‘Intercom’ for Capital : Sunday TV Shows Play Subtle Role

The point National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane was making about the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty hardly seemed the stuff to make the viewers at home leap from their Barcaloungers.

McFarlane’s appearance Oct. 6 on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” however, floored defense experts in Washington and throughout the NATO alliance. To insiders, McFarlane seemed to be embracing a new hard-line position by asserting that “research, development and testing” into the Reagan Administration’s “Stars Wars” missile defense system did not violate the treaty.

The prime ministers of Germany and Britain sent emotional letters of protest to the White House. Members of Congress were irate. President Reagan even had to preside over an Oval Office showdown between McFarlane and Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

Inside Dialogue

The episode typifies the subtle role of what is perhaps the most curious trio of programs in American television, the Sunday morning interview shows.

Although often dull and notoriously low-rated, the three network Sunday interview programs have survived longer than any other shows on television. The originator, “Meet the Press,” has run continuously for 38 years.

The reason is that the shows have become a part of the inside dialogue of government, a place where politicians come to deliver messages to each other, end feuds or clarify policy--knowing well that political Washington, if not the rest of the country, is watching.

Those invited to appear also know that what is uttered on the shows on Sunday echoes in the political shop talk of the Senate cloakroom and Oval Office on Monday. And they know that even the most arcane shows still make Monday morning headlines of newspapers hungry for weekend news.

No Pressure for Ratings

“They are a kind of intercom or PA system between political groups in this city,” said David Brinkley, the host of ABC’s “This Week.”

“An in-house political newsletter,” NBC News Vice President Tim Russert called them.

The networks recently have tried to broaden the shows’ appeal, with varied success. However, it is the shows’ influence over people with influence that brings the networks coveted prestige and makes the Sunday interview program as sacrosanct as anything can be in television.

“We have never come under any pressure for ratings whatsoever,” said Karen Sughreu, executive producer of CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “We were put on the air as a showcase, and we will be on forever.”

It doesn’t hurt, either, that the shows are inexpensive to produce and that they air in a time slot for which the networks have discovered no other kind of programming that would attract many more viewers.

Sometimes the most significant statements on the show are aimed at just one or two people. Last summer, for instance, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas used a “Meet the Press” broadcast to send “little messages” to two political leaders.

The President had returned to the White House the previous day from cancer surgery, and, in his absence, Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan had infuriated congressional leaders during negotiations over the President’s budget proposal. On the show Dole suggested--and then repeated the suggestion nine times--that the President “step into the breach” by making conciliatory phone calls to members of the Senate. Before the program had even aired in most parts of the country, the President, who was watching, was on the phone.

Next, Dole made an oblique peace signal in a growing feud over the budget with Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) by describing their differences in muted terms. The next day Kemp called Dole, saying he appreciated the restrained approach and offering a truce.

The shows’ impact was not always so subtle. In the first years of “Meet the Press”--launched on NBC-TV in 1947 by Lawrence E. Spivak, editor of H.L. Mencken’s “American Mercury,” and Martha Rountree, a Washington journalist--the show was a forum for major announcements, for introducing new political figures to the nation or even for launching presidential bids.

Whitaker Chambers issued his first public charge that Alger Hiss was a communist on “Meet the Press.” Dwight D. Eisenhower’s first presidential campaign was launched in October, 1950, when Republican Party leader Thomas E. Dewey first threw his support to the general on the show. Democratic Party bosses were similarly persuaded to make Adlai E. Stevenson the Democratic nominee in 1952 after watching the Illinois governor demonstrate his poise on the show.

Spivak, who remained producer of the show for 30 years, had the power to rule with fierce independence. He could disdain press aides and personally call those he wanted to appear--and they usually accepted. In one memorable phone call, he even turned down President Lyndon B. Johnson’s personal efforts to influence the choice of panelists and guests for a show during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam.

Format Never Varied

For 35 years, the format Spivak invented never varied. “Two airline counters, a politician and moderator behind one and four reporters behind the other,” ABC’s Brinkley described it.

CBS countered with “Face the Nation” in 1954, and only the name was different. In its own 31 years on the air, “Face the Nation,” also became a place where new world leaders, presidential candidates, Cabinet secretaries and Capitol Hill leaders came to be introduced to the nation or make important announcements.

ABC, the last of the three networks to develop in news and public affairs, started “Issues and Answers” in 1960.

By the 1970s, much of the original novelty and luster of the shows had begun to fade. As news programming had proliferated, the sort of figures once seen only on Sunday were appearing in shorter interviews on such shows as PBS’s “MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour,” ABC’s “Nightline,” NBC’s “Sunrise” or ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Politicians More Savvy

Politicians also had become more savvy about the medium and less likely to make news-breaking admissions on the show.

“By the time somebody gets invited to be on a Sunday interview show these days . . . they probably have their own media consultant,” said Dorrance Smith, executive producer of ABC’s interview show.

“Many of the shows ended up being, frankly, a little boring,” said “Face the Nation” producer Sughreu.

The networks were hardly considering cancellation, however. While the power to launch crusades or presidential careers had passed, the shows were bringing the networks the prestige of influencing the inner workings of Washington.

Airing on Sunday, when even Washingtonians don’t work, the shows had become a way for politicians to communicate with each other, knowing that the White House, leaders of Congress and foreign embassies were all watching--or at least would receive one of the transcripts rushed Sunday afternoons to news makers and media around town.

Monday Headlines

The press continued to turn the shows into Monday morning headlines.

ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson, a regular on “Brinkley” as Washingtonians call it, describes it as an echo effect.

“First, you get the limited TV audience but an audience of players,” he said. “Then you get opinion makers across the country.”

The Sunday night news shows air excerpts, and the Monday newspapers carry stories.

“And oftentimes the political columnists in town scrutinize the Sunday shows for their columns each week,” Donaldson said. “And it keeps reproducing.”

“The shows become trend setters for the week to come,” said Walt Riker, press secretary to Senate Majority Leader Dole. “If there is any kind of substance on the shows, the Monday morning papers will have the story, and that will help shape the focus point for the media and, to some extent, the President and the Congress.”

Three Format Changes

And if the shows were sometimes dull, they at least were equally dull on all three networks.

That changed when Brinkley left NBC in 1981, and ABC turned its half-hour “Issues and Answers” into the hourlong “This Week With David Brinkley.”

The show made three format changes, the first deviations from the Spivak formula. In the words of “Meet the Press” executive producer Barbara Cohen, “Brinkley took the ‘Nightline’ formula” of having several guests “and added the ‘Agronsky and Company’ formula” of having a few reporters chat about the events of the week. The show also opened with a background story to help viewers understand the subject.

The changes gave Brinkley’s producers the flexibility to shorten dull interviews, prolong good ones, or switch to the reporter discussion if all the guests were bombing. The new program moved ahead in the ratings, and the other networks were left to catch up.

CBS Replaced Host

In September, 1983, CBS replaced veteran “Face the Nation” host George Herman with White House correspondent Leslie Stahl, added a tape “backgrounder” and also began having several guests.

Last fall, NBC dropped veteran host Bill Monroe, brought in well-known State Department correspondent Marvin Kalb, added a tape backgrounder and an occasional round table. The show is still undergoing reassessment, but remains closest to the original concept.

Under the new formats, the focus of the programs has shifted from the guest to the issue under discussion. The producers also insist that making headlines is now secondary to making interesting television--although Spivak claims that the same was true in his day.

Still, the ratings for the Sunday shows have not grown significantly. In terms of percentage of potential viewers, they are often lower. They generally attract between two to four ratings points each, or roughly between 2 million and 4 million households. ABC’s “Nightline” program often attracts twice that. “The Cosby Show” on NBC usually draws about 25 million homes.

A Political Conduit

The primary reason they survive remains their function as a political conduit. Having viewers in Washington is so important that one of the first changes NBC’s Russert made when taking charge of the show two months ago was to have “Meet the Press” air at 11 a.m. in the nation’s capital. That way, people can watch all three interview shows in a row.

In large part, however, what is said on the shows is largely what the interviewee wants the audience to hear.

“I am under no illusion that I have the capacity to draw from the secretary of state or national security adviser details of our real response to the Soviet arms proposal, or any thing else,” said “Meet the Press” host Marvin Kalb.

Beyond ‘Boiler Plate’

Still, NBC’s Russert said, the shows usually do “get beyond the boiler plate” because the interviews are longer, and Donaldson argues that public figures tend to express themselves more candidly. On the Brinkley show, for example, Secretary of State Shultz, often a dry speaker, coined the phrase that the United States had put Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi “back in his box” during a confrontation in the Gulf of Sidra.

White House Strategy

White House strategy on how to deal with the Sunday shows differs depending on the sort of news involved. When legislation is pending or during an election, the White House will call the networks and try to blanket the Sunday shows with friendly guests, said Kim Hoggard, who formerly handled the booking of Sunday shows for the White House and is now deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the Treasury Department.

The White House also monitors how the shows are coming together during the week and will try to counter guests scheduled on one show if it will help the President.

During the TWA hijacking crisis, for instance, the White House initially refused requests to make anyone available. However, when it discovered that Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres was appearing on “Meet the Press” and Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Rabin on “Face the Nation,” it suddenly made a reluctant Secretary Shultz appear on Brinkley’s show.

“They do not take these appearences lightly,” Hoggard said. “It is a well-orchestrated effort.”

“Ratings are not the issue,” said Kathy Bushkin, press spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart in 1984 and now an editor at U.S. News & World Report. “These shows are a way to get in the news flow. And perhaps most important, they are a way to get to the people who make opinion, especially in Washington.”