PBS: Robert MacNeil & Jim Lehrer: Introducing the Watergate Hearings

Source:PBS NewsHour- U.S. Senator Sam Ervin (Democrat, North Carolina) Chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee (93rd Congress)

Source:The Daily Times

“How high did the scandals reach and was President Nixon himself involved?”

That was what Robert MacNeil, then co-anchoring with Jim Lehrer, dubbed “the ultimate question” as public broadcasting began its gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Watergate hearings on May 17, 1973.

MacNeil said the hearings were intended “to bear the truth about the wide range of illegal, unethical or improper activities established … surrounding the re-election President Nixon last year.”

Lehrer also detailed the scandal. Though little action had taken place as the hearings began, the committee’s “basic job remains the same,” he said.” 

From the PBS NewsHour 

"The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial,[7][8][9] free-to-air television network[10][11][12][13] based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded[14] nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing shows such as Frontline, Nova, PBS NewsHour, Sesame Street, and This Old House.[15]

PBS is funded by a combination of member station dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, pledge drives, and donations from both private foundations and individual citizens. All proposed funding for programming is subject to a set of standards to ensure the program is free of influence from the funding source.[16] PBS has over 350 member television stations, many owned by educational institutions, nonprofit groups both independent or affiliated with one particular local public school district or collegiate educational institution, or entities owned by or related to state government." 

From Wikipedia

If you are familiar with C-SPAN, (or the Cable Special Public Affairs Network) well, the PBS coverage of the 1973 U.S. Senate Watergate hearings is basically the early days of C-SPAN. Gavel to gavel coverage of a major invent in Congress which this was and what they did like what C-SPAN does. Is just show what happened and let the people decide for themselves what it meant and so forth.

Which is exactly what PBS was doing without breaking in to have an analyst explain what the people were watching. But would have the people be able to make those decisions for themselves. Which was basically the early days of what I call PBS News: the news operation over at PBS that produces shows like the NewsHour, Frontline, Washington Week, and so-forth.

PBS News allowed Americans to be able to see for themselves what Watergate was and what it meant for themselves. With a lot of the key actors in the whole Watergate affair and is a great example of what journalism should be rather than talk down to the audience with so-called experts allow for them to see for themselves what is happening.