Mark Shields, a commentator who supplied insightful political evaluation on PBS NewsHour for over 30 years, has died. He was 85.
Shields died Saturday of kidney failure at his residence in Chevy Chase, Md., NewsHour spokesman Nick Massella informed NPR.
Judy Woodruff, NewsHour anchor and managing editor, additionally confirmed the information on Twitter writing, “I’m heartbroken to share this. The NewsHour‘s beloved long-time Friday night time analyst Mark Shields, who for many years wowed us together with his encyclopedic data of American politics, his humorousness and primarily his large coronary heart, has handed away at 85, together with his spouse Anne at his facet.”
Shields retired from contributing common segments in 2020 after 33 years on this system. He started as an editorial author at The Washington Put up in 1979, following a profession as a legislative assistant and speechwriter for Sen. William Proxmire, and later, the 1968 presidential marketing campaign of Robert Kennedy. All through his years at NewsHour, he supplied perception on six U.S. presidents’ administrations, the Persian Gulf Struggle, the Iran-Contra affair, 9/11 and extra.
He additionally appeared on different panel exhibits equivalent to Meet the Press and Inside Washington, and helped launch the CNN sequence Capital Gang alongside fellow panelists Pat Buchanan, Robert Novak and Al Hunt. That sequence ran from 1988 till its cancellation in 2005.
Shields’ last look was on a February episode of Anderson Cooper 360.
