We will show you a clip of the watergate hearings. As carla hayden just mentioned, we launched a. A period exhibit on the coverage of the watergate hearings and that will mark the first time the complete Online Access to the hearings has been made to made available to the public on might. The next panel come up and you can run the clip . [video clip] here is impact ceo correspondent. From washington. We are going to bring you the entire proceedings in the first day of the second watergate hearings. Hearings to bear the truth about the wide range of illegal, unethical, or improper activity. Surrounding the reelection of president nixon last year. We are writing at all each day because we think these hearings are important and because we think it is important if you get a chance to see the whole thing and make your own judgments. Some nights, we may be an const competition with the late news. We are doing this as an toeriment experiment, give you the whole story. However many hours it may take. It reminds one of the final scenes of one of those shakespearean histories. The forces hostile to the king are rising on all sides. Messenger after messenger rushes and with bad news. Is stillive battle some scenes away and we dont know if this is a tragedy we are witnessing. I began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency. And if the cancer was not removed, the president himself would be killed by it. Know, andhe president when did he know it . What they are pursuing is the president s knowledge, culpability, etc. Is the Community Walking itself on a plank . How will they resolve the question when you continue to have witnesses like mitchell and moore and many of these things where there is no way to resolve them . Are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the oval office of the president . [laughter] i was aware of listening devices. Yes, sir. That thisy regret situation, because i think they watergate tragedy is the greatest tragedy this country has ever suffered. The civil wark was our greatest tragedy, but i do remember that there were some pieces in the civil war in that there was some spirit of sacrifice and heroism displayed on both sides. I see no redeeming features and watergate. In watergate. I am certainly not you went to law school, we studied a visible of law that came from england and also is well known in this country. Much courage a man has, the king can enter without his consent. I am afraid that has been eroded over the years. In my country, we still think it is legitimate. It is now after 3 00 in the morning, unless you live in the central time zone where it is still early. [laughter] for the sake of my mother and other hardys souls who are still with us, i shall be briefed i have one point to make tonight. John wesley d in the third may have met his match. As a consequence, those openminded people who long to think in simple terms about watergate may have had it for a wild. In short, we may be back where we were a few weeks ago. In the coverup that his top aides is a smirky and unclear as it ever was. It is all because of. Like everyone else who has appeared, opinions will vary of the true veracity of his testimony. Any reasonable person would have beennclude that he has extremely effective witness for his side and his directness is cool and friendly and it has come through. One again without commenting his truthfulness either, the only prior witness to come close on the effectiveness and significant skills was john dean. Unless those tapes are made some other revelation, the senators and the rest of us were interested may have to make an ultimate choice between believing john a dean or bob. Thats the way it looks to me at 3 00 or so in the morning. Feel free to disagree. For Robert Mcneil, im jim lehrer. We will see you again tomorrow night. From washington, you can watch gaveltogavel proceedings [applause] good afternoon. And when i arrived, harry was in his heyday as the executive producer actuals with my mentors. One thing that he did not have time to tell you is that he still has other urge to create. Just published a book of his and whatnd have a copy he did not tell you this is stop on his book tour today. It is my great pleasure to introduce this next panel and andmoderator Julie Woodruff one of our very special colleagues in public media. Judy began her distinguished career as at the cbs affiliate in a letter and went on to become White House Correspondent for nbc and was the host of frontline ins early days and host of inside politics for a gr thank you very much. One of the pillars of public media for so many years in boston and the whole country has so much to thank you for. Thank you, henry. Im the lucky one. I get to preside over this panel of five megastars in public media. Each one of them has played an absolutely essential role in keeping public media, Public Television and radio, at the center of american life. None of them need introductions. I will be very brief. Starting with my mentor, the former anchor of the news hour, mr. Lehrer, and before that the coanchor and the executive editor of the Mcneil Lehrer news hour. The face of and the singular driving force behind daily journalism at pbs. Jim lehrer. [applause] he doesnt need a haircut. Boss today, i do not feel any pressure, the ceo of wt. E, washington wtae before that, she served as a member and chair of the board of corporation of public broadcasting and a member of the following her position on the West Virginia authority. Mrs. Rockefeller. [applause] visit the director and cofounder the direct and cofounder of the National Latino network in 1976 he was the moving force of a group of latino farmworkers, artists and activists found radio bilinge. Hugo morales. [applause] someone was been applauded, the longtime host of the decaf cavete show. E dick his remarkable career spanning networks from abc to hbo, has appeared in several broadway shows and musicals. Dick cavett. [applause] and finally, the effort mentioned living legend, the woman moderated the last panel with a background with me in public commentary at abc news and npr contributor, adviser to the American Archives of public broadcasting, kofi roberts. Cokie roberts. [applause] what we are to do is see how Public Affairs has evolved. Jim, i will start with you. You were there was at the beginning when you came to washington and it was all about watergate. What happened . Reallywatergate hearings did that was the watershed event for news and Public Affairs on Public Television. Up to that point, the station and public was generally divided if it was needed any more news of Public Affairs on television beyond what was on commercial tv. Notnext administration did think it was a need for in a more Public Affairs, public broadcasting. The watergate hearings changed everything and the reason it changed was because there are several individuals who had the courage to make told decisions. What of them was not necessarily tell broadcast gaveltogavel because many of the stations would not broadcast live one of them was not necessarily broadcast gaveltogavel because many of the stations would not broadcast live. The one held out was at night, repeat them at night. That was a big deal. A big decision. The people running pbs were nervous about it so they said let us pull stations. Oll the stations a but in a very clever way. We polled the stations with a question that was raised in such a way, do you want to be patriotic or do you want to be a jerk . [laughter] and we still barely won a majority. As mcneil said at the time, and i quote him almost verbatim, it was summertime and p best did not have that much to run at night and had no original content and in pbs did not have that much to run at night and had no original content. He said all they would run if they did not run the hearings would be englishspeaking people talking, animals mating, and occasionally English Speaking people mating and animal talking. [laughter] why not replace it with watergate . [laughter] a. M. , thed 3 00 hearings were not going on until 3 00 a. M. , it was a repeat. We would do it live all day. Only has the stations were broadcasting, but at the night, at first, it was the old story the big stations would it not take us and the word got out and it became a big deal. That it proveds beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was a role for news and Public Affairs in public broadcast because of the hearings. When you and robin cook up, Robert Mcneil and the Mcneil Lehrer report. Titlebegan with the worst. The Robert De Niro report. I was the washington correspondent. The Robert Mcneil report. My mom interjected. It was one of story for 30 minutes. It was 75 and then in 1983, it went to one hour. I want to bring in sharon rockefeller. You knew what they were trying to do. What were you up against when it they tried to go to an hour . The stations. I was working, i was familiar with West Virginia educational authority, not on the board at the time because my husband was not the governor and those a gubernatorial position. For onefor one thing thing from my husband, can i be appointed to be and he said yes. No one ever thought twice about it. That is where i learned. The watergate hearings, i watched every single day, all day. Jim had lost the election by the biggest margin in at the state. We were and ask i o. Three hours south of pittsburgh. We were in exile. When the watergate hearings were on, could not receive the Washington Post by mail until andys out it was published i started watching fulltime. My kids were watching sesame butet and i loved history in news and Public Affairs was my Main Attraction and it was what we had it to offer and we at that point was little old Public Television and it was the turnaround. I also came on the board at the same time it through another vehicle coming friend of mine on the Stanford University board which had one woman on the board and i was taking her place. Businesshe founder of in the 1970s. Kcud. S the founder of she asked the where i live and i told her and she said where is it that . She asked if it was near the dakotas or the carolinas . No. She knew mrs. Campbell and called him italy. And called her immediately. She said you have to talk to this young woman. I did not know what about. Mrs. Campbell called me and said you must come to washington right now, which i did. I have always take my orders from elizabeth campbell. Thats how i got involved with wtae. State. Poor, rural it was not as wealthy as it was today. It had a budget of 4 million and now were up to 90 million. It is news and Public Affairs and the watergate hearings put Public Television on the map. And at the news at work which came about in 1983 because without we should be the first and the stations going to one hour of news. In fact, it never did, we did, n and would around to visit stations and speak to them and call them. Up the 300 some Public Television stations and we called every station manager or Program Manager because our accessor of pbs said it is great idea to go to an hour but i do not have the power to do it and you will have to get the stations to do it so we physically called them on the phone and there was a vote. Votes to go to one hour. , i felt like,e never mind all you need is one more. Democracy one. While all of this going on in the daily news, daily journalism world, you had successful career as in commercial television. What was the appeal of Public Television . I noticed something about today that of the things that i thought might come up was the question of why i moved my showed from Network Television to pbs. I was fired. [laughter] that will do it. That is pretty much what happened. It opened the door and paved the way or whatever cliche. Change withderful our Network Television. To get a show, terrified and very nervous at first. The trouble that would come up on networks, nonPublic Television, so to speak, started on the first day. I thought i had a wonderful show. It played about a week later. Vidal andli, gore julia lives very julia landsberry did a show. I went backstage to be congratulated by abc Vice PresidentGeorge Shepherd and i saw his expression did not seem appropriate for a show he thought was i think it was worded, who in the let us say, hell, gives a damn, a Muhammad Aliwhat and garver dont things about vietnam . That came up. And his reaction was, we cannot really air that as the first show because of that and we are going to air it as the second show. I seem to to remember thinking, are you going to be like this all along . My agent went over. And they did that. We did a second show that was nice. They aired the second show first and then it got mildly enthusiastic reaction. Then they aired the first show the second night and reviewers were reviewing the whole week. Almost everybody said, the cavett show really found itself on the second show. I was sure that the managers waiting backstage could address desk to congratulate me got that. Waiting backstage to congratulate me got that. So that happened. There are other kinds of trouble that would not have gone on and didnt on pbs. One involved that lovable old couple the john lennons. They came on and that was in his events and other people were jealous. The reviews were big. The ratings were big. That was nice and they came back. John, when i met him a week earlier, i said, why do you want to do this . It cannot be much you need at this point. And he said, you have the only halfway intelligent show on television. And i said why would you want to , be on a halfway intelligent show . And he laughed. But on the second show, who would have guessed, the agreement would have been we would do one of their songs, john said, why dont we do one of yokos songs. It had the catchy title woman is the nigger of the world. I thought, are they kidding . My god, we did this song. Nothing happened. Before it was aired, i was told it would not be aired the song. ,and i complained and they said, all right, we will air it, but our decision is to make a hand about thee dangers of watching it. There were 412 perhaps protests. Song, none of them about the song though. Thene woman reported, of a millie mouth to as one woman reported, about the millie mouths speech you delivered. Going to pbs was like going into a green meadow in a way. I want to hear more about the green meadow, but, cokie, i want to come to you. I have heard you say words to the effect that npr should have had the early head start, boost pbs did. Did you feel that when you went to npr . Yes, still to some degree. But it turned out to be a blessing, i think, in the end, that it was kind of a secret at because at the point when nixon first. Did go after the show and the television and the Television Network committed suicide, npr was still there and there was no necessity to disband us because it was not on the radar. So the ability to just grow and thrive was much easier in that environment, but then the growing and thriving became something quite dramatic, and today, we are listened to by more people than the 3 Network Morning shows combined, is listen to to buy more people other than rush limbaugh, and i is listen to to buy more is listened to by more people than rush limbaugh, and i keep saying Steve Innskeep should get what rush gets. The difference is about half a million people. Its widely successful in the primary source of news for millions and millions of people around the world. And commercial radio has pulled back dramatically, leaving a big opening for it. So, you were paying attention to all of this in california, but you and some of your friends decided there was something missing. What did you see . First of all, we had little news on radio, and that is true today. Spanish commercial radio, there is no news. It is absent. It is a shocking truth. There is no spanishlanguage news on radio. We get started in 1976. We got started july 4, 1980. The population of latinos in the u. S. Was around 15 million. It was about 5 , 6 of the u. S. Population. Now it is 58 million and 18 of the population and 72 of latinos speak spanish at home. So, this is not something of the past. A lot of us were young at that time. We had a big dreams but rather , something that can stay relevant today. And yet there is no news in spanishlanguage commercial radio. And that is stunning. Its very, very stunning. It is a story that some of us do not want to believe but it is , true. Back in 1976 we started organizing in fresno. A community i came to because i aca, for theoax fires were recently, and went to the valley, because it was the Largest Group of form workers in the United States and still is today. Among the people i came in contact with, they saw the same thing. All of these mexicanamericans, all of them were u. S. Born except for me. I was the only immigrant. All of us were bilingual. Educated, we were the first generation of latinos to open the doors to higher education. That contributed a lot to the response. We saw this degree of limitation of public broadcast. Not to just public broadcast, but englishlanguage media that we, as latinos, we could not access because of the language. Language just the because of the language, and i see everybody here, you know, there is much more than the language, the culture, the history, the new one since of ofguage the nuances language and that was absent. Wow