Robert MacNeil, creator and first anchor of PBS 'NewsHour,' dies at 93

This Feb. 1978 photo shows Robert MacNeil, executive editor of "The MacNeil/Lehrer Report." (AP)

NEW YORK — Robert MacNeil, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast "The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour" in the 1970s and co-anchored the show for with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died on Friday. He was 93.

MacNeil died of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, according to his daughter, Alison MacNeil.