Read my lips. No more debates.

Jim Lehrer didn’t use those words, but he might as well have. Lehrer’s November pronouncement that he would never host another presidential debate, like George H. W. Bush’s 1988 promise of no new taxes, turned out to be far from absolute.

With one major difference, according to PBS’s Lehrer. “There were consequences for him. There are no consequences for me.”

Lehrer will moderate the first Obama-Romney debate, Oct. 3 in Denver. It will be the 12th such event for Lehrer, 78, who last year retired as anchor of “NewsHour.” (For the first time since 1972, he won’t be the face of PBS at the national conventions.)

When members of the Commission of Presidential Debates asked Lehrer to re-consider, he said, Shermanesquely: “If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve.” When the group pitched a new debate format, however, ‘never’ became too long to wait.

Despite the 180, Lehrer insists his conscience is clear.

“I have no regrets about saying what I did, or about changing my mind,” he says. “I am a regret-free person. I meant it when I said it at the time. I had no idea there would be a new format. Life is an ever-changing windstorm, and I’m a part of life.

“I didn’t just wake up one day and say, ‘I want to moderate a presidential debate.’ There was a long, long buildup. I didn’t change. The circumstances changed. I wouldn’t have considered it for any other reason.”

The selection of Lehrer, along with that of CBS’s Bob Schieffer, CNN’s Candy Crowley and ABC’s Martha’s Raddatz has drawn heavy criticism from blacks and Hispanics for its absence of racial diversity. Others have accused the moderators of being too liberal and/or too mainstream.

To Lehrer, with half a century in the news business, it’s all background noise.

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Tom Kennedy has been tapped to lead online news operations for “PBS NewsHour” as managing editor of digital news.

Kennedy will begin at “NewsHour” in June. He is currently on the faculty at Syracuse University, where he teaches multimedia storytelling and visual journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He also works as a media consultant for corporations and non-profits. He previously was managing editor for multimedia of the Washington Post‘s website.

“Tom is a great addition to the NewsHour team,” executive producer Linda Winslow said in a statement. “This job calls for a creative journalist with editorial and management skills, and Tom is that person.”

The NYTimes’ Elizabeth Jensen writes about the changes coming to PBS’ long-running nightly newscast, “The Newshour with Jim Lehrer.”

Mr. Lehrer, who will turn 75 next Tuesday, isn’t stepping down. But in September the program will be retitled “PBS NewsHour” and return to a two-anchor format, which it had until 1995, when Robert MacNeil left.
Linda Winslow, the executive producer of “NewsHour,” said the changes will be made for a simple reason: “What we were trying to accomplish was a more engaging program.”

Jensen reports that Lehrer will be joined by one of three co-anchors from the show’s current team: Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff or Jeffrey Brown. Winslow is quick to add, “This is not a succession plan in disguise.” Having two anchors will “shake things up a little bit,” says Lehrer. The show will also add a newsreader, much like the broadcast network morning shows.

The one-hour show will also be formatted into segments for those who can’t, or don’t watch all the way through. Winslow says, “Each piece has to be individual and watchable.” Jensen reports the show will also merge its online and broadcast news desks, and send correspondents Margaret Warner and Ray Suarez into the field more often.

“Newspapers are thinning, and television has its own crisis,” says Lehrer. “I became a fanatic about the idea that those of us who are in the business of serious journalism, we have to do more.”