Robert MacNeil, a driving force behind the show that would become the NewsHour on PBS, died Friday at the age of 93.
A lifelong lover of language, literature and the arts, MacNeil’s trade was using words. Combined with his reporter’s knack for being where the action was, he harnessed that passion to cover some of the biggest stories of his time, while his refusal to sensationalize the news sprung from respect for viewers.
Along with Jim Lehrer, MacNeil’s Emmy-winning series of special reports on the 1973 gavel-to-gavel primetime coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings was also the turning point for the future of daily news on PBS, leading to the creation of The Robert MacNeil Report, before it was renamed The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, and other subsequent iterations, all the way up to the PBS NewsHour.
As co-founder and anchor, he helped guide millions through extraordinary times with his intelligent, passionate and humane storytelling. MacNeil, known to his friends as Robin, retired from the nightly show on Oct. 20, 1995.
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