtieth anniversary and I have every [indication] we’ll be here for at least 30 more. Whether somebody says some stupid thing like that — be my guest, I don’t care. 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.


LCB: You have described the NewsHour as a forum for “civil discourse.” Can you elaborate? And, do you see any value in the often uncivilized cable shoutfests?


JL: Look, I’m a believer in all of it. I think all kinds of discourse is good for our democratic society — civil discourse, uncivil discourse, screaming, hollering, poetry, however you want to have a discussion is fine with me. I’m in the civil discourse business. I think it takes all kinds. And more power to everybody.


LCB: After too much exposure to cable news programs with sound effects, news crawls, triple-split-screens, flashing graphics and such, watching the NewsHour can be a shock to the system — the ability to focus, singly, on the story being presented without other images and noises competing for your attention. Do you see anything useful for the viewer in all these bells and whistles?


JL: I’d repeat what I said. 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. 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. I am in favor of everything. Everyone should get their news however they want to and in whatever form they want. I’m not going to sit back in judgment of other people and the way they do it.


If Letterman tells a joke with a piece of information in it that you didn’t know before, that’s fine with me, that doesn’t bother me. I mean, my God, you’ve got to get it off a serious news program or it doesn’t count? I don’t believe that for a second … 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.


LCB: So you think there’s often information to be had from the cable shoutfests?


JL: Well, I assume. I don’t watch them myself, so I’m no expert. I don’t watch that, so I don’t know. But I assume there is. Whatever there is, at least they’re talking about things that matter. As I say, I’m a discourse advocate. What form it comes is less important to me than the fact that there is discourse.