Jim Lehrer is going to preside over a nationally broadcast town hall meeting with Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke July 26 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Excerpts from the meeting will air over three nights on the PBS "NewsHour" beginning July 27. And there will be a full-hour special as well.
This is a coup for KCPT, the Kansas City public TV station that continues to outperform its 31st-largest-market stature. It will be choosing the members of the local audience, who will join online participants in a national dialogue about the Fed, its power, and the state of the economy following one of the biggest government economic interventions in history. Just last month KCPT was the second station in the nation to launch the new PBS-plus-local video player. Earlier this year it was a local outreach spurred by a national PBS initiative on infrastructure. If it's important, KCPT and its public affairs genius Nick Haines seem to find a way to be in the middle of it. (And hey, it's a lot cheaper than producing the shows yourself -- always a financially risky matter for midsized public TV stations.)
Of course, it doesn't hurt that Jim Lehrer, who's the closest approximation this generation has to Walter Cronkite (in that both parties trust him to moderate their debates), has close ties to Kansas. I'm told that he writes all his novels in a Wichita hotel. Anyway, it also doesn't hurt that KC has a spiffy new Fed bank that's already starred in a major motion picture ("Mad Money").
"NewsHour" PR follows....
FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN BEN BERNANKE TAKES QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SHAPE OF THE ECONOMY, HOW WELL THE FED RESPONDED TO LAST YEAR’S ECONOMIC CRISIS, AND DOES IT HAVE TOO MUCH POWER NOW
JIM LEHRER MODERATES A ONE-HOUR FORUM – WITH A STUDIO AUDIENCE AND ONLINE PARTICIPATION - ON SUNDAY, JULY 26, at THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK IN KANSAS CITY
EXCERPTS WILL AIR ON THE NEWSHOUR ON JULY 27, 28 AND 29, FOLLOWED BY A FULL HOUR PBS SPECIAL FED TO LOCAL STATIONS ON JULY 29
Is the economy gaining sufficient strength, in the wake of last year’s economic crisis? What was the role of the Federal Reserve helping to cope with it? What extraordinary actions did it take to staunch the financial meltdown that started unfolding last September? What can the Fed do to help bring on an economic recovery?
To attempt to answer these questions, Dr. Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, will sit down with Jim Lehrer, anchor and executive editor of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, for a one-hour forum, “Bernanke On the Record.” The event will be recorded on Sunday, July 26th, at the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to Lehrer, an invited audience of local citizens will be on hand to ask questions of the Chairman. The audience is being gathered with the help of Kansas City public television station KCPT and other local community organizations.
NewsHour Economics Correspondent Paul Solman will contribute video packages that introduce discussion topics in the program. Solman will also field questions for Mr. Bernanke on his NewsHour Web site (www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk).
The forum will be divided into three segments which will air on three consecutive nights on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The segment broadcast dates are Monday, July 27, Tuesday, July 28 and Wednesday, July 29. PBS will also feed the complete one-hour special program to local PBS stations for broadcast on or after Wednesday, July 29, and it will also be available for viewing on the Online NewsHour Web site (http://newshour.pbs.org).
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer is seen five nights a week on more than 315 PBS stations across the country (check local listings) and is also available online, via public radio in select markets and via podcast. The program is produced by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, in association with WETA, Washington, DC and WNET.org in New York. Corporate funding for The NewsHour is provided by Chevron and Intel, along with major funding from the Atlantic Philanthropies, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and public television viewers. Additional funding for NewsHour economics coverage is provided the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
If I am not mistaken, Mr. Lehrer is an MU alum, therefore making him have ties to both Kansas AND Missouri. This is exciting!
Posted by: Natasha | July 09, 2009 at 02:23 PM