Prominent journalist and former PBS 'NewsHour' anchor Robert MacNeil dies at 93

Renowned journalist Robert MacNeil, known for co-creating the PBS newscast, The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, alongside the late Jim Lehrer in the 1970s, passed away on Friday, April 12, 2024. His daughter, Alison MacNeil, confirmed to PBS that her father, aged 93, died of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Robert MacNeil is credited for covering some of the biggest headlines of the 20th century, including the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, the Senate Watergate hearings, and the funeral of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The late journalist, who was a co-anchor at MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour for two decades until he stepped down in 1995, was a recipient of several Emmy and Peabody awards during his time at the program.

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Looking back at Robert MacNeil's illustrious career as a journalist

According to his obituary on PBS, Robert MacNeil, who was known to his friends as Robin, was born in Montreal and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After serving as a lieutenant commander in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II and later working as a Canadian foreign service officer, MacNeil graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa.

He began his journalism career with roles at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the National Broadcasting Company, and the British Broadcasting Corporation before joining the Public Broadcasting Service in 1971. Throughout his career, he conducted interviews with figures such as civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., former leader of Iran Ayatollah Khomeini, former Cuban President Fidel Castro, and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

MacNeil first gained prominence for covering the Senate Watergate hearings for PBS in a half-hour program titled Robert MacNeil Report 1975, with his friend Jim Lehrer serving as Washington correspondent.

The broadcast was later renamed MacNeil-Lehrer Report. In 1983, the half-hour segment was expanded to an hour and renamed the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour. According to the Guardian, in 1983, MacNeil told the Chicago Tribune that the one-hour NewsHour segment provides balance and context to stories, which are missing in a 22-minute segment. He emphasized:

"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."

According to PBS, in an interview in 2000, MacNeil explained his objective of creating NewsHour alongside his partner Jim Lehrer, saying they aimed to add “fairness and objectivity” to news. He highlighted:

"The idea that the American public is smarter than they’re often given credit for on television, and they don’t all need things in little bite-sized, candy-sized McNuggets of news."

After two decades, MacNeil departed from the program in 1995. However, the show remains on the air today with Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz as anchors. Following his departure from anchoring duties, MacNeil shifted his focus to writing, authoring several books, including the bestselling memoir Wordstruck and the novels Burden of Desire and The Voyage.

According to the Guardian, in a 1995 interview with the Associated Press, MacNeil spoke of his passion for writing:

"Writing is much more personal. It is not collaborative in the way that television must be. But when you’re sitting down writing a novel, it’s just you: here’s what I think, here’s what I want to do. And it’s me."

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Robert MacNeil's personal life explored

Following his death, Sara Just, the senior executive producer of the NewsHour, paid tribute to Robert MacNeil in a statement:

"Robin MacNeil was a giant in journalism and a gentle giant. His and Jim Lehrer’s commitment to the news standards we practice still at the NewsHour is an ongoing inspiration to our newsroom and the industry overall."

Robert MacNeil, who married his third wife, Donna Richards, in 1984, is survived by his children Alison, Will, Ian, Cathy, and five grandchildren. MacNeil’s wife of thirty years, Donna Richards, died in 2015. MacNeil's first and second marriage ended in divorce.