Jim Lehrer, interviewed in 1998 by Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff.

Jim Lehrer, who co-anchored the MacNeill Lehrer News Hour on PBS from 1975 to 1995 and was the sole anchor until his retirement in 2009, died at the age of 85 on January 23, 2020. Along the way, he also hosted various presidential debates and at the time of his retirement, was one of the most respected journalists in America.

He also was a novelist and playwright, with 20 novels, three memoirs, and three plays to his credit. On October 19, 1998, at the height of the Clinton Lewinsky scandal and before the impeachment trial, Richard A. Lupoff and Richard Wolinsky had a chance to talk with Jim Lehrer while he was on tour for his novel Purple Dots. Obviously, most of the interview was devoted to the state of journalism, and to the state of America at that time.