The Robert MacNeil Report

I have been a committed fan & supporter of my local PBSNC station for years, off & on. The PBS News Hour is a program I rarely miss. Along with Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, the PBS News Hour ranks, in my opinion, as a trustworthy source of accurate information about current events. Please consider using "The United States" when referring to our country as opposed to simply "America". The entire western hemisphere is the Americas, and our nation is but one of many making up The Americas. The US is the United States of America, & calling it America is wrong and insulting to other countries of the hemisphere.

When Jim Lehrer was in charge the Newshour had a much greater respectability, but since then has increasingly decreased in quality. It now lacks competence, seems to be run by a group of like minded associates, and is little more than msnbc. They extend beyond incompetence and obnoxious ideological bias to a degree of dangerous propaganda. It's a sad loss to American journalism, and probably should be defunded unless a new group is brought in to fix the administration and oversight.

The show is the PBS nightly news hour, with a venerable heritage begun by MacNeil and Lehrer, but has "progressed" through a series of successor hosts that have left it worse for wear.

Whereas it is award-winning, that doesn't equate to fair and balanced. The format features daily hot spots followed by lengthy analysis and interviews, but from a narrow perspective of New York and Washington DC pundits. Guests invariably represent the usual suspects from the Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, and PBS itself. Unsurprisingly, the gathered often marvel at what the rest of the country is thinking or doing politically, socially, or culturally.

The show's earlier incarnation was well-balanced and diverse. The current (2021) version is a bit heavy on feminism with men treated a bit like some relic of the past. Needs diversity.

Spends too much time preening about its fair and balanced reporting while missing the glaring truth that it isn't either.

.... since all TV news shows followed the same basic format - Impartially speak in detail about the news stories of the day, with maybe a human interest story at the end. Then came the 80s, and newsrooms across the country were commercialized so that network and cable news alike resemble the National Inquirer. Everybody has staked out a demographic that they want and simply tells that demographic what they want to hear.

Thus, PBS NewsHour is a relic of a bygone era, and I'm glad it's still here. The show informs rather than pontificates, and employs actual journalists doing actual journalism. I dread the day it may no longer be available.

Gwen Ifill's absence is very apparent. Poor journalism, extreme bias, and lacking professional demeanor. It can't get better when you bring the same ignorant pundits on every week.