And Then There Was One

By Howard Chua-Eoan

The quadrisyllable has Joycean overtones: macneilehrer -- a run-on conjuring up two-headed television journalism, emanating from Washington and New York, dispassionate, in-depth and, in the words of one contributor, "gloriously boring." The word, however, now has an expiration date: in a year PBS's influential, much honored MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour will no longer be the same. Robert MacNeil, who co-anchors the show from New York City, announced last week that he will retire in October 1995, the show's 20th anniversary, leaving Washington-based Jim Lehrer as the sole anchor. MacNeil characterized his decision as "convenient," which was typical of his cool honesty, unhurried by controversy, unharried by the press of events.

"He told me, half jokingly, he was tired of seeing his face on television," says Roger Rosenblatt, a NewsHour essayist and editor of the Columbia Journalism Review. At a meeting with NewsHour staff members last * week, MacNeil explained frankly that besides his personal desire to leave daily journalism, financial factors played an important role in his thinking. Though the show, now seen on more than 300 stations, has increased its audience 40% in the past nine years, it has seen its budget fall from $26 million to under $25 million this year, and its corporate funding from $13 million to $11 million. The show was also losing its New York studio and would have needed to make an expensive move to a new one.

MacNeil's departure will save the show the additional studio costs -- and other expenses. His salary, probably the largest in the budget, should be a substantial savings. The retirement will also allow the NewsHour to consolidate staff in one location: Washington. "He might not have made his decision as soon if the show was not put in such a bind," says Rosenblatt. WNET, the PBS affiliate that produces the program, "put pressure on the one prize show they had." MacNeil has denied that he is sacrificing himself to ease the show's financial strains, but he does say, "We needed for the good of everybody to make the decision."

MacNeil was quick to argue that there were journalistic advantages to the move: "Washington is not only the news center of the world, but in the nature of our program, which takes public policy and the democratic process seriously, Washington has increasingly become the NewsHour's center of gravity anyway." He and his colleagues deny that the show will become a prisoner of the Beltway. Says Al Vecchione, president of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions: "A year from now, audiences will see the same program they've always seen."

That program -- a sober recitation of news highlights, followed by lengthy segments analyzing two or three major issues, all done leisurely, without flashy graphics or momentous music -- has become an ever more valued alternative to network news. Says MacNeil: "The competition driving the networks now -- CNN, Court TV, tabloid television, entertainment television and magazine shows -- the standards they use have gradually infected what used to be the strict, dignified standards of network news. Now those news shows -- they're like circus barkers who have to exaggerate and hype to haul them into the tent."

MacNeil, who turns 64 next year, hopes to finish work on his second novel, The Voyage (his first was 1992's steamy Burden of Desire), and plan a possible PBS series on the information superhighway. In the past 10 years he has diversified his public personas, including playing host on the PBS documentary series The Story of English and assuming the leadership of the MacDowell Colony, an artist's sanctuary in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

Born in Canada, MacNeil was an aspiring actor and playwright before joining Reuters in London in 1955. From 1960 on, he was a TV journalist, notably on foreign assignments for NBC. By 1971 he was in public television, where he and Lehrer co-anchored the network's coverage of the Watergate hearings. He started the Robert MacNeil Report in 1975, which evolved into the 30-minute MacNeil/Lehrer Report in 1976 and, by 1983, became the full-fledged MacNeil/ Lehrer NewsHour.

'The most important thing for us was that Robin and I were free to make our own rules," wrote Lehrer in his book A Bus of My Own. "We would not beat up on our guests or embarrass them." The two anchors forged a complementary partnership -- MacNeil with his clipped, analytical style, Lehrer with his folksy Texas drawl -- but there are important differences. Says longtime NewsHour correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault: Lehrer is like a "Marine drill sergeant"; MacNeil is like a "symphony conductor."

After 19 years, Lehrer is slightly leery of going solo: "There's always been one of us to protect the other one from dumb ideas." While there may be wisdom in this Solomonic separation, in TV news one less face to trust is an enormous loss.

With reporting by Hannah Bloch/New York