From the New York Times obit by Neil Ganzlinger on “Lester Crystal, Guiding Force Behind ‘MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour”:
Lester M. Crystal, who after 20 years at NBC News, including two as its president, moved to “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” on PBS and immediately set about transforming it from a half-hour program into “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,” a broadcast widely acclaimed for its breadth and depth, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 85. . . .
Anchored by Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer (who died in January at 85), “NewsHour” took an in-depth approach to the news that the half-hour news programs of commercial television largely could not.
World leaders, presidential candidates and other newsmakers were interviewed at length as the broadcast, generally spurning spot news, examined issues in segments that had more in common with a newsmagazine than with the evening news on ABC, CBS and NBC. And though the network programs were far more widely watched, “NewsHour” gained influence, particularly in the corridors of power. . . .
Judy Woodruff, who came over from NBC to join “NewsHour” as a correspondent when the program started and is now anchor of its successor show, “PBS NewsHour,” said Mr. Crystal had shaped the newscast in important ways.
“He guided us to get out and talk to the American people,” she said by email, “to bring their hopes, dreams and views to every newscast, to bring policy and political debates to life by talking to real people where they live and work.”. . .
He joined NBC in 1963, producing the nightly news program of its Chicago affiliate as well as the documentary series “Dateline Chicago.” In 1965 he became regional manager in Chicago for “The Huntley-Brinkley Report,” the network’s nightly news program, and in 1967 he moved east to become its news editor in New York. He advanced to associate producer and then, in 1968, to producer.
Mr. Crystal was among the journalists who traveled to China when President Richard M. Nixon made his historic trip there in 1972. He became executive producer of “NBC Nightly News” and rose to executive vice president of the network’s news division before being named NBC News president in October 1977.
Perhaps the most wrenching moment in his two years as president was the murder of two NBC journalists, Don Harris, a correspondent, and Bob Brown, a cameraman, as they tried to leave after an investigative trip to the Jonestown cult in Guyana in November 1978. The mass suicide at the cult followed hours later. . . .
In 1994, when the O.J. Simpson murder investigation consumed the commercial networks’ newscasts for weeks on end, “NewsHour” didn’t take the bait, sticking with its issues-oriented segments and generally mentioning the Simpson case only briefly.
“This is a program that deals with crime as a problem, not as a staple,” Mr. Crystal told Howard Rosenberg, television critic for The Los Angeles Times. . . .
Ms. Woodruff recalled Mr. Crystal’s steadying presence at broadcast time.
“Les’s voice was the one you wanted to break into your ear during a news-making interview or on an election night,” she said, “providing a crucial fact or giving you the breaking news you needed to get on the air right away: authoritative, calm and brief. He was a stickler for facts; you were OK if Les said it.”
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