TV's Best News Show May Also Be Its Least Appreciated - Peter Osnos - The Atlantic: Today's PBS NewsHour-- the offspring of Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer's evening offering of reasoned appraisals of events here and abroad, dating in its earliest incarnation to the mid-1970s -- is one of journalism's most respected institutions. Attracting a nightly audience of about a million viewers, and with an increasingly active presence on the Internet, the PBS NewsHour should be lauded regularly for what it provides.
But perhaps because of its ingrained tradition of avoiding the self-promotional clamor of so much else in broadcast news, the NewsHour rarely gets the recognition it deserves. The experienced team of anchors, correspondents, and commentators can be relied on to take the most complex and controversial issues and explain them in terms that offer insights, if not necessarily clear-cut answers.