Lost in the TV News Jungle (Film at 11) : Television: Two movies about behind-the-scenes action in newsrooms wallow in a maze of malevolence.

Barbara Eden plays an ace White House correspondent in one of two movies depicting TV news as a cesspool. Do you hear? . . . A CESSPOOL!!!

Two TV movies the gods of journalism are falling for this week bring affirmation that TV news is indeed a hotbed of greed and corruption. Do you hear? . . . A HOTBED!!!

Although our illusions already had been shattered by the shocking local news high jinks depicted on the CBS series “WIOU” and Lifetime series “E.N.G.,” a teensy-weensy bit of faith lingered.

But this is the week that wipes away even that thin veneer.

Tuesday (9 p.m. on Channels 2 and 8) brings “Her Wicked Ways,” the utterly devastating--Do you hear? . . . DEVASTATING!!!--CBS movie starring Barbara Eden as a star White House correspondent whose network career is threatened by a scheming reporter from an affiliate station. This reporter will stop at nothing to get ahead.

Do you hear? . . . NOTHING!!!

Then on Sunday (9 p.m. on Channels 4, 36 and 39), an anchorman is murdered in “Perry Mason: The Case of the Ruthless Reporter.” In the course of mounting a defense for the co-anchor accused of the murder, Perry (Raymond Burr) learns that her TV newsroom is a hhhhhhotbed of festering rivalries, intrigues and sexual liaisons, and that the slain anchorman was despised by everyone on the news staff.

Do you hear? . . . EVERYONE!!!

With blackmail, pornography, embezzlement, back-stabbing and murder the prevalent themes, “The Case of the Ruthless Reporter” is undoubtedly the most accurate behind-the-scenes glimpse of local news ever presented on TV. Even weather and sports are part of this maze of malevolence.

It’s an anchor job, not an anchorman’s life that’s at stake in “Her Wicked Ways,” the first network movie with the courage to tell it like it is concerning this heaving cesspool of avarice known as network news.

“Next time you see me,” says the determined female protagonist, “you’ll be looking at Dan Rather in a skirt.” Uh, no . . . that’s on an upcoming “Geraldo.”

In her meatiest role since “Your Mother Wears Combat Boots,” Eden plays anchor-lusting, haute couture White House correspondent Tess O’Brien whose nemesis turns out to be Melody Shepherd (Heather Locklear), the very reporter--fresh from the boonies--whom Tess is showing the ropes at the behest of the network. Soon these blond lookers are clawing at each other like a couple of cats.

THE WAY ALL WOMEN DO!!!

This is an echo of “All About Eve,” the ambitious, conniving Melody sweet-talking her way into everyone’s good graces with the intent of taking over Tess’ prized Washington beat.

Now, Bette Davis and Anne Baxter did a nice job in “All About Eve,” but never really came close to matching the sheer electricity of Barbara and Heather, in “Her Wicked Ways.” God, they’re pros.

What we have here is honesty of the rawest kind and realism at its grittiest: Melody convinces Tess to take her in until she can find her own apartment, and the ensuing dialogue is, based on my own experience as a close observer of the business, exactly the way female TV journalists interact in Washington.

Melody to Tess: “I’m drawing you a bath.”

Cut to Tess in the marbled recess of her candle-lit tub, body deep in bubble bath, suddenly jolted from her sudsy stupor by a knock on the door.

Tess: “Yes?”

Melody: “It’s me. I’ll leave this towel here for you. I warmed it by the fire, so it’s nice and toasty.”

Skeptics may disagree, but I think “drawing” a bubble bath and warming a towel for her host is perfectly logical behavior from Melody on her first night bunking with Tess. And I think it’s perfectly understandable that Tess, a real smoothie who regularly grinds White House slugs into dust with her superior brainpower, somehow can’t immediately see through this transparent hussy. In Tess’ defense, she is preoccupied having snits over her network contract, lunching out and having sex with her boyfriend in her sumptuous townhouse.

My sources tell me that is a fairly accurate depiction of the way female White House correspondents spend their time.

Meanwhile, Melody is all lit up by the capital. “The sheer power of this town,” she exclaims to Tess’ grown son, Andrew (David James Elliott). “I can feel it pulsing through me.” Soon the smitten Andrew is also pulsing through Melody, followed by the president of the news division, who only a couple of days after Melody’s arrival in Washington, is letting her do stand-ups in front of the White House. As all female journalists do, Melody uses her feminine wiles to advance.

Do you hear? . . . ALL FEMALE JOURNALISTS!!!

Some nit-pickers will fault parts of this story, contending, for example, the White House would not call middle-of-the-night press briefings first to announce that a TV newsman had been taken hostage by Peruvian terrorists and later to play a tape of him provided by his captors. But you can bet that the producers would not have included this in their movie if it weren’t meticulously researched.

Most impressive of all are the performances, especially the effortless cool and economy of Eden, who breezes through this strenuous role without mussing a hair or moving a facial muscle.

Just the way they do it in real TV news.