79R16042 KO-D

By:  Goolsby                                                      H.R. No. 1528



R E S O L U T I O N
	WHEREAS, PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer spent his formative years 
in the Lone Star State, and we, as Texans, may take great pride in 
his notable achievements as a journalist and writer; and
	WHEREAS, Born in Wichita, Kansas, Mr. Lehrer attended middle 
school in Beaumont and high school in San Antonio, where he was a 
sports editor at Thomas Jefferson High's school newspaper, the 
Jefferson Declaration; after graduating from Victoria College and 
the University of Missouri and spending three years in the U.S. 
Marine Corps as an infantry officer, he began his news career in 
Dallas, working for 10 years as a newspaper reporter, columnist, 
and editor and later as the host of a local television news program; 
and
	WHEREAS, In 1972, Mr. Lehrer moved to Washington, D.C., where 
he worked as public affairs coordinator for PBS and as a 
correspondent for the National Public Affairs Center for 
Television; joining forces with Robert MacNeil in 1973 to cover the 
Senate Watergate hearings, he began one of the most enduring and 
respected journalistic partnerships in television history; in 
1975, they launched what would become the MacNeil/Lehrer Report, 
which garnered more than 30 major awards for its co-anchors; and
	WHEREAS, The partners took an extraordinary risk in 1983 by 
transforming the program into The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, the 
first and only 60-minute nightly broadcast of national news, 
proving there existed both a need and a substantial audience for 
serious, long-form journalism; broadcast by more than 300 PBS 
stations, The NewsHour draws an estimated three million viewers 
each weeknight and is carried via satellite in Asia, Europe, Latin 
America, Africa, and the Middle East; and
	WHEREAS, Since Mr. MacNeil's retirement in 1995, Mr. Lehrer 
has continued as sole anchor and executive editor of the renamed The 
NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; under his direction, the program has 
extended its reach by launching an Internet site and opening a West 
Coast studio in San Francisco; and
	WHEREAS, The NewsHour has received numerous Emmy and Peabody 
Awards through the years, and Mr. Lehrer has been further honored 
with a presidential National Humanities Medal; in the last five 
presidential elections, he moderated 10 nationally televised 
candidate debates, handling all three debates in 1996 and 2000 and 
moderating the first debate between President George W. Bush and 
Senator John Kerry in 2004; and
	WHEREAS, In addition to his outstanding professional career 
in news, Mr. Lehrer has written 15 novels, and his latest, The 
Franklin Affair, was published in April 2005; he has also written 
two memoirs and three plays and is married to the novelist Kate 
Lehrer, with whom he shares not only a love of fiction but a 
cherished family of three daughters, Jamie, Lucy, and Amanda, and 
six grandchildren; and
	WHEREAS, For 30 years, Jim Lehrer has been at the helm of what 
is recognized as the most credible, objective, and influential news 
program on television; he has set a high standard for broadcast 
journalism, and we have come to rely on him not only for information 
about current events, but for integrity and an all-inclusive 
perspective on the world in which we live; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 79th Texas 
Legislature hereby commend Jim Lehrer on his distinguished career 
and extend to him sincere best wishes for the future; and, be it 
further
	RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be 
prepared for Mr. Lehrer as an expression of high regard by the Texas 
House of Representatives.