TV NETWORK NEWS IN POLITICAL FOCUS

In a sign that Washington’s laissez-faire attitude toward television may be ending, Congress begins taking a very public look today at the impact of recent financial cutbacks on network news operations.

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), making his debut as chairman of the telecommunications, consumer protection and finance subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, opens three days of hearings that will see all three network news presidents and their bosses take the hot seat to discuss the impact that network takeovers, mergers and belt-tightening measures have had during the past year.

Today’s opening round will feature testimony by noted liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith and media critic Ben Bagdikian. The outspoken former CBS News president Fred Friendly and the more soft-spoken former NBC chairman Julian Goodman are also on today’s agenda.

There is no indication that Markey expects any legislation to emerge from the hearings. Indeed, subcommittee aide Larry Irving said the panel is exercising its “oversight” function in an effort to determine “what’s going on” in the medium that informs upwards of 68 million Americans nightly.

“The purpose of the subcommittee hearings,” Irving said, is “really just a greater understanding of the forces impacting networks and network news operations.”

Irving said the subcommittee is interested in studying technological and competitive pressures along with the new network financial structure.

Still, the hearings indicate that after six years of deregulation under the Reagan Administration, television may be in store for closer scrutiny by this Democratic Congress.

One subcommittee member, Rep. Dennis E. Eckart (D-Ohio), had called for the hearings last March, saying that “we are deeply concerned that with the rush to (network) profits, the public interest has been trampled.”

CBS Chief Executive Laurence A. Tisch, who is scheduled to testify Thursday, already has expressed opposition to the hearings. “I believe it is inappropriate for Congress to inquire into the nature and adequacy of our news operation,” he told the National Assn. of Broadcasters.

For the most part, however, the networks’ public posture has been to welcome the congressional inquiry.

Bud Rukeyser, NBC vice president in charge of corporate communications in New York, said, “We’re a very open institution and think it’s perfectly appropriate for Congress to look at what we do. We’re happy to go down and testify.”

Privately, however, some TV officials are calling the hearings an exercise in congressional “headline hunting,” a point reinforced by the subcommittee’s insistence that no legislation is being considered.

Furthermore, say some network officials, the upheavals in the business are now for the most part over, and the subcommittee may be indulging in a case of congressional barn-door closing long after the network horses have galloped.

The subcommittee is “not looking at trying to undo what’s been done,” insisted staffer Irving.

In addition to today’s witnesses, the hearings’ schedule calls for news division presidents Roone Arledge (ABC), Howard Stringer (CBS) and Lawrence Grossman (NBC) to appear before the subcommittee on Wednesday. They will be followed by representatives of broadcast industry unions and alternative national and international news services.

In addition to CBS’ Tisch, chief executives Thomas Murphy (Capital Cities/ABC) and Robert Wright (NBC) also are scheduled to testify Thursday.

Wednesday’s session with the news division presidents will be covered live by the C-SPAN cable channel beginning at 6:30 a.m. (PDT).