Jim Lehrer's Oklahoma Connection

Jim Lehrer, the longtime PBS news anchor who is moderating the first presidential debate tonight, has written a series of mystery novels about an Oklahoma Lt. Governor named One-Eyed Mack. Here is the summary of one called “Crown Oklahoma”:

From Publishers Weekly
TV anchorman Lehrer of The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour takes a dyspeptic view of the mass media in this slim picaresque fable. Its hero is One-Eyed Mack, swashbuckling if harried lieutenant-governor of Oklahoma who starred in Lehrer’s last novel, Kick the Can. He learns from a CBS broadcast that the Okies, a highly secret organized-crime group based in his very own state, is making inroads on the Mafia and terrorizing the Southwest. But this news item turns out to be a hoax concocted by disaffected CBS reporter Archibald Tyler. As FBI agents, newsmen and real Mafiosi swarm all over the state, Mack’s goal is to out-fake this faker–to fool Tyler into supposing that his tall tale has more than a grain of truth. Aiding him in this scheme is Brother Walt, oddball preacher of the Hoy Road church, and “Cool” Harry Hayes, Oklahoma’s law enforcement chief, who drives a black Lincoln Continental with a submachine gun strapped to the front seat. This wacky saga is more entertaining for its funky local color and grassroots humor than as a satire on the media’s tendency toward sensation-mongering.

Lehrer is moderating his 12th presidential debate.

The Washington Post had an interesting story about the tough balancing act of moderating these debates.