Robert
MacNeil was born in Montreal, Quebec, in 1931, and
raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After graduating from
Carleton University in Ottawa in 1955, he moved to
London, England, where he worked first for Reuters
News Agency and then for the National Broadcasting
Corporation. From 1963 to 1967, he was a correspondent
for NBC in Washington and New York City. From 1967
to 1971, he covered American and European politics
for the British Broadcasting Corporation. After he
returned to Washington, MacNeil co-anchored (with
Jim Lehrer) coverage by the Public Broadcasting Service
of the Senate Watergate Hearings, for which he won
the first of several Emmy awards. In October 1975,
he and Lehrer launched a half-hour nightly news program,
“The Robert MacNeil Report with Jim Lehrer” (later
“The MacNeil/Lehrer Report"), which dealt with
a single issue each night. Eight years later, this
innovative approach was expanded to “The MacNeil/Lehrer
NewsHour,” the first hour-long evening news program
in the United States. "NewsHour" continues
to earn major broadcasting awards a decade later.
Robert MacNeil has written
several books, including The People Machine: The Influence
of Television on American Politics, The Story of English
(with Robert McCrum and William Cran) and two memoirs,
The Right Place at the Right Time and Wordstruck.
His first novel, Burden of Desire, is set in Nova
Scotia during the First World War. He is currently
completing a second novel.
