PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events.
Anchored by Judy Woodruff, the program's weekday broadcasts run for one hour and are produced by
WETA-TV
WETA-TV (channel 26) is the primary PBS member television station in Washington, D.C. Owned by the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, it is a sister station to NPR member WETA (90.9 FM). The two outlets share studios ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
From August 5, 2013, to November 11, 2016, Woodruff and then-co-anchor
Gwen Ifill
Gwendolyn L. Ifill ( ; September 29, 1955 – November 14, 2016) was an American journalist, television newscaster, and author. In 1999, she became the first African-American woman to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program ...
were the first and only all-female anchor team on a national nightly news program on American broadcast television. On Saturdays and Sundays, PBS distributes a 30-minute edition of the program, ''PBS News Weekend'', anchored by
Geoff Bennett
Geoff Bennett (11 September 1926 – 2 September 2002) was an Australian field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must ...
; originally produced in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
by WNET, production of the weekend broadcasts transferred to WETA in April 2022.
The ''PBS NewsHour'' originates from WETA's studio facilities in
Arlington County, Virginia
Arlington County is a County (United States), county in the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the Washington, D.C., District of Co ...
; news updates inserted into the weekday broadcasts targeted for the
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
. Additional production facilities for the program are based in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
and
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
. The program is a collaboration between WETA-TV, WNET, and fellow PBS member stations
KQED KQED may refer to:
* KQED (TV), a PBS member station in San Francisco
* KQED-FM
KQED-FM (88.5 MHz) is a NPR-member radio station in San Francisco, California. Its parent organization is KQED Inc., which also owns its television partners, both ...
in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
WTTW
WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). The ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
.
History
Ownership
In September 1981, production of the program was taken over by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, a partnership between Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, and
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.John C. Malone
John Carl Malone (born March 7, 1941) is an American billionaire businessman, landowner and philanthropist. He was chief executive officer (CEO) of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), a cable and media giant, for twenty-four years from 1973 to 1996. ...
's
Liberty Media
Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company controlled by chairman John C. Malone. The company has three divisions, reflecting the company's ownership stakes in Formula One ...
bought a 67% controlling equity stake in MacNeil/Lehrer Productions in 1994, but MacNeil and Lehrer retained editorial control. In 2014, ''MacNeil/Lehrer Productions'', owned by MacNeil, Lehrer, and
Liberty Media
Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company controlled by chairman John C. Malone. The company has three divisions, reflecting the company's ownership stakes in Formula One ...
announced its donation, as ''NewsHour Productions LLC'', to
WETA-TV
WETA-TV (channel 26) is the primary PBS member television station in Washington, D.C. Owned by the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, it is a sister station to NPR member WETA (90.9 FM). The two outlets share studios ...
as a nonprofit subsidiary.
''The Robert MacNeil Report'' and ''The MacNeil/Lehrer Report'' (1975–1983)
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
correspondent and then-moderator of PBS's ''
Washington Week in Review
''Washington Week''—previously ''Washington Week in Review''—is an American Public affairs programming, public affairs television program, which has aired on PBS and its predecessor, National Educational Television, since 1967. Unlike other p ...
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
for their unprecedented gavel-to-gavel coverage.
This recognition led to the creation of ''The Robert MacNeil Report'', a half-hour local news program on WNET, which debuted on October 20, 1975; each episode of the program covered a single issue in depth. On December 1, 1975, the program began to air on PBS stations nationwide. It was renamed ''The MacNeil/Lehrer Report'' on September 6, 1976. Most editions employed a two-anchor, two-city format, with MacNeil based in New York City and Lehrer at WETA's studios in Arlington, Virginia. Charlayne Hunter-Gault joined the series as correspondent in 1978, serving as substitute host for MacNeil and Lehrer whenever either had the night off. She became the series’ national correspondent in 1983.
''The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour'' and ''The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer'' (1983–2009)
Having decided to start competing with the nightly news programs on
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
, 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"; it became known at that time as ''The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour''.
Lester Crystal
Lester Martin Crystal (September 13, 1934 – June 24, 2020) was an Emmy Award-winning American television news executive best known for being the founding executive producer of the nation’s first hour-long nightly newscast, ''The MacNeil/Lehrer ...
was its founding executive producer. MacNeil/Lehrer Productions twice planned to launch late-night newscasts in 1995 and 1999; in both instances, the proposed expansions—which, respectively, were to have involved production and newsgathering partnerships with Wall Street Journal Television and ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''—were canceled mid-development.
MacNeil retired from the program on October 20, 1995, leaving Lehrer as the sole anchor. (Hunter-Gault left in June 1997.) Accordingly, the program was renamed ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer'' on October 23. On January 16, 1996, ''The NewsHour'' announced the creation of its official website at PBS Online. ''The NewsHour'' won a
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
in 2003 for the feature report ''Jobless Recovery: Non-Working Numbers''. On May 17, 1999, ''The NewsHour'' adopted a new graphics package, but refreshed the music from 1983. On October 4, 1999, Gwen Ifill joined ''The NewsHour'' team as a new correspondent. She was a female anchor of a national nightly news program on broadcast television. Effective January 17, 2000, ''The NewsHour'' added "America Online Keyword: PBS" to its ending screen for a three-year agreement through April 22, 2003. For only the website, the program took effect on April 23, 2003. On March 3, 2003, the program added dates from the 1999 graphics in the beginning. On November 17, 2003, ''The NewsHour'' added music in the beginning with dates.
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 its theme music (originally composed by Bernard Hoffer). On December 17, 2007, the ''NewsHour'' became the second nightly broadcast network newscast to begin broadcasting in
high definition
High definition or HD may refer to:
Visual technologies
*HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format
*HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format
*HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape
* HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...
standard-definition television
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
. The program also introduced a new set and converted its graphics package to HD.
''PBS NewsHour''
Departure of Jim Lehrer and switch to co-anchors (2009–2013)
On May 11, 2009, PBS announced that the program would be revamped on December 7 of that year under a revised title, the ''PBS NewsHour''. In addition to increased integration between the ''NewsHour'' website and nightly broadcast, the updated production returned to a two-anchor format. Lehrer described the overhaul as the first phase in his move toward retirement.
On September 27, 2010, ''PBS NewsHour'' was presented with the Chairman's Award at the
31st News & Documentary Emmy Awards
The 31st News & Documentary Emmy Awards were held on September 27, 2010, at Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, located in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Awards were presented in 41 categories, including Breaking News, Investigat ...
, with MacNeil, Lehrer, Crystal, and former executive producer Linda Winslow receiving the award on the show's behalf.
Lehrer formally ended his tenure as a regular anchor of the program on June 6, 2011. He continued to occasionally anchor on Fridays, when he usually led the political analysis segment with Mark Shields and David Brooks, until December 30, 2011.
Transfer of production, expansion to weekends and the west (2013–present)
On August 6, 2013,
Gwen Ifill
Gwendolyn L. Ifill ( ; September 29, 1955 – November 14, 2016) was an American journalist, television newscaster, and author. In 1999, she became the first African-American woman to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program ...
and Judy Woodruff were named co-anchors and co-managing editors of the ''NewsHour''. They shared anchor duties on the Monday through Thursday editions, with Woodruff anchoring solo on Fridays due to Ifill's duties as host of the political discussion program '' Washington Week,'' which was also produced Friday evenings.
For much of its history, the ''PBS NewsHour'' aired only Monday through Friday, but in March 2013, plans to expand the program to include Saturday and Sunday editions were under development. Weekend editions of the ''NewsHour'' premiered on September 7, 2013, with
Hari Sreenivasan
Hariharan "Hari" Sreenivasan, born in 1974, is an American broadcast journalist.
Biography
Sreenivasan was born in Mumbai, India, around 1974.Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...
in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, as opposed to the program's main production facilities at the Arlington, Virginia, studios of WETA-TV.
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, Lehrer and 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." WETA's board of trustees approved the transfer on June 17, 2014, and it took effect on July 1. At that time, NewsHour Productions, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of WETA, took over production of the program. 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 continued to be produced by WNET.
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's longtime "Everyman" logo. The program also introduced a new graphics package by Troika Design Group and original theme music by
Edd Kalehoff
Edward Woodley Kalehoff Jr. (born September 1, 1945) is an American television composer who specializes in compositions for television, known for his work on the Moog synthesizer. Kalehoff composed the musical themes to the game shows ''The Price ...
, which incorporates a reorchestration of the nine-note "Question and Answer" musical signature that has been featured in the program's theme since its premiere in 1975 and a musical signature originally incorporated into the Kalehoff-composed theme for the '' Nightly Business Report'' used from 2002 to 2010. ''PBS NewsHour Weekend'' retained its original graphics package and the theme music by David Cebert until August 29, 2015, when it transitioned to the same theme music and a reworked version of the graphics package used for the weekday broadcasts.
Ifill took brief breaks from her ''NewsHour'' anchor duties in the late spring and in November 2016 (and was also absent from the program's
presidential election
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
Elections by country
Albania
The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public.
Chile
The pre ...
coverage on November 8), as she had been undergoing treatment for advanced stage
breast
The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues.
In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and secret ...
and
endometrial cancer
Endometrial cancer is a cancer that arises from the endometrium (the lining of the uterus or womb). It is the result of the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. The first sign is most o ...
. After her death was announced on November 14, 2016, that evening's edition of the ''PBS NewsHour'' was dedicated 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). Although the program initially featured guest anchors on some editions between January and March 2017, Woodruff effectively now serves as sole anchor.
In 2018, ''The Plastic Problem'' aired, which then went on to win a
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
, presented at the 2019 awards ceremony.
On October 14, 2019, ''PBS NewsHour'' launched "''PBS NewsHour'' West", a Western United States bureau at
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix. Anchored by Stephanie Sy, the bureau produces its own news summary with up-to-date information on events that develop after the original broadcast. A version of the program with this summary is shown to viewers in the Western United States and to online and East Coast viewers watching re-broadcasts.
On April 2, 2022, WETA assumed production responsibilities for the ''NewsHour''s Saturday and Sunday editions, which concurrently began originating from the studio at the station’s Washington facility used for the weekday broadcasts. The broadcasts were retitled ''PBS News Weekend'', omitting ''"NewsHour''" in view of their shorter duration. NewsHour Productions transferred production of the weekend broadcasts from WNET in a move to streamline the program's production and news-gathering resources, allowing the weekday and weekend ''NewsHour'' broadcasts to have the same pool of correspondents and to share resources with ''Washington Week'' (which is also produced by WETA-TV). Coinciding with the move, the weekend editions began carrying feature segments covering culture and the arts. Sreenivasan (who remains a New York-based correspondent for the weekday broadcasts and serves as a contributor for the PBS news discussion program '' Amanpour & Company'') was replaced as weekend anchor by
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
and
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
correspondent Geoff Bennett.
On May 13, 2022, Woodruff announced to ''NewsHour'' staffers that she would step down as anchor at the end of the year, though she intends to continue reporting longer pieces for the program while doing projects and specials for WETA through the
2024 United States presidential election
The 2024 United States presidential election will be the 60th quadrennial presidential election, scheduled for Tuesday, November 5, 2024. It will be the first presidential election after electoral votes were redistributed during the 2020 ce ...
at the earliest.
Amna Nawaz
Amna Nawaz is an American broadcast journalist. She is chief correspondent and substitute anchor for the ''PBS NewsHour''. Before joining PBS in April 2018, Nawaz was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News and NBC News. She has received a number ...
and
Geoff Bennett
Geoff Bennett (11 September 1926 – 2 September 2002) was an Australian field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must ...
will reportedly be Woodruff's successors.
Production and ratings
The program is notable for being shown on public television. There are no interruptions for advertisements (though like most public television programs, there are "corporate image" advertisements at the beginning and end of each broadcast, as well as barker interruptions asking viewers to donate to their local PBS member station or member network during locally produced pledge drives, which are replaced by encore presentations of a select story segment from the past year for stations that 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
Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...
correspondents. This is usually followed by three or four longer news segments, typically running six to twelve minutes, which explore a few of the events 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 Woodruff and Ifill became anchors, 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 Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
and Democratic parties, and one host from among the senior correspondents. Since January 2021, the usual participants have been ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' columnist
Jonathan Capehart
Jonathan T. Capehart (born July 2, 1967) is an American journalist and television commentator. He writes for ''The Washington Posts ''PostPartisan'' blog and is host of '' The Saturday/Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart'' on MSNBC.
Background ...
and ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' columnist David Brooks. Analysts who fill in when Capehart or Brooks are absent have included
David Gergen
David Richmond Gergen (born May 9, 1942) is an American political commentator and former presidential adviser who served during the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. He is currently a senior political ...
Rich Lowry
Richard Lowry (; born August 22, 1968) is an American writer who is the former editor and now editor-in-chief of ''National Review'', an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative news and opinion magazine. Lowry became editor of ''N ...
Ramesh Ponnuru
Ramesh Ponnuru (; born August 16, 1974) is an American conservative thinker, political pundit, and journalist. He has been a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute since 2012. He is the editor of ''National Review'' magazine, a colu ...
E. J. Dionne
Eugene Joseph Dionne Jr. (; born April 23, 1952) is an American journalist, political commentator, and long-time op-ed columnist for ''The Washington Post''. He is also a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a profes ...
. On Mondays, a similar segment, "Politics Monday", features analysis and discussion of political issues with contributors
Amy Walter
Amy Elizabeth Walter (born October 19, 1969)"Profile: Amy Walter"
, national editor of ''
The Cook Political Report
''The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter'' is an American online newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns for the U.S. Presidency, the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, and U.S. governors' offices. Sel ...
'', and
Tamara Keith
Tamara Dawnell Keith (born September 25, 1979) is NPR White House correspondent and co-host, with Scott Detrow, of the ''NPR Politics Podcast'', joining as a business reporter in 2009. She covered the earthquake in Haiti and hosted ''B-side Radi ...
, Washington, D.C. correspondent for NPR.
The program's senior correspondents are Woodruff and Jeffrey Brown (Arts, Culture & Society). Essayists have included Anne Taylor Fleming,
Richard Rodriguez
Richard Rodriguez (born July 31, 1944) is an American writer who became famous as the author of '' Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez'' (1982), a narrative about his intellectual development.
Early life
He was born on July 3 ...
Betty Ann Bowser
Betty Ann Bowser (August 19, 1944 – March 16, 2018) was an American journalist.
Life
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Bowser graduated from Granby High School, and Ohio Wesleyan University.
She started in television journalism in 1966.
From 1988 to ...
,
Susan Dentzer
Susan Dentzer an American health care and health policy analyst, commentator, and journalist. She is the President and Chief Executive Officer oAmerica’s Physician Groups the organization of more than 335 physician practices that provide patien ...
Kwame Holman Kwame Holman is an American producer and correspondent associated with the ''PBS NewsHour'', as a producer and reporter for WTOC in Georgia, and, who also has held positions with several national organizations, including the American Civil Liberties ...
, Spencer Michels, Fred de Sam Lazaro, the economics correspondent
Paul Solman
Paul Solman (born September 9, 1944) is a journalist who has specialized in economics, business, and politics since the early 1970s. He has been the business and economics correspondent for the ''PBS NewsHour'' since 1985, with occasional for ...
(''Making Sen$e''),
Malcolm Brabant
Malcolm J. Brabant (born 1955) is a freelance British journalist. He trained with and worked for the BBC for more than 20 years, reporting from various locations. Described as the "King of the Stringers," Brabant has also worked for UNICEF. Br ...
and others.
Lehrer and 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. In 2008, Ifill moderated a debate between U.S. vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 R ...
; in 2004, she moderated a debate between candidates
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...
invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Ba'athist Iraq, Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one mont ...
in 2003, the ''PBS 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, military personnel killed in Afghanistan were added to the segment. According to
Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
at the program's
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...
, 2.7 million people watch the program each night, and 8 million watch in the course of a week. ''PBS NewsHour'' aired the final honor roll segment on August 30, 2021, after the end of War in Afghanistan.
Availability
The ''PBS NewsHour'' is broadcast on more than 350 PBS member stations and member 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
In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
service. Broadcasts of the ''PBS NewsHour'' are also made available worldwide via
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
s operated by various agencies such as the
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
.
A limited number of PBS member stations and regional member networks do not clear the ''PBS NewsHour'' on their schedules due to existing carriage on a "primary" PBS member station, a pool mainly confined to "secondary" stations (most of which participate in the service's Program Differentiation Plan) that share certain
media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...
s with a "primary" member outlet. These include the
NJ PBS
NJ PBS (known as NJTV prior to 2021) is a public television network serving the U.S. state of New Jersey. The network is owned by the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority (NJPBA), an agency of the New Jersey state government which owns the ...
network in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
(as WNET, which co-manages NJ PBS and WLIW, carries the program in the New York City area, the latter airing the program live, while WHYY-TV does so in the
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
KCET
KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOCE-TV ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
(
KOCE-TV
KOCE-TV (channel 50) is a PBS member television station licensed to Huntington Beach, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's secondary PBS membe ...
in
Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 during the 2020 census, maki ...
, which shares ownership with KCET through parent Public Media Group of Southern California and is the primary PBS member in the region, serves as the program's carrier in the Los Angeles market); and
WYIN
WYIN (channel 56), branded on-air as Lakeshore PBS, is a secondary PBS member television station licensed to Gary, Indiana, United States, serving the Chicago area. It is owned by Northwest Indiana Public Broadcasting, Inc., as a sister station t ...
in
Gary, Indiana
Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the ...
(
WTTW
WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). The ...
, the primary PBS station for the Chicago DMA that includes WYIN's Northwest Indiana service area, serves as the program's carrier in the Chicago market). In Boston,
WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV (channel 2), branded on-air as GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship property of the WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns Boston's sec ...
airs the program live each weeknight (with a simulcast online), while its secondary station
WGBX
WGBX-TV (channel 44), branded on-air as GBH 44 since 2020, is the secondary PBS member
Member may refer to:
* Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon
* Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set
* ...
rebroadcasts the weekday editions later the same evening, and the weekend editions live; a similar case exists in New York City but in reverse, where WLIW airs the weekday and weekend editions of the ''PBS NewsHour'' live while WNET airs them on a tape delay (delayed by one hour on weekday editions and by a half-hour on weekends).
KQED KQED may refer to:
* KQED (TV), a PBS member station in San Francisco
* KQED-FM
KQED-FM (88.5 MHz) is a NPR-member radio station in San Francisco, California. Its parent organization is KQED Inc., which also owns its television partners, both ...
in San Francisco airs the program each weeknight in simulcast with its radio sister at 3:00 p.m.
Pacific Time
The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...
(6:00 p.m.
Eastern Time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small port ...
), in addition to airing the Western Edition on television at 6:00 p.m. PT. Unusually for many years, the secondary station of Milwaukee PBS,
WMVT
WMVT (channel 36) is a secondary PBS member television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is owned by Milwaukee Area Technical College alongside primary PBS member WMVS (channel 10). Collectively branded as Milwaukee PBS, the ...
, carried the program as part of an early-evening news block with the '' Nightly Business Report'' (which was the lead-in to ''NewsHour'' on many member stations until that program ceased production in December 2019), and half-hour international newscasts from
Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...
and
BBC World News
BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and S ...
, due to an expanded schedule of
PBS Kids
PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs are not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS. Instead, ...
and local-interest programming on WMVS; this has since been rectified with the launch of the all-hours PBS Kids subchannel network.
Archives of shows broadcast after February 7, 2000, are available in several
streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
formats (including full-motion video) at the program's website. The show is available to overseas military personnel on the
American Forces Network
The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...
. Audio from select segments is also released in
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
form, available through several feeds on the PBS NewsHour's subscriptions page with link to a FeedBurner website (for free mp3 download) and through podcast services such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
, and among others.
Livestreaming
The ''PBS NewsHour'' is streamed live on the program's
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
channel at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time each weeknight, with the Western edition also streaming live at 9:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. Pacific Time). ''PBS News Weekend'' is also streamed on the YouTube channel live Saturdays and Sundays at 5:00 p.m. ET. Full episodes are available later on the ''PBS NewsHour'' YouTube channel and on the program's dedicated page on PBS's website.
The ''NewsHour'' was also livestreamed on Ustream until IBM Watson Media discontinued free livesteraming on the platform on September 17, 2018. The ''NewsHour'' has also provided livestreaming of special events, most notably streaming the January 2017
inauguration of Donald Trump
The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States marked the commencement of Donald Trump's term as president and Mike Pence as vice president. An estimated 300,000 to 600,000 people attended the public ceremony hel ...
on the program's
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
account.
International broadcasts
* In the United Kingdom it is seen daily at 6am on ABN TV on the
Sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In the field of astronomy, ...
platform.
* In Australia the program is seen Tuesdays through Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. AEST on SBS.
* In New Zealand the ''NewsHour'' is seen Tuesdays through Saturdays at 10 p.m. on
Face TV
The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may af ...
(Auckland).
* In Japan the program is seen every weekday on
NHK BS1
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestri ...
.
* Around the world for members of the
United States Armed Forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
on the
American Forces Network
The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...
.
* The program is seen internationally through the
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
.
''PBS NewsHour'' editorial guidelines
On December 4, 2009, when introducing the new ''PBS NewsHour'' format, Lehrer read a list of guidelines for what he called "MacNeil/Lehrer journalism":
* "Do nothing I cannot defend."
* "Cover, write, and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me."
* "Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story."
* "Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am."
* "Assume the same about all people on whom I report."
* "Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise."
* "Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything."
* "Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions."
* "No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously."
* "And finally, I am not in the entertainment business."
On-air staff
Current
* Judy Woodruff – weekday anchor (joined September 5, 1983 – June 24, 1993; joined
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
Group and returned to PBS on April 12, 2006; planning to step down as main anchor on December 30, 2022)
* Jeffrey Brown – chief correspondent for arts, culture, and society, substitute weekday anchor (joined December 23, 1998)
* John Yang – special correspondent, substitute weekday and weekend anchor (joined March 1, 2016)
* Miles O'Brien – science and aviation correspondent, substitute anchor (joined February 9, 2010)
*
Lisa Desjardins
Lisa Desjardins ( née Goddard; born January 29, 1972) is an American political journalist. She is a correspondent at ''PBS NewsHour'' and has previously worked for the Associated Press and CNN Radio. As of 2018, she has reported on five U.S. pre ...
– political correspondent (joined October 29, 2014)
*
William Brangham
William Brangham (born 1968) is an American journalist who is currently a correspondent, producer, and substitute anchor for the ''PBS NewsHour''. Before, he worked as a producer for several other television programs, mostly for PBS. He has won t ...
– regular interviewer and occasional substitute anchor for the weekday and weekend program (joined August 10, 2012)
*
Amna Nawaz
Amna Nawaz is an American broadcast journalist. She is chief correspondent and substitute anchor for the ''PBS NewsHour''. Before joining PBS in April 2018, Nawaz was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News and NBC News. She has received a number ...
– Chief Correspondent and White House correspondent on Fridays (joined April 6, 2018; replacing Judy Woodruff on January 2, 2023)
*Laura Barrón-López – White House correspondent (joined on June 16, 2022)
* Michael Hill – substitute anchor for weekends (joined in September 2020)
*
Nick Schifrin
Nick Schifrin (born July 10, 1980) is an American journalist. He is the ''PBS NewsHour'' foreign affairs and defense correspondent. He was previously Al Jazeera America’s Middle East correspondent and a correspondent for ABC News in London and ...
– foreign affairs and defense correspondent and substitute anchor (joined February 10, 2016)
*
Paul Solman
Paul Solman (born September 9, 1944) is a journalist who has specialized in economics, business, and politics since the early 1970s. He has been the business and economics correspondent for the ''PBS NewsHour'' since 1985, with occasional for ...
– business, economics and occasional art correspondent, creator of ''Making Sen$e'' (joined September 1, 1978)
*
Malcolm Brabant
Malcolm J. Brabant (born 1955) is a freelance British journalist. He trained with and worked for the BBC for more than 20 years, reporting from various locations. Described as the "King of the Stringers," Brabant has also worked for UNICEF. Br ...
– special correspondent, especially reporting from Europe, based in Denmark (joined June 15, 2015)
*
Geoff Bennett
Geoff Bennett (11 September 1926 – 2 September 2002) was an Australian field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must ...
– chief Washington DC correspondent and weekend anchor (joined January 3, 2022 and weekend editions on April 2, 2022; replacing Judy Woodruff on January 2, 2023)
* Alison Stewart – substitute weekend anchor (joined September 27, 2013)
* Megan Thompson – substitute weekend anchor (joined January 11, 2013)
*
Mike Taibbi
Mike Taibbi (born c. 1949) is an American television journalist best known for his work at NBC News.
He retired in 2014, having covered, among other events, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his career, Taibbi also worked at CBS News. He ...
– special correspondent for the Weekend program (joined April 11, 2015)
*
P.J. Tobia
* Pajamas, or PJs
Arts and entertainment
* P.J. (film), ''P.J.'' (film), a 1968 film starring George Peppard
* P.J. (Disney), Pete Junior, a Disney cartoon character
* P.J. (comics), a character in ''The Family Circus'' comic strip
* PJ (singer), ...
– foreign affairs editor (joined June 19, 2013)
*
Fred de Sam Lazaro
Fred may refer to:
People
* Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
Mononym
* Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French
* Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico Rodr ...
– correspondent and contributor to the ''Agents For Change'' series (joined December 10, 1985)
* Stephanie Sy – correspondent and PBS NewsHour West anchor (joined October 14, 2019)
*
Daniel Bush
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew language, Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel (given ...
– senior digital political reporter on air during election night coverage (joined November 2015)
*
Hari Sreenivasan
Hariharan "Hari" Sreenivasan, born in 1974, is an American broadcast journalist.
Biography
Sreenivasan was born in Mumbai, India, around 1974.Amanpour & Co.) He still reports for the ''NewsHour'' as Special Correspondent.
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' (Fridays; joined September 21, 2001)
*
Jonathan Capehart
Jonathan T. Capehart (born July 2, 1967) is an American journalist and television commentator. He writes for ''The Washington Posts ''PostPartisan'' blog and is host of '' The Saturday/Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart'' on MSNBC.
Background ...
of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' (Fridays; joined January 8, 2021)
*
Tamara Keith
Tamara Dawnell Keith (born September 25, 1979) is NPR White House correspondent and co-host, with Scott Detrow, of the ''NPR Politics Podcast'', joining as a business reporter in 2009. She covered the earthquake in Haiti and hosted ''B-side Radi ...
Amy Walter
Amy Elizabeth Walter (born October 19, 1969)"Profile: Amy Walter"
of ''
The Cook Political Report
''The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter'' is an American online newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns for the U.S. Presidency, the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, and U.S. governors' offices. Sel ...
'' (Mondays and election night; joined July 29, 2004)
* Jeff Greenfield (weekends)
*
E. J. Dionne
Eugene Joseph Dionne Jr. (; born April 23, 1952) is an American journalist, political commentator, and long-time op-ed columnist for ''The Washington Post''. He is also a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a profes ...
of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' (substitute)
*
Susan Page
Susan Lea Page (born February 12, 1951) is an American journalist and biographer, and the Washington DC Bureau Chief for ''USA Today'' newspaper.
Early life
Page, a native of Wichita, Kansas, is a 1973 graduate of Northwestern University's Med ...
of ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' (substitute; joined July 16, 2018)
* Stuart Rothenberg of ''Inside Elections'' (substitute; joined October 30, 1992)
Former
* Robert MacNeil – weekday anchor (October 20, 1975 – October 20, 1995; retired)
* Jim Lehrer – weekday anchor and executive editor (March 15, 1976 – June 6, 2011; retired except on Fridays until his last day December 30, 2011, and his last day as an executive editor on September 26, 2014; died on January 23, 2020)
* Charlayne Hunter-Gault – weekday anchor (December 8, 1977 – June 13, 1997; retired)
*
Kwame Holman Kwame Holman is an American producer and correspondent associated with the ''PBS NewsHour'', as a producer and reporter for WTOC in Georgia, and, who also has held positions with several national organizations, including the American Civil Liberties ...
– correspondent (1983 – 2014; retired)
*
Margaret Warner
Margaret Garrard Warner (born February 12, 1950) is a senior correspondent for '' The PBS NewsHour''. Before joining the ''NewsHour'' in 1993, she was a reporter for ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'', the ''Concord Mon ...
– weekday anchor (June 24, 1993 – September 7, 2017; now a White House correspondent after leaving ''NewsHour'')
*
Gwen Ifill
Gwendolyn L. Ifill ( ; September 29, 1955 – November 14, 2016) was an American journalist, television newscaster, and author. In 1999, she became the first African-American woman to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program ...
– Monday-Thursday anchor (also a Senior Correspondent) (October 4, 1999 – November 14, 2016; died from
endometrial cancer
Endometrial cancer is a cancer that arises from the endometrium (the lining of the uterus or womb). It is the result of the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. The first sign is most o ...
)
* Ray Suarez – weekday anchor (October 4, 1999 – October 25, 2013; moved to
Al Jazeera America
Al Jazeera America was an American pay television news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network. The channel was launched on August 20, 2013, to compete with CNN, HLN, MSNBC, Fox News, and in certain markets RT America. It was Al Jazeera' ...
, and left ''NewsHour'' after the launch of 2013's ''NewsHour'' with Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff)
* Terence Smith – weekday anchor (August 17, 1998 – November 23, 2005; retired)
*
Yamiche Alcindor
Yamiche Léone Alcindor ( ; born November 1, 1986) is an American journalist who is the host of ''Washington Week'' on PBS and a Washington correspondent for NBC News. In the past, she has worked as a reporter for ''PBS NewsHour'', ''USA Today'', ...
– White House correspondent (December 31, 2015 – January 7, 2022; moved to
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
)
Political analysts
*
David Gergen
David Richmond Gergen (born May 9, 1942) is an American political commentator and former presidential adviser who served during the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. He is currently a senior political ...
(Fridays; March 30, 1981 – March 18, 1994)
* Michael Gerson of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' (substitute)
*
Paul Gigot
Paul Anthony Gigot (; born May 24, 1955) is an American Pulitzer Prize–winning conservative political commentator and editor of the editorial pages for ''The Wall Street Journal''. He is also the moderator of the public affairs television ser ...
(Fridays; March 25, 1994 – September 14, 2001)
* Mark Shields as a syndicated columnist (Fridays; November 11, 1988 – December 18, 2020; died on June 18, 2022, from
kidney failure
Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...
)
Criticism and reception
In 1992, radio broadcaster
David Barsamian
David Barsamian (born 1945) is an Armenian-American radio broadcaster, writer, and the founder and director of ''Alternative Radio'', a Boulder, Colorado-based syndicated weekly public affairs program heard on some 250 radio stations worldwide ...
called the ''NewsHour'' "stenographers to power", accusing them and other
news media
The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public. These include news agencies, print media (newspapers, news magazines), broadcast news (radio and television), and th ...
of having a pro-establishment bias.
Critical response
''PBS NewsHour'' has received generally positive reviews from television critics and parents of young children. Patrick Kevin Day of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' wrote, "Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff are making history on PBS." David Leonard and Micah Schwalb of '' The Denver Post'' wrote, "One of the most trusted news programs on television." Phil Owen of ''
TheWrap
''TheWrap'' is an American online news website covering the business of entertainment and media via digital, print and live events. It was founded by journalist Sharon Waxman
Sharon I. Waxman (born c.1963) is an American author, journalist, ...
'' wrote, "The least partisan analysis." Tim Surette of ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
'' wrote, "The calm and credible information we need."
In 2003,
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
political scientist Tim Groseclose and Missouri economist Jeff Milyo evaluated various media programs based on "
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
" 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. However, their methodology has been questioned.
FAIR study
In October 2006 the
media criticism
Media studies is a discipline (academia), discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media (communication), media; in particular, the mass media. Media Studies may draw on traditions from both the s ...
group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) accused the ''PBS NewsHour'' of lacking balance, diversity, and viewpoints of the general public, and for presenting corporate viewpoints. FAIR found that the ''PBS NewsHour''s guest list from October 2005 to March 2006 had Republicans outnumbering Democrats 2–1, and minorities accounting for 15 percent of U.S.-based sources. 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.
''NewsHour''
executive producer
Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...
Linda Winslow responded to many aspects:
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
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
).
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
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
and
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
NewsHour
''Newshour'' is BBC World Service's flagship international news and current affairs radio programme, which is broadcast twice daily: weekdays at 1400, weekends at 1300 and nightly at 2100 (UK time). Each edition lasts one hour. It consists of ...