Brian Lehrer on why coverage of local communities is so important

Brian Lehrer, host of WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show,” has dedicated his career to local news. His interview and call-in radio show has been running for 36 years, originally under the name, “On the Line.” Through the award-winning journalist’s career, Lehrer has spoken with members of Congress, authors, entrepreneurs, power brokers and voters. He appeared on City & State’s 50 Over 50 in 2019. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What is an accomplishment you’re proud of since you were originally on the 50 Over 50 in 2019?

Radio is always a connection to community for people who are shut in for whatever reason and in the pandemic most people were shut in and scared. So we tried to be a place for both good information and connection to the outside world. Then, as it moved along, a place to get information about where to get vaccines when they were scarce at the beginning, discussing scientific uncertainties, fact-checking conspiracy theories against what was known by science, debating what should be open and what should be closed when. The show’s coverage and provision of connection to people during the pandemic is one thing that I would cite. I’m being given the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism’s Columbia Journalism Award. They call it their highest honor from the J-School, which includes delivering the commencement address at the Graduate School of Journalism on May 21.

What’s your favorite part of your show?

One of my favorite things about the show is that it is an interactive call-in show and not just an interview show. We integrate callers with just about every segment and just about every guest, so we’re a vehicle for regular people’s stories and questions and concerns to get out, not just those of experts and politicians. One of the ways that we use callers that I think is different from a lot of other talk shows is that, on many segments, we invite callers to help us report this story. I use that phrase a lot, “Help us report this story,” as opposed to just inviting people’s opinions. We’ve tried to use callers in a different way.

Why is local news important and why is it something you’re so committed to?

One of my messages to the Columbia J-School graduates will be: Fall in love with local news. Local news needs you. National news might seem more interesting or more urgent, and certainly we need to report in detail on the revolution happening at the federal level right now, but the place where the consequences for all these changes are felt, for better or worse, is in local communities here and around the country.

The competing interests that we always talk about in political journalism can sometimes feel abstract, but locally is where they’re the most tangible and the most personal. You can be for a strong social safety net or against one in the national congressional funding debate, and that’s important, but locally it’s about that family down the block who might lose their SNAP benefits. How will they put food on the table?

In this era of declining trust in news organizations, local ones are still the most trusted, so rebuilding trust in media nationally might run, in part, through the strength of local journalism, just like trusting political parties runs through their local electeds.

There’s a lot going on in the news lately. What’s the biggest story you’re following at the moment?

The biggest two right now would be the Trump administration’s effects on the New York area and the mayoral race.

Regarding covering the Trump administration, one of the difficult things is that they’re putting so many big changes into the pipeline at the same time. We have to balance reporting on the forest and reporting on the trees. The trees are the particular policies and we are having to prioritize because we only have so much time on the show every day – and then also not lose the forest for the trees.

This is an era where we’re questioning whether democracy as we know it is being ended, and you can get lost in the policies and not pull back to the big picture. We try to do both.

The mayoral race is dominating the local news cycle. What are your thoughts on the race? Is there anyone you are surprised to see doing well or poorly? Anyone you were expected to see more from?

I think people shouldn’t be surprised if (former Gov.) Andrew Cuomo wins in blue New York (City), just as (Mayor) Eric Adams won in 2021 rather than a more progressive candidate. If you look at the history, going back almost 50 years, we had Ed Koch for three terms because he became more conservative, then just one term of David Dinkins, then Rudy Giuliani for two terms, then Michael Bloomberg for three terms – each defeating well-known Democrats each time. The more progressive Bill de Blasio was in for two terms between Bloomberg and Eric Adams. But when it comes to local issues, especially public safety, so-called “blue New York” can be fairly centrist in their elections.

Then looking forward to the general election, that could really be a wild card, with Adams as an independent and the possibility that if Cuomo is the Democratic nominee, the Working Families Party will run a candidate on its own line. Then anything could happen. The wild card there is that there is not ranked choice voting in the general election. So two possible scenarios: Cuomo and the Working Families Party and Adams could split the Democratic-leaning vote and Republican Curtis Sliwa could end up as the mayor, or Sliwa, Cuomo and Adams could all split the center-to-right vote and it could be the Working Families Party candidate who becomes our next mayor. It’s really an “anything can happen here.”

Mayor Adams and Cuomo have been skipping mayoral forums and generally not being forthcoming with the press. As a longtime journalist in the city, have you seen this from mayoral candidates before?

It is classical politics that a front-runner tries to lie relatively low and not take risks, and we may be seeing that play out at the moment with Cuomo. My show is one example of that. We have invited every candidate in the Democratic primary to come on and answer questions from me and our callers. Every candidate has now done it except Cuomo, who so far has not accepted the invitation, and I don’t take that personally. I think that that’s consistent with the strategy that front-runners often use. But, of course, as a service to the listeners, we still hope that he accepts.