Robert MacNeil, the statuesque journalist who brought news to PBS, has died at the age of 93
Breaking news
Stephen BattaglioApril 12, 2024
Robert MacNeil, whose reporting on the Watergate scandal led to the first nightly newscast for PBS, died Friday after a long illness. Hey, it was 93.
A PBS representative confirmed MacNeil’s death. No cause of death was mentioned.
MacNeil was the founder of “PBS NewsHour,” which first launched in 1975 as “The Robert MacNeil Report” and later renamed “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.” In the years before cable news and the Internet, the program was the only national TV alternative to the news broadcasts on ABC, CBS and NBC.
MacNeil was born on January 19, 1931 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the son of a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He dropped out of Dalhousie University in Halifax to pursue an acting career and became an announcer for CBC.
After moving to England in 1955, he turned to journalism and joined the Reuters news service. Five years later he became a London correspondent for NBC News.
MacNeil was transferred to NBC’s Washington bureau in 1963 during the Kennedy administration and reported extensively from Dallas when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by an assassin. Viewers watching NBC News on November 22, 1963 heard MacNeil call from a payphone to confirm the president’s death.
MacNeil became an anchor at NBC News and on the network’s local New York station, WNBC.

MacNeil was hired by PBS in 1971
are
the host his first public affairs program, “Washington Week In Review.” The agency planned to team him with another former NBC News journalist, Sander Vanocur, to cover the 1972 presidential campaign.
But PBS’s plans to enter the news business were met with resistance from President Nixon’s administration. Nixon objected to the hiring of Vanocur, who was known to be close to him
the
Kennedy, who defeated him in the 1960 presidential race.
MacNeil believed the opposition was driven by Nixon’s general disdain for the media.
I think it was mostly the fear of a fourth, as he saw it, liberal network, MacNeil said in a 2020 interview with The Times.
Vanocur didn’t take the job, and MacNeil eventually teamed up with Jim Lehrer, a former Dallas newspaper reporter who worked behind the scenes at PBS. Ultimately, they provided coverage of the Senate hearings on Watergate.
The reporting made the couple TV news stars.
The commercial networks were reluctant to use their game shows and soap operas to present the hearings. They took turns providing cover from hammer to hammer.
But for non-commercial PBS, the hearings were a great opportunity. For 47 days and nights in 1973, the service covered every minute of the procedure. They were repeated in prime time for viewers who missed the ongoing daytime saga in the era before DVRs and streaming.
Viewers enjoyed the dignified combination of MacNeil, who spoke in a clipped, erudite manner; and teacher, born in Kansas with a soft accent in the heart of the country. Off camera they became good friends
And
business partners. (Teacher passed away in 2020).
Their Watergate coverage earned PBS high ratings. Financial contributions from viewers poured in.
A year after the hearings, MacNeil was given his own hearing
eponymous
nightly half-hour program produced in the studios of PBS New York’s flagship WNET. The teacher reported from Washington, D.C., and his name was added to the program title in 1976 when it was offered on national channels.
In 1983, the program was renamed “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” and became a signature series for PBS that continues to air as “PBS NewsHour”.
The anchor duo formed a unique partnership when they founded a production company and took ownership of the program in the mid-1980s. They produced the “PBS NewsHour” until 2014, when it was acquired by the service’s Washington station WETA.
The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour has never wavered from its mandate to provide a more subdued and serious approach to covering the news of the day. When the OJ Simpson trial became a dominant TV news story in the mid-1990s, the NewsHour paid scant attention to it beyond the verdict.
After leaving the program, MacNeil continued to produce and host documentaries for PBS. He also wrote several books.
“He was brilliant and courteous, but always with a wonderful sense of irony,” said Judy Woodruff, who later served as anchor of “PBS NewsHour.” “I’m so grateful to have spoken to him on his birthday in January, when that iconic, deep Canadian baritone voice sounded exactly as it did when he last hosted ‘NewsHour’ almost thirty years ago.
MacNeil is survived by two children from his first marriage, Ian and Cathy MacNeil; two children from his second marriage, Alison and Will MacNeil; and five grandchildren.

Fernando Dowling is an author and political journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He has a deep understanding of the political landscape and a passion for analyzing the latest political trends and news.