As many news outlets produced wall-to-wall coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial and everything in its aftermath in the mid-1990s, NewsHour’s Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer were often asked why they did not do as much coverage on the former football star.
On his last day with the NewsHour in 1995, MacNeil discussed their coverage with Lehrer, who said they didn’t see it as important as other things happening in the world.
“When the trial started, that was news. The Mark Fuhrman tapes were news. The verdict was news,” Lehrer said. “Everything else in between that, those eight and half months, has been fascinating, it’s been interesting and it’s been real, but it’s been a soap opera and it has not been news.”
Robert MacNeil, a driving force behind the show that would become the NewsHour on PBS, died Friday at the age of 93.
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