Remembering Robert MacNeil
Robert MacNeil, who co-created the PBS newscast "The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour" in the 1970s and co-anchored the show with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, passed away on Friday at the age of 93.
According to his daughter, Alison MacNeil, Robert MacNeil died of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
MacNeil rose to fame for his coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings and launched the "Robert MacNeil Report" on PBS in 1975 alongside Lehrer as Washington correspondent.
The program evolved into the "MacNeil-Lehrer Report" and later transformed into the "MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour" in 1983, becoming the nation's first one-hour evening news broadcast. The show has received numerous Emmy and Peabody awards and continues to be on air today with Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz as anchors.
MacNeil and Lehrer's dissatisfaction with the style and content of other news programs on major networks inspired them to create their own show. MacNeil once stated, "We don't need to SELL the news. The networks hype the news to make it seem vital, important. What's missing (in 22 minutes) is context, sometimes balance, and a consideration of questions that are raised by certain events."
MacNeil transitioned from anchoring duties at "NewsHour" in 1995 to focus on writing full time. Following his departure, Lehrer took over the newscast solo until 2009. Lehrer passed away in 2020.
During a visit to the show in October 2005 to celebrate its 30th anniversary, MacNeil reflected on the origins of their newscast, which began in an era predating cable television.
"It was a way to fulfill a journalistic need while offering something distinct from the content of commercial network news programs," he remarked.
MacNeil authored several books, including two memoirs - "The Right Place at the Right Time" and the bestseller "Wordstruck" - as well as the novels "Burden of Desire" and "The Voyage."
"Writing is a much more personal endeavor. It lacks the collaborative nature required in television," MacNeil explained to The Associated Press in 1995. "When you're crafting a novel, it's just you: Your thoughts, your intentions. It's all you."
MacNeil was also the brain behind the Emmy-winning 1986 series "The Story of English," produced by the MacNeil-Lehrer company, and co-authored the accompanying book of the same title.
Furthermore, a language-focused book he co-wrote, "Do You Speak American?," was adapted into a PBS documentary in 2005.
In 2007, he hosted "America at a Crossroads," a PBS series spanning six nights that delved into the challenges facing the United States in a post-9/11 world.
Six years before the 9/11 attacks, discussing sensationalism and frivolity in the news business, he had said: "If something really serious did happen to the nation - a stock market crash like 1929, ... the equivalent of a Pearl Harbor - wouldn't the news get very serious again? Wouldn't people run from `Hard Copy' and titillation?"
"Of course you would. You'd have to know what was going on."
That was the case - for a while.
Born in Montreal in 1931, MacNeil was raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa in 1955 before moving to London where he began his journalism career with Reuters. He switched to TV news in 1960, taking a job with NBC in London as a foreign correspondent.
In 1965, MacNeil became the New York anchor of the first half-hour weekend network news broadcast, "The Scherer-MacNeil Report" on NBC. While in New York, he also anchored local newscasts and several NBC news documentaries, including "The Big Ear" and "The Right to Bear Arms."
Returning to London in 1967, MacNeil joined the British Broadcasting Corp.'s "Panorama" series as a reporter. During his time with the BBC, he reported on various U.S. events including the confrontation between anti-war protestors and the Chicago police at the 1968 Democratic Convention, as well as the funeral services of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Sen. Robert Kennedy, and President Dwight Eisenhower.
By 1971, MacNeil transitioned to a senior correspondent role at PBS. It was there that he collaborated with Lehrer to co-anchor the Emmy-winning coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973.
