Summarize macneil's criticism of nightly news shows on television

After four years in the hourlong format, ''Newshour'' has exceeded the national ratings level of its half-hour predecessor, the ''MacNeil/Lehrer Report,'' and most of the 324 stations in the public television system are putting the broadcast on the air, without strenuous objection. It was not always so. When journalists Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer expanded their nightly news and analysis broadcast to an hour in 1983, the expanded version was so loathed by some of the public television stations that the response approached open insurrection. At a public television convention in Seattle three years ago, one station manager stood up and, in the presence of Mr. MacNeil, called for a show of hands of those favoring the broadcast's cancellation. Most in the room voted to chuck it. 'We Know What Real Hell Is'

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References: New York Times