N.Y. Responds: We're Covering D.C. in a Different Way   

Steve Friedman, executive producer, NBC's "Nightly News":

I don't buy the argument that New York doesn't care about Washington. And I don't buy that what we did before was good and what we're doing now is evil. The public is pissed off at the president and at Congress. To cover Washington as a problem solver, as it once was, is not correct. We go where the news is, and that's not necessarily in Washington. We do as much out of there as we should.

A lot of our strength is still in D.C. – Fred Francis, Lisa Myers, Andrea Mitchell, Robert Hager, Tim Russert, John Cochran – and certainly they're not disgruntled. Our Washington bureau is one of the jewels in the NBC crown. It's baloney to say that morale is bad.

As far as not sending people to cover a story, that's nothing new. If it happened early in the day you would get there. But if something happened in East St. Louis at 3:30 [in the afternoon] we would voice it in Chicago. The chicken plant [in North Carolina] burned down around noon and we couldn't get there.

Things change. The news business is changing. If you don't go with the changes you go out of business. We intend to stay in business.

Paul Friedman, executive producer, ABC's "World News Tonight" :

There are several things going on. First, there has always been grumbling from Washington bureaus about New York. Second, many of these bureaus have been hurt by cutbacks – ABC less than others. But no more people have been fired in Washington than elsewhere. It was not a disproportionate hit. Even so, cutbacks make people nervous and unhappy.

But I reject the notion that Washington coverage is being sacrificed, that all the digging does not get done. That is absolute nonsense. We let our correspondents take the time they need to dig. Correspondents only get on once every three weeks on "American Agenda." Most of those pieces are Washington policy stories, but we do it through the education, family, drugs, crime and environment beats – and we do it out in the country. And we have an investigative unit with two producers in Washington and two in New York.

I want to draw a distinction between not wanting to cover Washington stories and covering policy stories. We don't need coverage of a hearing when we can send someone out to where that policy will have an impact. And we still have correspondents at the White House, the State Department and in Congress, and they still get on the air. But I plead guilty to part of the charge. The marginal Washington hearing stories I have aggressively tried not to do. It's not good journalism or good TV to do a hearing room. It's a different issue to say we hate Washington. That's a subtlety missing from Penn Kimball's story.

Joe Peyronnin, CBS vice president for news:

As a former Washington bureau chief I find the allegation that the management of CBS News doesn't understand Washington incorrect. I understand Washington very well. I also understand that for years stories from Washington appeared on broadcasts and it was automatic.

We've changed the philosophy, the approach, over the last few years. What you are seeing on the CBS "Evening News" is an attempt to make newscasts more relevant, to inform the American public on the impact decisions made in Washington have.

Many stories are now emanating from other parts of the country that give more background and context. The economy story is a good example. Instead of a "process" Washington story, we will go to Denver, Milwaukee or Albuquerque.

As for the cutbacks in Washington, we canceled "Nightwatch" and replaced it with "Up to the Minute," which we do out of New York. The only news show we now do out of Washington is "Face the Nation." But I have a clear understanding of Washington stories and the role of the Washington bureau, and it's an important role.

And by the way, morale couldn't be higher at CBS News. It's higher than it has been in years, because of our success in improving the evening news, the growth of our morning news and the continued success of our prime time newsmagazine shows.