After 51 years, the search for truth is still driving journalist Neil MacNeil '49.

MacNeil has spent much of the last half-century seeking to better understand the U.S. Congress.

In the process, he has become a well-respected figure in the Washington press corps, spent 11 years as a commentator on PBS's public affairs program "Washington Week in Review" and has written several books.

MacNeil, a former Winthrop House resident, did not waste any time in earning his Harvard degree-this member of the class of 1949 graduated in 1948.

He wasted even less time in becoming a journalist.

While at Harvard College, MacNeil worked for the Boston Herald as a reporter. Upon graduation, MacNeil headed south to write for The New York Times, where he worked as a general assignment reporter.

MacNeil then spent a year and two months working on a master's degree at Columbia University in New York.

In 1949, United Press International (UPI) hired MacNeil to report on the Washington, D.C. political scene. With the exception of another brief stint at Columbia, during which he received his masters degree, MacNeil would spend the remainder of his career in D.C.

In 1958, MacNeil joined Time magazine as a congressional correspondent. He worked at Time for the next 30 years.

"I did all kinds of stories every week, primarily on national politics," MacNeil says.

MacNeil released his first book, The House of Representatives: Forge of Democracy, in 1963.

The book's success "led to a strange career in television," MacNeil says.

Boston public television station WGBH asked MacNeil to host "MacNeil Reports on Congress," which would be shown on the Eastern Television Network, a forerunner of PBS.

According to MacNeil, in those early days the program "got a little much-it was just me."

But the program would not remain a one-man show for long.