Robert MacNeil, First Anchor of PBS ‘NewsHour,’ Dies at 93
NEW YORK (AP) — Robert MacNeil, who created “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” in the 1970s and co-anchored the show for with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died Friday at 93.
MacNeil died of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, according to his daughter, Alison.
MacNeil began “Robert MacNeil Report” on PBS in 1975, with his friend Lehrer as Washington correspondent.
The broadcast became “MacNeil-Lehrer Report.” In 1983, it was expanded to an hour and renamed the “MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour.” The nation’s first one-hour evening news broadcast, and recipient of several Emmy and Peabody awards, it remains on the air today, with Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz as anchors.
MacNeil’s and Lehrer’s disenchantment with style and content of news programs on the Big Three netweorks led to the program’s creation.
“We don’t need to SELL the news,” MacNeil told Chicago Tribune in 1983. “The networks hype the news to make it seem vital, important. What’s missing is context, sometimes sometimes balance, and a consideration of questions that are raised by certain events.”
In 1995, MacNeil left anchoring duties at “NewsHour” after two decades to write full-time. Lehrer took over the newscast alone, and remained there until 2009. Lehrer died in 2020.
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