Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeilOC (January 19, 1931 – April 12, 2024), often known as Robin MacNeil, was a Canadian-American journalist, writer and
television news anchor. He partnered with
Jim Lehrer to create the landmark public television news program The Robert MacNeil Report in 1975.[1] He co-anchored the program until 1995. The show eventually became the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and is today the PBS NewsHour.
MacNeil began working in the news field at
ITV in London, then for
Reuters, and then for
NBC News[1] as a correspondent in Washington, D.C.[5] He also worked as a news anchor, for
WNBC, in New York City.[5]
On November 22, 1963, MacNeil covered
President John F. Kennedy's visit to Dallas for
NBC News.[6] After shots rang out in
Dealey Plaza, MacNeil, who was with the presidential motorcade, followed crowds running onto the
grassy knoll; he appears in a photo taken just moments after the assassination.[7] As he was reporting for NBC, MacNeil was at times in relatively close proximity[8] to his future co-anchor and partner
Jim Lehrer, also covering the Kennedy visit and assassination for the Dallas Times Herald, but the two did not meet until several years later, covering the Senate
Watergate hearings in Washington, D.C. for
PBS.[5][9]
MacNeil rose to fame during his coverage of the 1973 Senate
Watergate hearings for PBS, for which he received an
Emmy Award. Teamed with Jim Lehrer, the two broadcast and analysed some 250 hours of the hearings in all, sometimes late into the night.[1] This coverage helped lead to and inspire his most famous role, when he joined Lehrer in 1975 to create the PBS daily evening news program The Robert MacNeil Report, later renamed The MacNeil/Lehrer Report and then The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.[4][12] After serving 20 years on the program, MacNeil retired from his nightly appearances on October 20, 1995; Lehrer anchored the program solo until 2009.[13][14] The program continues as the PBS NewsHour.[5] He remained involved with the news program until 2013 as one of the heads of MacNeil-Lehrer Productions.[1]
Other work
In director
Michael Almereyda's 2000 modern-day adaptation of Hamlet, MacNeil portrayed the Player King, reimagined as a TV news reporter.[15][16]
After the
September 11 attacks, MacNeil called PBS and offered to help.[3] He joined PBS's coverage of the attacks and their aftermath, interviewing reporters and giving his thoughts on the events.[3]
In 2007, MacNeil hosted the PBS television miniseries America at a Crossroads, which presented independently produced documentaries about the "
War on Terrorism". The series initially ran from April 15–20, with further episodes later that year.[17]
In a Sesame Street Special Report,
muppet parody of the
Iran-Contra scandal, MacNeil investigated a "Cookiegate" incident involving the
Cookie Monster.[18] In 1998, for Season 29's "Slimey to the Moon" story arc, MacNeil took the role of co-anchor with
Kermit the Frog, as Slimey, Oscar the Grouch's pet worm, and four other worms made a landing on the Moon.[19][20]
Inspired by his passion for language, he made the nine-part television series The Story of English in 1986 for PBS and the BBC, detailing the development of the English language.[1]The Story of English is also a companion book, also produced in 1986. The book and the television series were written by MacNeil,
Robert McCrum, and William Cran.[23]
Personal life and death
MacNeil became a naturalized American citizen in 1997, and became an
Order of Canada officer that same year.[4][24] He was married to Rosemarie Coopland, Jane Doherty, and Donna Nappi Richards MacNeil.[25] With Coopland, he was the father of award-winning theatre scenic designer
Ian MacNeil.[26]
MacNeil was known to friends and family as "Robin".[1]
MacNeil died of natural causes at
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on April 12, 2024, at the age of 93, confirmed by his daughter Alison MacNeil.[4]
MacNeil also wrote books, many of which are about his career as a journalist. After his retirement from NewsHour, he also dabbled in writing novels.[1] His books include:
The People Machine: The Influence of Television on American Politics (1970).
ISBN978-0413276704.
Looking for My Country: Finding Myself in America (2003).
ISBN978-0385507813.
MacNeil, Robert; Cran, William (December 28, 2004).
Do You Speak American?. Nan A. Talese/Doubleday.
ISBN978-0-385-51198-8. (accompanied by a PBS documentary miniseries in 2005)