Born in Wichita, Kansas, Jim Lehrer received A.A. degree from Victoria College and a B.J. in 1956 from the University of Missouri, before joining the Marine Corps.

From 1959 to 1966, he was a reporter for the Dallas Morning News and then the Dallas Times-Herald. Lehrer's newspaper career led him to public television, first in Dallas as KERA-TV's executive director of public affairs and on-air host. Subsequently he moved to Washington, DC to serve as the public affairs coordinator for PBS.

In 1975 the Robert MacNeil Report, with Jim Lehrer as the Washington correspondent, premiered. Over the next seven years, The MacNeil/Lehrer Report (as it was renamed in 1976) won more than 30 awards for journalistic excellence. Eventually in 1995 with MacNeil's departure the program became The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

Lehrer has been honored with numerous awards for journalism and in the last four nationally televised presidential debates has served as moderator.