Downsizing The News: Network Cutbacks in the Nation's Capital (Woodrow Wilson Center Press)

This text is based on one-to-one interviews conducted from 1991 to 1993 with Washington TV News correspondents, editors, and producers. In their own words these news professionals describe the reduction in resources devoted to covering Congress, the downgrading of the State Department and Supreme Courtbeats, news reporters' conflicts with the Clinton Whitehouse, and the difficulties in obtaining information from government officials of every rank. Often expressing frustration - and even hostility - toward the New York-based executives who "manage" the evening news, Washington's broadcast journalists decry sinking standards, as their ability to inform citizens is sacrificed to material calulated to preserve dwindling audiences.