Media

Co-anchor of ‘MacNeil/Lehrer Report’ dies at 93

by Dominick Mastrangelo - 04/12/24 1:54 PM ET

FILE - This Feb. 1978 photo shows Robert MacNeil, executive editor of "The MacNeil/Lehrer Report". MacNeil, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” in the 1970s and co-anchored the show for with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died on Friday, April 12, 2024. He was 93. — AP Photo/FILE
FILE – This Feb. 1978 photo shows Robert MacNeil, executive editor of “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report”. MacNeil, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” in the 1970s and co-anchored the show for with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died on Friday, April 12, 2024. He was 93.

Robert MacNeil, the longtime broadcast journalist and co-anchor of “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report,” died Friday. He was 93.

MacNeil was an NBC News reporter in Dallas on the day President Kennedy was assassinated. He also worked for the BBC before joining PBS for the bulk of his career.

MacNeil’s reporting on the Watergate scandal of the 1970s propelled him to prominence in the national press corps with his half-hour program originally dubbed the “Robert MacNeil Report” on PBS.

The show was later rebranded the “MacNeil-Lehrer Report,” which he anchored for two decades with colleague Jim Lehrer.

The show was again rebranded in the 1980s as the “MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour,” the first-of-its-kind hourlong newscast that set the stage for what is today known as “PBS NewsHour.”

MacNeil retired in 1995, leaving anchoring duties to Lehrer, who himself stepped away from the program in 2009. Lehrer died in 2020.

The Associated Press contributed.

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