Robert MacNeil was a Canadian American novelist, and retired television news anchor and journalist who partnered with Jim Lehrer to create The MacNeil/Lehrer Report in 1975.

MacNeil rose to fame during his coverage of the 1973 Senate Watergate hearings with PBS, for which he later received an Emmy Award. This helped lead to his most famous news role, when he joined with Jim Lehrer in 1975 to create the PBS daily evening news program, The Robert MacNeil Report. This was later renamed The MacNeil/Lehrer Report and then The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.

After serving 20 years in the PBS flagship news program, MacNeil retired from his nightly appearances in 1995. The daily news program he co-founded continues today as the PBS NewsHour.

Robert MacNeil was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame (with Jim Lehrer) in 1999.