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Brian Lehrer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brian Lehrer is a radio talk show host on New York City's public radio station WNYC. His daily two-hour program, The Brian Lehrer Show, features interviews with newsmakers and experts about current events and social issues. Lehrer was formerly an anchor and reporter for NBC Radio Networks, and has been in broadcast jounalism for more than 20 years.
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Lehrer obtained B.A.'s in Music and Mass Communications from the State University of New York at Albany. He holds Master's degrees in Public Health from Columbia University and Journalism from Ohio State University. Lehrer resides in Inwood, Manhattan with his wife and two sons.
Lehrer has been hosting his show, originally called "On The Line," since its inception in 1989. The format is interviews with newsmakers, combined with listener phone calls. Newsmakers are local, national and international, often authors on book tours, or metropolitan area politicians, including both of New York's senators, and most congress, state and city representatives from the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut area. But sometimes guests are less-famous individuals affected by the news, like Brooklyn residents on the site of giant housing developments, or neighbors of noisy Manhattan night clubs. Frequent topics are housing, health care, transportation, education, and other government functions, the arts, the experience of living in New York and the surrounding area, and international affairs, such as the Iraq war or Israel/Palestinian conflict, particularly from a New York perspective. Like all serious broadcast news, his programs often use the New York Times for leads and guests. He tries to maintain a balance between issues as they affect listeners, and "horse-race" pundit discussions of politics.
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Lehrer's motto is "Dialog, not diatribe," which means that he tries to avoid sound bites and confrontational shouting matches that often characterize other media. An avowed liberal, he tries to find "common ground" between guests who are engaged in political conflicts. He often puts callers of conflicting views, such as secular and religious Muslims, on the air together to work out their differences. His style can be contrasted to Amy Goodman, who is further on the left, more aggressive in challenging ideas, and tries to organize the audience to political action.
(The "common ground" movement was a movement of journalists several years ago who felt that one of the roles of journalism should be to find conciliatory viewpoints among the political actors that they covered. Other journalists believed that their role in a democracy was to maintain a forum for ideas, which required an objectivity that would be compromised if they became political actors.)
The Brian Lehrer show is available via streaming media and podcast. From 1982-1989, Lehrer was an anchor and reporter for the NBC Radio Networks. Time Magazine has proclaimed Lehrer's show "New York City's most thoughtful and informative talk show," while The New York Daily News called it "The sane alternative in talk radio." In addition, "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart was quoted as saying, "I listen to Brian Lehrer ... I love that guy, I love the show", in a speech at a New Yorker Magazine forum.
He currently hosts a cable TV call-in talk show called Brian Lehrer Live on CUNY-TV (channel 75 on New York City cable systems); the show is also streamed live and archived on the web [1]), on Wednesday evenings from 7:30pm to 8:30pm. It is also repeated later in the week, but since these reruns are on tape, no call-ins are accepted for these repeats.
His op-ed pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Sun, Newsday, The New York Daily News, and on Slate.com. His WNYC commentaries are also distributed globally on the npr.org website.
Lehrer was a questioner in the WABC-TV New York City Mayoral Debates in 1997, 2001, and 2005. He has appeared on television as a commentator on New York 1, WNET Channel 13, and CNNfn, and hosted public affairs shows on WNYC-TV and WNET from 1990-1998.
Lehrer was the recipient of the Associated Press New York Broadcasters "Best Interview" Award in 2000 for an interview with a rape survivor, and in 2001 for his role as moderator on NYC radio of the only mayoral primary debate between Michael Bloomberg and Herman Badillo. During his tenure as host of "NPR's On The Media," the national program was named "Best Weekly Show" by the Public Radio News Directors in 1999.
Lehrer is also an award-winning author and documentary producer. He was awarded the New York Press Club's "Heart of New York Award" for his documentary on new immigrants Immigrant New York: The Last 20 Years, and a New York Public Library "Best Books For The Teenaged" award for The Korean Americans.
He currently moderates several major public forums, including The Nation vs. The Economist series and the Harper's Forum series, and has moderated or hosted major events for the American Museum of Natural History and Westinghouse Science Foundation, among others.