R.I.P. to a news legend Judy Woodruff, anchor and managing editor of the PBS NewsHour, shared the sad news that longtime PBS NewsHour anchor and co-founder Jim Lehrer died on Thursday. As Yamiche Alcindor tweeted, “It’s a sad day at @NewsHour. The founder of this program and longtime anchor, managing editor and soul of this program, Jim Lehrer, has passed away.” “Such very sad news today. Jim Lehrer set the standard for journalistic integrity and objectivity. All of us @newshour and @pbs are in his debt,” says Sara Just. And Clara Jeffery adds, “So sorry to hear about Jim Lehrer passing. He was a great journalist, but also a great dad to my HS friend Amanda and her two sisters, and very nice to all of us silly 80s teens.” Many journalists are sharing Anne Davenport’s tribute to “a giant in journalism known for his tenacity and dedication to simply delivering the news,” Remembering Jim Lehrer (225,000+ shares). That piece includes the nine tenets that governed his journalistic philosophy. Natasha Mitchell highlights “‘#9: I am not in the entertainment business.’” “Jim Lehrer may have come from a different era in journalism - but the rules he set aside to guide his reporting are as relevant and important as ever. R.I.P. to a news legend,” tweets Akiko Fujita. Robert McFadden has the New York Times obit for Lehrer, writing of the “low-key, courtly Texan, who...was an oasis of civility in a news media that thrived on excited headlines, gotcha questions and noisy confrontations.” Tweets Alex Howard, “I grew up watching Jim Lehrer's careful, considered, & accurate journalism on @PBS. Our union is lessened by his passing, but his legacy of trustworthy, nonpartisan reporting endures at the @NewsHour, & his wit & example will inspire generations to come.” For more on his legacy, head over to Poynter where Tom Jones explains why journalists should be like Jim Lehrer. Jones has also compiled some of the outpouring of praise and life lessons shared by journalists since the news broke. Write with daring Before we get into the rest of it today, “From one of the best writers in America, this is extremely worth your time. It’s also worth the debate I’m sure it will generate,” tweets Adrienne LaFrance. Atlantic staff writer George Packer delivered his 2019 Hitchens Prize acceptance speech this past Tuesday, and that speech has been adapted into an essay that you can read at The Atlantic called The Enemies of Writing. Among the enemies he identifies: fear. “Fear breeds self-censorship, and self-censorship is more insidious than the state-imposed kind, because it’s a surer way of killing the impulse to think, which requires an unfettered mind,” he writes. In other words, “Write with daring and without fear, wherever it takes you,” tweets James Oliphant. 
But Hiroko Tabuchi says, “While I agree with much of this, it’s problematic to attribute the motivation of writers who try to be sensitive to other folks solely to a desire for belonging, rather than an effort to be a better (less racist less sexist less homophobic etc) person.” Adds Choire Sicha, “The thing that’s most infuriating about the microgeneration of men journalists before me was that any effect of their ideas would never touch their own lives.” Counterpoint: “YES, YES, YES to pretty much all of this,” tweets Alex Massie. As LaFrance predicted, debate has been generated. In the end, Packer offers that there are no easy answers to what may be the greatest enemy of writing today — despair — but urges, “What I can say is that we need good writing as much as ever, if not more. It’s essential to democracy, and one dies with the other.” Lookee here And now on to some “Damn impressive reporting by @jason_a_w,” as Seamus Hughes puts it. Jason Wilson of the Guardian figured out the true identity of the leader of America’s neo-Nazi terror group. He goes by Norman Spear or Roman Wolf, but his real name is Rinaldo Nazzaro. The revelation of his identity comes after a months-long investigation by the Guardian into Nazzaro and the activities of neo-Nazi terror network The Base. 
“So if I’m reading @jason_a_w’s piece correctly, the leader of the Base transitioned seamlessly from taking government money from counterterrorism contracting into terrorism,” tweets Spencer Ackerman, “and — lookee here — ‘there is evidence supporting his claims of being based in Russia, where he lives with his Russian wife,’” notes David Beard. Tom McKay says, “This is a truly incredible piece of reporting but I can’t let the fact that the neo-Nazi terror network is headed by ‘Rinaldo Nazzaro’ OF NEW JERSEY and bought his terrorist training camp under the name of his terrorist organization go without comment.” Daniel De Simone, Andrei Soshnikov and Ali Winston of BBC News confirm Wilson’s reporting. Their investigation shows The Base is directing the organization from Russia, and Nazzaro has lived in St. Petersburg since at least mid-2019. And yet...“Nothing seems likely to be done about it. Remember all the bold US foreign-policy talk about nations that ‘host terrorists’?” tweets Dan Janison. With allies like these... Julian Borger links to yet “Another scoop from @skirchy ! US intelligence urged British counterparts to keep a close eye on Hatice Cengiz, Jamal Khashoggi's fiancee, after they became aware of a plan by Saudi Arabia to keep her under surveillance in the UK last year.” That’s Stephanie Kirchgaessner’s latest scoop for the Guardian, Saudi Arabia ‘planned to spy on Khashoggi’s fiancee in UK.’ Kirchgaessner urges, “Read this and @attackerman scoop from last night and it becomes clear that US intelligence are spending resources trying to protect people from our close ‘ally.’”  The big Spencer Ackerman scoop she’s referring to is his latest for The Daily Beast, which reveals the FBI foiled an alleged Saudi plot to kidnap a regime critic on U.S. soil. That’s right — on U.S. soil. On Twitter, Ackerman shares, “Meet Abdulrahman Almutieri. He’s a comedian and influencer from Saudi Arabia who lives in California. And after he criticized Mohammed bin Salman, he might have become the next Jamal Khasshogi — if not for the FBI’s intervention.”
As Tim Steller points out, “Supposedly Iran is our big enemy. Yet it’s our alleged friend, Saudi Arabia, that has hacked (literally and figuratively) US residents. And it is MBS who couldn’t take criticism from a US comedian and tried to have him kidnapped from American soil.” Taking aim at Trump Democrats have been taking to the airwaves in Iowa, and as Julie Bykowicz and Chad Day of The Wall Street Journal report, they only have one target in mind: Democrats’ Iowa Ads Take Aim at Trump. Tweets John McCormick, “Iowa Nice: In 85 different ads in the past two months on local television, no Democrat has mentioned a primary rival by name.” Bykowicz notes, “That’s a turnabout from the feisty 2016 GOP TV campaign there.” 
Outside of Iowa, it’s Trump vs. Bloomberg: Fortunes collide in pricey knife fight, writes AP’s Jonathan Lemire, who tweets, “NEW: As Bloomberg spends big on his campaign, Trump and his team warily watch - and the president, rattled by old NYC insecurities about money and status, has dismissed aides’ pleas to ignore the mayor and has gone on the attack.” At The New York Times, Maggie Haberman and Nick Corasaniti put it this way: Seeing a Bloomberg Ad on Fox News, Trump Takes the Bait. “Trump had been ‘essentially running unopposed until Mike entered the race,’ @howiewolf tells @maggieNYT & @NYTnickc in this must-read on Bloomberg 2020,” says Michael M. Grynbaum.” As Jim Rutenberg explains it, “Money can’t buy you voter love but it can drive your would-be opponent absolutely bananas.” Also at The Times, Jonathan Martin is reporting that Kamala Harris is weighing an endorsement of Biden, a move that could enhance her chances of becoming vice president but could also anger liberals in California. Coronavirus updates For the latest on the coronavirus, Chris Buckley of The New York Times shares, “I’ll be tweeting from Wuhan Friday. And please remember we have a large team keeping you up to date on the virus outbreak here at the Times’ live briefing. A special shout out to our researchers working when they should be on holiday.” Check his coverage for Coronavirus Live Updates: Toll Rises to 26 Dead and 830 Sickened. Anna Fifield and Siobhan O'Grady are also providing updates at The Washington Post, and they report that the CDC has confirmed that a second U.S. patient has tested positive for coronavirus, and 50 people are under investigation in 22 states. Predictably brilliant 
As John Self says, “An interview with Pet Shop Boys is a supremely good way to start a Friday.” So why not head over to the Guardian, where Alexis Petridis has just such an interview, one that includes, among many other quotable quotes, the Pet Shop Boys’ opinion that ‘The acoustic guitar should be banned.’ David Chance highlights, “national treasures ‘We go on Sunday lunchtimes,’ smiles Tennant, ‘around 12 o’clock. We treat it as pre-lunch drinks – we go up to the Panorama Bar and have a glass of prosecco.’” And Jude Rogers shares, ‘“I can’t believe schools have started having prom dances. As if school isn’t bad enough anyway without a prom at the end of it. They never end well in films, do they? We’ve all seen Carrie.’ God I love Chris Lowe.” Owen Gibson calls it a “Predictably brilliant Pet Shop Boys interview (the tongue in cheek contention in the headline only undermined by the fact Home & Dry feat Johnny Marr is one of their finest post imperial phase songs).” To sum up: “A great headline, a great interview, a great band,” tweets Jenn Gannon. Friday round-up - Seung Min Kim, John Wagner and Karoun Demirjian of The Washington Post recap yesterday’s day in the Senate impeachment trial, Democrats detail abuse-of-power charge against Trump as Republicans complain of repetitive arguments. Meanwhile, No Republican in Congress Is Thinking Past Tomorrow’s Lunch Menu, writes Esquire’s Charles P. Pierce. In that one, Pierce speaks to his “new old friend,” Republican Senator Joni Ernst, who, he notes, “spoke in fluent Italics.”
- Her mother’s parents were imprisoned during World War II for being Japanese American. Her father’s ancestors were enslaved at Mount Vernon. Tracy Jan of The Washington Post explains why reparations mean more than money for Robyn Syphax’s family, whose story includes slavery and Japanese American internment.
- Dan Diamond of POLITICO reports that, for nine days, the nation’s opioid crisis was no longer considered a “public health emergency” after HHS forgot to renew Trump’s opioid emergency declaration.
- Caroline Lucas says, “The hypocrisy of the government’s position is breathtaking The PM boasted that a string of investment deals from the UK Africa summit would promote clean energy - but my questions reveal that in fact they promote yet more fossil fuels #ClimateHypocrisy.” She links to Damian Carrington’s reporting at the Guardian that 90% of UK-Africa summit’s energy deals were in fossil fuels.
- Grammys will be handed out on Sunday, but as Bethonie Butler explains at The Washington Post, The Recording Academy is imploding the week before its biggest event. Here’s what we know.
- Lastly today, “He’s one of the very best of his generation. His voice and reports are instantly memorable particularly from Africa. He’s a wonderfully humane man with an extraordinary gift with words. But his work has taken a huge personal toll.” Martin Patience links to the news that BBC Africa editor Fergal Keane has stepped down after a PTSD diagnosis. Martin Geissler says it’s “A reminder of the extraordinary work many journalists do, despite the personal impact it can have. Hope this decision helps Fergal to find some peace. He’s a formidable talent, and an inspiration.”
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