PBS NewsHour

Today, after many years, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer is changing its name to PBS NewsHour. Last Friday, the final episode of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer ran a nice piece on the changes and history of the program, explaining that the show’s new name will reflect an increased emphasis on its online content, more visibility from its correspondents and the decreased presence of Jim Lehrer, and further collaboration with other PBS news projects like Frontline.

In his explanation of the changes, Jim Lehrer played the opening credits of each of the show’s iterations and described the shift from Robert MacNeil’s half hour program to an hour-long, comprehensive daily show.

Without a doubt, though, the best part of the segment when Lehrer read the guidelines for what he calls “MacNeil/Lehrer journalism.” There’s been little doubt for a long time that what happens on the NewsHour is a vastly different kind of journalism than much of what happens on cable news today, but until he read out the list of guidelines, I hadn’t realized how completely and totally different the two actually were.

Do nothing I cannot defend.

Cover, write and present each story with the care I would want if the story were about me.

Assume there is at least one side or version to every story.

Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am.

Assume the same about all people on whom I report.

Assume personal lives are a private matter, until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.

Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything.

Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes, except on rare and monumental occasions.

No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.

And finally, I am not in the entertainment business.

They’re all great rules, and each one reminds me of how absurd a lot of programming is on CNN and MSNBC and FOX, but that last one is really the kicker. Good luck, PBS NewsHour. Please keep being awesome.