MacNeil, Robert (1931– )

Canadian television journalist and anchorman. Senior correspondent for Public Broadcasting System TV (1971–75), he anchored the MacNeil/Lehrer Report (1975–94). He published The Story of English (1986) with Robert McCrum and William Cran, based on a TV documentary, and Wordstruck (1989), an informal history of the English language.

MacNeil was born in Montréal, Canada. He starred in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation TV children's show, then worked for Reuters in London, England. He joined the US National Broadcasting Company as a correspondent (1960–65), then worked as coanchor for WNBC in New York City. MacNeil left to work as reporter for Panorama, a British Broadcasting Corporation documentary series (1966–70).