PBS NewsHour

PBS NewsHour[1]

PBS NewsHour logo used since December 7, 2009.
Also known as
  • The Robert MacNeil Report (October–December 1975)
  • The MacNeil/Lehrer Report (1975–1983)
  • The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (1983–1995)
  • The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer (1995–2009)
  • PBS NewsHour Weekend (weekend editions)

Genre News magazine
Created by
Directed by
  • Joseph Camp (Washington)
  • Eulogio Ortiz (New York)
Presented by
Weekdays:

Weekends:

Theme music composer
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English (US)
Production
Executive producer(s)
  • Sara Just (Washington)
  • Scott Davis (New York)
Location(s)
Running time
  • 60 minutes (weekday editions)
  • 30 minutes (weekend editions)
Production company(s)
  • WNET (weekday editions, 1975–1995; weekend editions, Sept. 2013–present)
  • WETA-TV (weekday editions, 1995–present)
  • MacNeill/Lehrer Productions (1981–2014)
  • NewsHour Productions (WETA-TV) (2014–present)
Release
Original network PBS
Picture format 1080i (HDTV)
Original release October 20, 1975 (1975-10-20) – present
External links
Website newshour.pbs.org

The PBS NewsHour is an American daily evening television news program that is broadcast on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), airing seven nights a week on more than 350 of the public broadcaster's member stations. As the nation's first hour-long nightly news broadcast, the program is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events.

Anchored by Judy Woodruff, the program's weekday broadcasts run one hour in length and are produced by Washington, DC PBS station WETA-TV. From August 2013 to October 2016, Woodruff and then-co-anchor Gwen Ifill were the first and only all-female anchor team of a national nightly news program on broadcast television.[3] Since its launch in September 2013, 30-minute, Saturday and Sunday editions of the program (titled as PBS NewsHour Weekend) have been anchored by Hari Sreenivasan and produced by New York City PBS station WNET.

The PBS NewsHour originates from WETA's studio facilities in Arlington County, Virginia (for its weekday editions), and the Tisch/WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in Manhattan (for its weekend editions); additional facilities are located in San Francisco and Denver.[4] The program is a collaboration between WETA-TV, WNET, and fellow PBS member stations KQED in San Francisco, KETC in St. Louis and WTTW in Chicago.

History

The MacNeil/Lehrer Report (1975–1983)

External video
The Robert MacNeil Report; 19; New York City and C367 Bailout, segment starts at 2:45,
November 13, 1975,
NewsHour Productions and American Archive of Public Broadcasting[5]

In 1973, Robert MacNeil (a former NBC News correspondent and then-moderator of PBS' Washington Week in Review) and Jim Lehrer teamed up to cover the United States Senate's Watergate hearings for PBS. The two earned an Emmy Award for their unprecedented gavel-to-gavel coverage.[6]

This recognition led to the 1975 creation of The Robert MacNeil Report, a half-hour local news program for WNET, which debuted on October 20 of that year; each episode of the program covered a single issue currently in the news in depth. Less than 1½ months later on December 1, 1975, the program was renamed "The MacNeil/Lehrer Report" and began to air on PBS stations nationwide. Most editions employed a two-anchor, two-city format, with MacNeil based in New York City and Lehrer based at WETA's studios in Arlington, Virginia. In September 1981, production of the program was taken over by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, a partnership between MacNeil, Lehrer and the Gannett Company; the latter would sell its stake in the production company in 1986. Liberty Media bought a 67% controlling equity stake in MacNeil/Lehrer Productions in 1994, but MacNeil and Lehrer retained editorial control.[7]

The final title sequence as The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, used from May 17, 2006, to December 6, 2009.

The NewsHour (1983–2009)

Having decided to start competing with the nightly news programs on ABC, CBS and NBC instead of complementing them, the program expanded to one hour on September 5, 1983, incorporating other changes such as the introduction of "documentary reportage from the field";[8] it became known at that time as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.

Robert MacNeil retired from the program on October 20, 1995, leaving Jim Lehrer as sole anchor.[9] Accordingly, the program was renamed The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer three days later on October 23.[10] The NewsHour won a Peabody Award in 2003 for the feature report Jobless Recovery: Non-Working Numbers.[11]

On May 17, 2006, the program underwent its first major change in presentation in years, adopting a new graphics package and a reorchestrated version of the show's theme music (originally composed by Bernard Hoffer). On December 17, 2007,[12] the NewsHour became the second nightly broadcast network newscast to begin broadcasting in high definition (following NBC Nightly News), with broadcasts presented in a letterboxed format for viewers with standard-definition television sets watching either through cable or satellite television. The program also introduced a new set and upconverted its existing graphics package to HD.

PBS NewsHour

Departure of Jim Lehrer and switch to co-anchors (2009–2013)

Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff at the 2012 Republican National Convention

On May 11, 2009, PBS announced that the program would be revamped on December 7 of that year[13] under a revised title as the PBS NewsHour.[1] In addition to an increased integration between the NewsHour website and nightly broadcast, the updated production would return to a two-anchor format.[14] The overhaul was described by Jim Lehrer as the first phase in his gradual move toward retirement.

On September 27, 2010, PBS NewsHour was presented with the chairman's Award at the 31st News & Documentary Emmy Awards, with Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, longtime executive producer Les Crystal, and former executive producer Linda Winslow receiving the award on the show's behalf.[15]

Lehrer formally ended his tenure as a regular anchor of the program in June 2011. He continued to occasionally anchor on Fridays afterward, when he usually led the political analysis segment with Mark Shields and David Brooks.[16]

Transfer of production and expansion to weekends (2013–present)

Judy Woodruff interviewing US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in September 2013.

On August 6, 2013, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff were named as co-anchors and co-managing editors of the NewsHour broadcast. The two shared anchor duties on the Monday through Thursday editions, with Woodruff solo anchoring on Fridays due to Ifill's duties as host of the political discussion program Washington Week (which was also produced Friday evenings).[17]

For much of its history, the PBS NewsHour aired only on Monday through Friday evenings; however on September 7, 2013, the program expanded to include weekend editions on Saturday and Sundays, with Hari Sreenivasan serving as anchor of those broadcasts. Although the weekend broadcasts are branded PBS NewsHour Weekend, those editions instead air for a half-hour; in addition, the Saturday and Sunday editions originate from the New York City studios of WNET, as opposed to the program's main production facilities at the Arlington, Virginia, studios of WETA-TV.[18][19] Plans for a weekend edition of PBS NewsHour had been considered as early as March 2013.[20]

MacNeil/Lehrer Productions announced in a letter to the show's staffers on October 8, 2013, that it had offered to transfer ownership in the PBS NewsHour to WETA. In the letter, Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil cited their reduced involvement with the program's production since their departures from anchoring, as well as "the probability of increasing our fundraising abilities."[21][22] The transfer was approved by the WETA board of trustees on June 17, 2014, and took effect on July 1. At that time, production of the program was taken over by NewsHour Productions, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of WETA. WETA also acquired MacNeil/Lehrer Productions' archives, documentaries, and projects, though not the company's name. PBS NewsHour Weekend was not affected by the ownership transfer and continues to be produced by WNET.[7]

On July 20, 2015, the PBS NewsHour introduced an overhauled visual appearance for its weekday broadcasts, debuting a new minimalist set designed by Eric Siegel and George Allison that heavily incorporates PBS' longtime "Everyman" logo. The program also introduced a new graphics package by Troika Design Group and an original theme music composition by Edd Kalehoff, which incorporates a reorchestration of the nine-note "Question and Answer" musical signature that has been featured within the program's theme since its premiere in 1975.[23][24][25][26] PBS NewsHour Weekend retained its original graphics package that had been used since the launch of the Saturday and Sunday editions, as well as the theme music by David Cebert until August 29, 2015, when the program transitioned to the same theme music and a reworked version of the graphics package used for the weekday NewsHour broadcasts.

Gwen Ifill took brief breaks from her anchor duties on the PBS NewsHour in the late spring and in November of 2016 (and was also absent from the program's presidential election coverage on November 8), as she had been privately undergoing treatment for advanced stage breast and endometrial cancer. After her death was announced on November 14, 2016, that evening's edition of the NewsHour was turned into a tribute to Ifill and her influence on journalism, featuring tributes from Woodruff, Sreenivasan, former colleagues and program contributors (news content was relegated to the standard news summary, which aired during the second half-hour).[27][28][29][30][31] Although the program initially featured guest anchors on some editions between January and March 2017, Judy Woodruff effectively now serves as sole anchor of the PBS NewsHour.

Production and ratings

Behind the scenes at The Newshour, during a Gen. Peter Pace interview.

The program is notable for being shown on public television. As such, there are no interruptions during the program to run advertisements (though like most public television programs, it does feature "corporate image" advertisements at the beginning and end of each broadcasts, as well as barker interruptions extolling viewers to donate pledges to their local PBS member station or member network during locally produced pledge drive events, which are substituted with encore presentations of a select story segment from the past year for stations that are not holding a drive during that time).

The program has a more deliberate pace than the news broadcasts of the commercial networks it competes against, allowing for deeper detail in its story packages and feature segments. At the start of the program, the lead story is covered in depth, followed by a news summary that lasts roughly between six and eight minutes, briefly explaining many of the top national and international news headlines; international stories often include excerpts of reports filed by ITN correspondents. This is usually followed by three or four longer news segments – typically running six to 12 minutes each – which explore a few of the events previously mentioned in the headline segment in depth and include discussions with experts, newsmakers, and/or commentators. The program formerly included a reflective essay on a regular basis, but these have been curtailed in recent years; since Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill became anchors of the program, these essays have mainly aired as part of the end-of-show segment "Brief, but Spectacular".

On Fridays, the program features political analysis and discussion between two regular contributors, one from each of the Republican and Democratic parties, and one host from among the senior correspondents. Since 2004, the usual participants have been syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks. Analysts who fill in when Shields or Brooks are absent have included David Gergen, Thomas Oliphant, Rich Lowry, William Kristol, Ramesh Ponnuru, Ruth Marcus, Michael Gerson, David Corn and E.J. Dionne. On Mondays, a similar segment called "Politics Monday" features analysis and discussion of current political issues with contributors Amy Walter, national editor of The Cook Political Report, and Tamara Keith, Washington D.C. correspondent for NPR.

The program's senior correspondents are Margaret Warner (Foreign Affairs), Jeffrey Brown (Arts, Culture & Society) and Judy Woodruff (anchor & senior managing editor). Essayists have included Anne Taylor Fleming, Richard Rodriguez, Clarence Page and Roger Rosenblatt.[32] Correspondents have been Tom Bearden, Betty Ann Bowser, Susan Dentzer, Elizabeth Farnsworth, Kwame Holman, Spencer Michels, Fred de Sam Lazaro (on the Agents For Change series), the economics correspondent Paul Solman (Making Sen$e), Malcolm Brabant and others.[33]

Former NewsHour anchors Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifill were frequent moderators of U.S. political debates. By November 2008, Lehrer had moderated more than ten debates between major U.S. presidential candidates.[34] In 2008, Ifill moderated a debate between U.S. vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin; in 2004, Ifill moderated a debate between candidates Dick Cheney and John Edwards.[35]

After the United States–led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the NewsHour began what it called its "Honor Roll", a short segment displaying in silence the picture, name, rank, and hometown of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq. On January 4, 2006, the NewsHour added military personnel killed in Afghanistan to the segment. According to Nielsen ratings at the program's website, 2.7 million people watch the program each night, and 8 million individuals watch in the course of a week.

Availability

The NewsHour is broadcast on more than 350 PBS member stations and networks, making it available to 99% of the viewing public, and audio from the program is broadcast by some NPR radio stations. It is also rebroadcast twice daily in late night via American Public Television's World digital subchannel service. Broadcasts of the NewsHour are also made available worldwide via satellites operated by various agencies such as the Voice of America.

Archives of shows broadcast after February 7, 2000, are available in several streaming media formats (including full-motion video) at the program's website. The show is available to overseas military personnel on the American Forces Network. Audio from select segments is also released in podcast form, available through several feeds on the NewsHour's subscriptions page with link to a FeedBurner website (for free mp3 download) and through the iTunes Store.

Only a small handful of PBS member stations and regional member networks do not air the NewsHour, a pool of member outlets mainly confined to "secondary" stations that share another market with a "primary" PBS member station. These include the NJTV network in New Jersey (as WNET, which co-manages NJTV and WLIW, carries the program in the New York City area, while WHYY-TV does so in the Philadelphia market); KVCR-DT in San Bernardino, California (KOCE-TV carries it as San Bernardino is within the Los Angeles market), and Chicago-area stations WYCC and Northwest Indiana-serving WYIN (due to WTTW's PBS primacy). In Boston, WGBH-TV airs the program live each weeknight (with a simulcast online), while its secondary station WGBX rebroadcasts the weekday editions of the NewsHour later the same evening, and the weekend editions live. KQED in San Francisco, airs the program each weeknight in simulcast with its radio sister, at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time (6:00 p.m. Eastern Time).

Live streaming

The PBS NewsHour is streamed live via USTREAM and YouTube every weeknight at 6 pm ET. The NewsHour Weekend is also streamed on USTREAM only, every weekend live at 5 pm ET. Full episodes are available later edited without sponsorship on the NewsHour YouTube channel. In addition, The NewsHour streamed the Inauguration of Donald Trump via Twitter.

International broadcasts

NewsHour editorial guidelines

On December 4, 2009, when introducing the new PBS NewsHour format, Jim Lehrer read out a list of guidelines in what he referred to as "MacNeil/Lehrer journalism."[38] They are as follows:

Current on-air staff

Anchors

Weekend Anchors

Correspondents

Political analysts

Criticism

In 1992, radio broadcaster David Barsamian called the NewsHour "stenographers to power," accusing them and other American news media of having a pro-establishment bias.[39]

FAIR study

In October 2006 the media criticism group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) accused the NewsHour of lacking balance, diversity, and viewpoints of the general public, and corporate viewpoints. FAIR found that the NewsHour's guest list from October 2005 to March 2006 had Republicans outnumbering Democrats 2–1, and people of color accounting for 15 percent of U.S.–based sources.[40] FAIR also protested in 1995 when Liberty Media purchased a majority of the program, citing Liberty's majority owner, John Malone, for his "Machiavellian business tactics" and right-wing sentiments.[41]

NewsHour executive producer Linda Winslow responded to many aspects:

FAIR seems to be accusing us of covering the people who make decisions that affect people's lives, many of whom work in government, the military, or corporate America. That's what we do: we're a news program, and that's who makes news... I take issue with the way the FAIR report characterizes each guest, which they have obviously done very subjectively. Witness the trashing of Mark Shields and Tom Oliphant (in the full report), who are not liberal enough for FAIR's taste. When you get down to arguing about degrees of left-and-rightness, I think you undermine your own argument.

She also accused FAIR of counting sound bites as interviews, thereby skewing their numbers toward the political party holding a majority (at the time of FAIR's report, Republican Party).[42]

Jill Stein interview

On August 23, 2016, Green Party nominee Jill Stein interviewed with the network. The program was later accused of censorship for cutting off many of Stein's criticisms, especially against the Trans-Pacific Partnership.[43]

Scholarly analysis

In 2003, UCLA political scientist Tim Groseclose and Missouri economist Jeff Milyo evaluated various media programs based on "think tank" citations to map liberal versus conservative media slants and published a study alleging liberal media bias in general. Based on their research, PBS NewsHour is the most centrist news program on television and the closest to a truly objective stance.[44][45] However, their methodology has been questioned.[46]

Partnership with NPR

The PBS NewsHour partnered with NPR for the broadcast of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions of 2016, in a strategy to prepare for the election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

References

  1. 1 2 Elizabeth Jensen (May 11, 2009). "'NewsHour' on PBS to Get Makeover". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved June 1, 2009.
  2. ↑ "PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer". Cue11. Archived from the original on 2008-09-26.
  3. ↑ "Ifil and Woodruff named as co-anchors". pbs.org. August 6, 2013. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Contact Us". macneil-lehrer.com. MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. Retrieved October 26, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Robert MacNeil Report". NewsHour Productions and American Archive of Public Broadcasting. November 13, 1975. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
  6. ↑ "About Us". pbs.org/NewsHour. PBS.
  7. 1 2 Dru Sefton (June 18, 2014). "WETA to create subsidiary for transfer of PBS NewsHour ownership". Current. Current LLC. Retrieved June 18, 2014.
  8. ↑ "No Blaring: MacNeil on Emmy, Keeping a Reasonable Tone in Broadcast News". PBS NewsHour. PBS. September 27, 2010. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  9. ↑ Los Angeles Times (October 21, 1995). "MacNeil Leaves PBS' 'NewsHour' to Write". San Francisco Chronicle. p. D4 – via NewsBank.
  10. 1 2 "NewsHour History". PBS NewsHour. MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. Retrieved November 15, 2011.
  11. ↑ "63rd Annual Peabody Awards". Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. May 2004.
  12. ↑ Tom LeGro. "NewsHour High-Definition Broadcast FAQ". PBS NewsHour. PBS. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
  13. ↑ http://pressroom.pbs.org/documents/newshour_rls_512
  14. ↑ Howard Kurtz (November 30, 2009). "PBS, changing 'NewsHour' to preserve it". The Washington Post. The Washington Post Company. pp. C01. Retrieved December 1, 2009.
  15. ↑ "The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Announces Winners...". National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. September 27, 2010. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  16. ↑ "Jim Lehrer to retire as PBS NewsHour anchor". The Spy Report. Media Spy. May 13, 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
  17. ↑ "Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff to co-anchor 'NewsHour'". Associated Press. August 6, 2013. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  18. ↑ Kevin Day (June 17, 2013). "PBS' 'NewsHour' to expand to weekends in the fall". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Publishing. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
  19. ↑ Mackenzie Weigner (June 17, 2013). "PBS NewsHour Weekend to premiere this fall". Politico. Capitol News Company. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
  20. ↑ Elizabeth Jensen (March 4, 2013). "PBS Near a Decision on Adding a Weekend Edition of 'NewsHour'". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
  21. ↑ Dru Sefton (October 9, 2013). "MacNeil, Lehrer propose to transfer ownership of PBS NewsHour to WETA". Current. Current, LLC. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
  22. ↑ Elizabeth Jensen (October 8, 2013). "'NewsHour' Ex-Anchors to Cede Ownership". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
  23. ↑ Corinne Segal (July 20, 2015). "The NewsHour has a new theme song, and we assume you'll want to talk about it". PBS NewsHour. PBS. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
  24. ↑ Michael P. Hill (July 21, 2015). "'PBS NewsHour' gets airy new look". NewscastStudio. HD Media Ventures LLC. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
  25. ↑ Michael P. Hill (July 21, 2015). "'PBS NewsHour' retunes theme music". NewscastStudio. HD Media Ventures LLC. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
  26. ↑ "'PBS NewsHour' to debut new look". NewscastStudio. HD Media Ventures LLC. July 17, 2015. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
  27. ↑ "Remembering Gwen". PBS NewsHour. NewsHour Productions, LLC. November 14, 2016. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  28. ↑ "Gwen Ifill, 61, PBS journalist who covered history and made history". PBS NewsHour. NewsHour Productions, LLC. November 14, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
  29. ↑ "Gwen Ifill on being a little girl transfixed by news". PBS NewsHour. NewsHour Productions, LLC. November 14, 2016. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  30. ↑ "The Cosmic Power of Gwen Ifill". PBS NewsHour. NewsHour Productions, LLC. November 18, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
  31. ↑ Daniel Holloway (November 14, 2016). "Gwen Ifill, Longtime PBS Journalist, Dies at 61". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  32. ↑ "Essays archive". PBS NewsHour. PBS. Retrieved December 17, 2010.
  33. ↑ "Correspondents". PBS NewsHour. PBS. Retrieved December 17, 2010.
  34. ↑ "Jim Lehrer: The Dean of Moderators". MSNBC. NBC News. September 29, 2004. Retrieved May 24, 2011.
  35. ↑ Claire Suddath (October 2, 2008). "Debate Moderator Gwen Ifill". Time. Time Inc. Retrieved May 24, 2011.
  36. ↑ Meade, Amanda (August 4, 2011). "Al Jazeera news for SBS". The Australian. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
  37. ↑ "Triangle TV Programme Information: PBS NewsHour". Triangle Television. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
  38. ↑ Another Chapter Begins for NewsHour Jim Lehrer. The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, December 4, 2009.
  39. ↑ David Barsamian, Stenographers to Power: Media and Propaganda (Common Courage P, 1992), 105.
  40. ↑ Rendall, Steve; Hollar, Julie (September–October 2006). "Are You on the NewsHour's Guestlist? PBS flagship news show fails public mission". FAIR. Retrieved 2009-06-01.
  41. ↑ "MacNeil/Lehrer Sells Out, Extra! Update February 1995". Fair.org. Retrieved 2011-05-24.
  42. ↑ Getler, Michael (October 6, 2006). "A FAIR Analysis? By Michael Getler October 6, 2006". PBS. Retrieved 2011-05-24.
  43. ↑ Urbanski, Dave (August 26, 2016). "Extensive Criticism of Clinton Edited Out of Green Party Nominee’s Answer During PBS Interview". The Blaze. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
  44. ↑ Groseclose, Tim (2011). How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-55593-1.
  45. ↑ Jackson, Brad (August 10, 2011). "Left Turn: The Media's Institutional Liberalism". The New Ledger. Retrieved November 16, 2011.
  46. ↑ "The problems with the Groseclose/Milyo study of media bias". Brendan Nyhan. 2005-12-22. Retrieved 2013-10-26.


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