HEARINGS TV COVERAGE TO ROTATE

The three major television networks plan to begin rotating daily coverage of the congressional hearings on the Iran- contra affair, beginning Thursday, NBC News President Lawrence K. Grossman announced Tuesday.

NBC, he said, “drew the long straw” and will go first, followed by CBS and then ABC.

The hearings are expected to continue through Aug. 7. The three commercial networks have carried full, live coverage of Lt. Col. Oliver North’s testimony since July 7. CNN and PBS are also carrying the hearings.

Grossman said the three networks had agreed in principle to rotate coverage, but their agreement does not preclude all three from carrying the hearings live if editorial judgment warrants. He said NBC suggested the rotation, an arrangement used during the lengthy Watergate hearings in 1973.