Jim Lehrer Named Mary Alice Davis Distinguished Lecturer by University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism

AUSTIN, Texas – Oct. 11, 2007 – Journalist, author and playwright Jim Lehrer has been named the 2007 Mary Alice Davis Distinguished Lecturer by The University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism.

Lehrer’s lecture, “The Journalism Revolution,” will take place at 6:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 5 at the Hogg Memorial Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Lehrer is the executive editor and anchor of PBS’s “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” which has been one of the most trusted news programs on television for more than 30 years. Nicknamed the “Dean of Moderators” by CNN’s Bernard Shaw, Lehrer has moderated 10 of the nationally televised presidential debates in the past five elections.

His journalism career began at The Dallas Morning News and later at KERA-TV, Dallas’ PBS station. He subsequently moved to Washington, D.C., and joined the National Public Affairs Center for Television where he collaborated with Robert McNeil to provide award-winning live coverage of the Watergate hearings.

He is the author of 17 novels, two memoirs and three plays. His most recent novel, “Eureka,” was published by Random House this month. He is the co-producer of “The News Hour” and producer of other programs and series, including the 2001 Emmy Award-nominated “Debating Our Destiny: Forty Years of Presidential Debates.”

Lehrer has received the 1999 National Humanities Medal, two Emmys, the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award, the George Foster Peabody Broadcast Award, The University of Missouri School of Journalism’s Medal of Honor and the William Allen White Foundation Award. He has been inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Named for School of Journalism alumna Mary Alice Davis, who wrote for The Daily Texan in the 1960s, the lectureship was established by her family in 2005 to bring notable journalists to campus to discuss the role of journalism in society.

Davis worked as a columnist and editorial writer for the Austin American-Statesman. Before joining the American-Statesman she spent more than 20 years as a writer and editor for the House Research Organization (a research organization for the Texas House of Representatives). Prior to that, she worked as a reporter for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

Remembered as a remarkable writer who championed the role of journalism in a democracy, Davis died in 2004 from ovarian cancer.

Lehrer’s lecture also is made possible by the William Randolph Hearst Endowment for Visiting Professionals.

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Contacts:
Erin Geisler
(512) 475-8071
or
Wade Lee
(512) 232-5466