Robert MacNeil
E290885
Robert MacNeil is a Canadian-American journalist and author best known for co-creating and co-anchoring the long-running public television news program that became PBS NewsHour.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Robert MacNeil canonical | 10 |
| Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2703975 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Robert MacNeil Context triple: [PBS NewsHour, originalHost, Robert MacNeil]
-
A.
Neil Johnston
Neil Johnston was a dominant 1950s NBA center and Hall of Famer known for leading the league in scoring with the Philadelphia Warriors.
-
B.
Robert Alda
Robert Alda was an American actor and singer, and the father of actor Alan Alda, known for his work in film, theater, and television from the 1940s onward.
-
C.
Garth Stevenson
Garth Stevenson is a Canadian-born double bassist and composer known for his atmospheric, nature-inspired film scores and solo work.
-
D.
Robert Richardson
Robert Richardson was a 19th-century American physician, educator, and prominent leader in the Restoration Movement, best known for his biographical and theological writings associated with Alexander Campbell.
-
E.
Robert Richardson
Robert Richardson is an acclaimed American cinematographer known for his dynamic visual style and frequent collaborations with directors like Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone, and Martin Scorsese.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Robert MacNeil Target entity description: Robert MacNeil is a Canadian-American journalist and author best known for co-creating and co-anchoring the long-running public television news program that became PBS NewsHour.
-
A.
Neil Johnston
Neil Johnston was a dominant 1950s NBA center and Hall of Famer known for leading the league in scoring with the Philadelphia Warriors.
-
B.
Robert Alda
Robert Alda was an American actor and singer, and the father of actor Alan Alda, known for his work in film, theater, and television from the 1940s onward.
-
C.
Garth Stevenson
Garth Stevenson is a Canadian-born double bassist and composer known for his atmospheric, nature-inspired film scores and solo work.
-
D.
Robert Richardson
Robert Richardson was a 19th-century American physician, educator, and prominent leader in the Restoration Movement, best known for his biographical and theological writings associated with Alexander Campbell.
-
E.
Robert Richardson
Robert Richardson is an acclaimed American cinematographer known for his dynamic visual style and frequent collaborations with directors like Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone, and Martin Scorsese.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Canadian-American
ⓘ
author ⓘ journalist ⓘ television news anchor ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Emmy Award
ⓘ
Peabody Award ⓘ |
| birthName |
Robert MacNeil
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil
|
| coAnchored |
PBS NewsHour
ⓘ
surface form:
The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour
The MacNeil/Lehrer Report ⓘ |
| coCreated | The MacNeil/Lehrer Report ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship |
Canada
ⓘ
United States of America ⓘ |
| coveredEvent |
Watergate scandal
ⓘ
assassination of John F. Kennedy ⓘ civil rights movement in the United States ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1931-01-19 ⓘ |
| education | Carleton University ⓘ |
| employer |
BBC
ⓘ
surface form:
British Broadcasting Corporation
CBC ⓘ
surface form:
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
PBS ⓘ
surface form:
Public Broadcasting Service
|
| familyName | MacNeil ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
broadcast journalism
ⓘ
political journalism ⓘ |
| genre |
memoir
ⓘ
non-fiction ⓘ political commentary ⓘ |
| givenName | Robert ⓘ |
| hasChild | Ian MacNeil ⓘ |
| knownFor |
co-anchoring The MacNeil/Lehrer Report
ⓘ
co-creating PBS NewsHour ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| name | Robert MacNeil self-link ⓘ |
| nationality |
American
ⓘ
Canadian ⓘ |
| notableWork |
Breaking News
ⓘ
Burden of Desire ⓘ PBS NewsHour ⓘ PBS NewsHour ⓘ
surface form:
The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour
The MacNeil/Lehrer Report ⓘ The People Machine ⓘ The Right Place at the Right Time ⓘ Wordstruck ⓘ |
| occupation |
author
ⓘ
journalist ⓘ television presenter ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Montreal, Quebec, Canada ⓘ |
| residence | New York City ⓘ |
| spouse | Donna Richards ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Robert MacNeil Description of subject: Robert MacNeil is a Canadian-American journalist and author best known for co-creating and co-anchoring the long-running public television news program that became PBS NewsHour.
Referenced by (11)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil