Lester Martin Crystal (September 13, 1934 – June 24, 2020) was an Emmy Award-winning American television news executive best known for being the founding executive producer of the nation’s first hour-long nightly newscast, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (now called the PBS NewsHour), and also for being president of NBC News.

[1] He joined The NewsHour as executive producer in 1983 and was appointed president of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions in 2005, a position he held until his retirement in 2010.

Prior to PBS, Crystal had a 20-year career at the National Broadcasting Company, where he served as president of NBC News from 1977–79, executive producer of NBC Nightly News from 1973–76, European field producer (based in London) of NBC Nightly News from 1970-1973 and producer of The Huntley-Brinkley Report from 1968-1970.

He won his first national Emmy Award in 1969 for producing an investigation of teenage drug addiction that aired on The Huntley–Brinkley Report.

[4] He earned Bachelors and Masters of Science degrees from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1956 and 1957, respectively.