Throughout its history, America has faced one monumental problem after another. As such, I don’t know if there has ever existed a period in this nation that could be considered idyllic. But as a new immigrant in the 1990s and early 2000s, I found an atmosphere in this country that was as close to ideal as could possibly be, relative to the environments that I had experienced before then. I really want my early years in America back.

Because of the extreme polarization of American politics and the dangerous cleavages it has created in our society, one of the people I find myself missing the most nowadays is Jim Lehrer, the longtime anchor of the PBS NewsHour. He was the embodiment of perfection in journalism. His voice was so respected by Americans that he was chosen to moderate as many as twelve presidential debates in the period between 1988 and 2012.

One major driver of the divisiveness in America today is the near-total distrust of the national media. It is the nature of most politicians to manipulate information and distort facts in their efforts to sway the public one way or the other. Journalists are the people the average person has traditionally relied on to keep political leaders honest. Unfortunately, the news media is now viewed in an even greater negative light than the politicians are. Nowadays, the mainstream press is seen by much of the public as overly biased. Whatever any journalist says is therefore either dismissed, or taken with a large grain of salt. This broken trust is what has allowed all kinds of conspiracy theorists to take over the public square, flooding it with highly toxic information that has severely damaged the health of our society.

Voting is one of the most essential duties of any citizen. But Jim Lehrer recognized the crucial importance of trust, and so badly wanted to maintain his objectivity as a journalist that he decided not to vote for much of his adult life. That is how seriously the former navy man took his professional responsibility. He saw the safeguarding of his impartiality as the best way to serve his nation during that period.

There certainly are journalists in America today who try to do their reporting in a balanced way. Quite unfortunately for them, the media outlets they work for have all been painted with the same broad brush and so no matter what they do, no one trusts what they say. We all have a responsibility to help champion the works of these conscientious members of the press.

Today’s America desperately needs a trusted voice like Jim Lehrer’s. But it may be next to impossible to find it within the existing media landscape. Some wealthy entrepreneur could perhaps do the nation a big favor by creating a fresh news outlet, with nonpartisan reporting boldly stated as its mission. With that, and some luck, we might return to the days when we were blessed to have a widely respected journalist moderating our presidential debates.