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Debate moderator Jim Lehrer speaks prior to the start of the first of three presidential debates before the 2008 election September 26, 2008 in the Gertrude Castellow Ford Center at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. SOURCE: Scott Olson/Getty Images

PBS Journalist Jim Lehrer Dies At 85

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NEW YORK (AP) – A host of the nightly PBS “NewsHour” that for decades offered a thoughtful take on current events has died. Jim Lehrer was 85. Like longtime partner Robert MacNeil, Lehrer saw broadcast journalism as a service, its main goal to help the public understand events and issues. The two began the nightly reports on PBS in 1975, and the program was later expanded to an hour. It features detailed reports and discussions of politics, international relations, science, and even the arts. MacNeil stepped down from the show in 1995. Lehrer was also a frequent moderator of presidential debates.