Skip to main content

Daily Inspiration Quote by Jim Lehrer

"Those who know me know I won't hesitate to turn around and point someone out"

About this Quote

There is a quiet menace in that line, and it lands precisely because it comes from Jim Lehrer, a journalist whose on-air manner was famously unshowy. "Turn around" is doing double duty: it conjures the literal studio geometry of broadcast news (the anchor pivoting from camera to panel, from script to person), and it signals a refusal to stay safely front-facing. Most media power operates by implication and euphemism; Lehrer's promise is the opposite. He will name names.

The phrase "those who know me" is a subtle credential check. It's not begging for trust so much as invoking a private reputation for candor that doesn't always translate on television. Lehrer built a career on restraint, on letting guests talk themselves into clarity or contradiction. This line suggests that the restraint is strategic, not timid. He can play neutral, but he isn't neutral.

"Point someone out" sounds mild, almost polite, but the subtext is accountability. In political journalism, direct attribution is a form of force: it denies officials the fog of "some people say" and it threatens the currency of access. Lehrer is signaling that he won't protect bad actors with vagueness, even if it costs him invitations, interviews, or insider status.

Context matters: Lehrer's era prized the performance of objectivity, the calm moderator as civic ideal. This quote reads like a pressure valve for that role - the moment the moderator reminds everyone he's still a reporter. It's a line about fairness, but also about boundaries: civility doesn't mean complicity.

Quote Details

TopicWitty One-Liners
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Lehrer, Jim. (2026, January 15). Those who know me know I won't hesitate to turn around and point someone out. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/those-who-know-me-know-i-wont-hesitate-to-turn-160444/

Chicago Style
Lehrer, Jim. "Those who know me know I won't hesitate to turn around and point someone out." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/those-who-know-me-know-i-wont-hesitate-to-turn-160444/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Those who know me know I won't hesitate to turn around and point someone out." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/those-who-know-me-know-i-wont-hesitate-to-turn-160444/. Accessed 3 Mar. 2026.

More Quotes by Jim Add to List
Jim Lehrer on Accountability and Transparency
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

USA Flag

Jim Lehrer (May 19, 1934 - January 23, 2020) was a Journalist from USA.

21 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Writer
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe