As PBS News turns 50, longtime viewers share what the show has meant to them

As PBS News turns 50, longtime viewers share what the show has meant to them Nation Oct 20, 2025 3:18 PM EDT

In a time before the omnipresent internet, Annie Feighery’s window to the world was the PBS News Hour — by a slightly different name.

In her small, rural New Mexico town, Feighery’s high school civics teacher, Dave Berggren, assigned The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour as essential viewing every Friday. He especially wanted his students to focus on the commentary portion of the program that gave space to two different viewpoints on the week’s biggest news.

The show known today as the News Hour turns 50 years old this week. To mark our anniversary, PBS News spoke with people who have been longtime viewers to hear how the show, and later its work online and across social media, has hel