Lehrer came into Emanuel interview with “pre-conceived notions”: CPB ombudsman

CPB Ombudsman Ken Bode faults PBS NewsHour‘s Jim Lehrer for “an opportunity lost and a lesson in what can happen when an interview is constructed on the basis of pre-conceived notions.” In Bode’s latest report, he’s reacting to a viewer’s complaints that Lehrer “has increasingly lost his impartiality,” particularly in an interview with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. “It seemed designed to build a narrative that President Obama has slow political reflexes and is disengaged from key decisions of his administration,” Bode said of the July 7 interview. “Mr. Emanuel convinced this viewer otherwise.”