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Robert MacNeil, the longtime PBS anchor who started “PBS NewsHour,” has died at the age of 93.
His daughter Alison MacNeil confirmed that her father, who was also known as Robin, died Friday at a Manhattan hospital.
PBS NewsHour co-anchors Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz said, “Robin was one of a kind. With his distinctive voice, he brought stories to life — unraveling complex issues with clarity and compassion. Whether it was through his incisive reporting or his intimate interviews, he possessed a singular ability to connect with people. As we reflect on his many contributions, we honor his memory by continuing to pursue the truth and by fostering connections that bridge divides – just as Robin did with such grace and vigor. We are deeply grateful for the enduring legacy he leaves behind,” according to the network.
MacNeil launched what became “PBS NewsHour” in 1975 alongside former Texas newspaperman Jim Lehrer. He was known for offering reputable, straightforward reporting on world events, according to The Washington Post.
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Robert MacNeil has died at the age of 93. (Brent N. Clarke/FilmMagic/NY Daily News via Getty Images)
“We decided to do a program for the curious, and the informed, and the interested. And it worked,” MacNeil told the Toronto Star after the launch of the successful venture.
The program started as a 30-minute time slot and expanded to an hour-long news broadcast in 1983. It was initially called “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report.” By the time MacNeil retired as the venture’s co-anchor and executive editor in 1995, it averaged around 5 million viewers a night.
Lehrer would continue the program by himself until 2011.
MacNeil once again appeared on PBS during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. After offering the station help, he covered and analyzed the devastating moment in American history.
He started as a writer for Reuters in the 1950s and later became a foreign correspondent for NBC News, where he covered the construction of the Berlin Wall, among other notable events.
In November 1963, MacNeil was sitting in a press bus in Dallas when shots rang out during President John F. Kennedy’s visit.
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Robert MacNeil co-founded what is now known as “PBS NewsHour.” (NY Daily News via Getty Images)
MacNeil charged off the bus and followed police, then searched for a phone to call his editor; eventually entering the Texas School Book Depository, the same building where Lee Harvey Oswald had shot Kennedy, possibly passing him.
“I didn’t register his face because I was obsessed with finding a phone,” MacNeil told the Canadian Press in 2013. “Much later,” he added, “it occurred to me that I was going in just about the time Oswald had been going out.”
MacNeil began covering American and European politics in 1967 when he worked for the BBC. By 1971, he was hosting the “Washington Week in Review” for PBS.
He would later rise among journalism circles for his coverage of the Watergate hearings, for which he garnered an Emmy Award.
MacNeil has written several books post-retirement about his career in journalism, including “Breaking News” and “Burden of Desire.”
Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital, “Robin’s passing marks the end of an era for PBS, and is a tremendous loss for our country.
“His work with Jim Lehrer during the Watergate hearings, was profoundly important and groundbreaking. In creating the MacNeil/Lehrer Report, and ultimately the NewsHour, Robin and Jim set the standard for excellence in news programming through their focus on the facts and the critically important issues of the day.While we mourn his death, we honor his life and work by building on his legacy.”
Nikolas Lanum is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.
