Robert MacNeil

Robert MacNeil was interviewed for seven hours (in two sessions) in New York, NY. Mr. MacNeil spoke about his illustrious career in journalism, staring in London with ITV and later Reuters. He segued to the NBC bureau in London and covered the Berlin crisis (when the Berlin wall was erected) and the Cuban Missile Crisis (from inside Cuba). Next, he discussed his move to Washington D.C., where he covered the Kennedy assassination in Dallas (and unknowingly met Lee Harvey Oswald) and the Civil Rights movement in the South. He talked about leaving NBC and his work with the BBC, as well as the beginnings of his partnership with Jim Lehrer. In the second segment of his interview, Mr. MacNeil talked about The MacNeil/Lehrer Report (later the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour), as well as his more recent work as a novelist.  The two-part interview was conducted by Don Carleton on November 18, 2000 and May 15, 2001.