Bill & Ted’s Adventures Not Excellent to Rival Networks

The access that ABC’s “Nightline” had to President Clinton during his trip to Europe and Russia this week irritated the other TV networks and raised questions about the difficulties of extensive access by one TV news organization to the chief executive.

In an unusual arrangement for coverage of a presidential trip abroad, the White House agreed to “Nightline’s” proposal to cover Clinton and his advisers behind the scenes of his meetings with foreign leaders. Over a six-day series of broadcasts called “The Making of a Summit,” anchor Ted Koppel took viewers aboard Air Force One and regularly interviewed the President and other officials about the day’s events.

“ ‘Nightline’ struck a deal for coverage with (White House adviser) David Gergen, and the other networks have been very unhappy with it,” Erik Sorenson, executive producer of the “CBS Evening News,” said in an interview this week. “We were upset that the White House would make this kind of deal with one news organization.”

Citing rumors that Gergen might be coming to ABC News as Washington bureau chief, Sorenson said, “I think this trip raises the question of whether the White House could have a too-cozy relationship with ABC News.”

After correspondents and producers complained about the White House arrangements with “Nightline,” network executives said, the White House began to loosen up the access granted to NBC and CBS for their nightly newscasts. Anchors Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather got brief interviews with Clinton on Tuesday and Friday, and CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer also spoke with him Friday.

“We’re disappointed that we didn’t have more access to the President,” a CNN spokesman said.

Some ABC staffers expressed concerns that shots of Koppel alongside the President while Clinton played a musical instrument in a Prague restaurant made Koppel appear to be too much part of the story himself. And some network sources also questioned whether Koppel was able to be as tough in his questioning of the President throughout the trip as he is when facing an interview subject on a regular “Nightline” program. Although Koppel mentioned the subject of the Whitewater real estate and banking affair on Monday night, it was Clinton’s answer Tuesday to a question from Dan Rather about Whitewater that made headlines in Wednesday’s papers.

“I have great admiration for Ted Koppel, but I think it is very difficult to ask a tough question about Whitewater when you know you’re going to be with the President all week,” Sorenson said.

Tom Bettag, executive producer of “Nightline,” attributed the other networks’ criticism to competition. “It’s par for this business that if somebody gets something you don’t, you raise holy hell. The fact of the matter is that ‘Nightline’ was in a unique position to do this kind of program--six hours consecutively to look at something this complicated.”

Bettag noted that Koppel pointedly said that Clinton had canceled his agreement to be interviewed on Wednesday night.

“Air Force One can be a pretty seductive environment,” Bettag said, “but I think we did bite the hand that feeds us. Ted mentioned Whitewater on Monday night, when the President had just come from his mother’s funeral. And he got Clinton to admit that he may have been rash in his criticisms of George Bush’s handling of Bosnia.”

Although Gergen is said to have been a serious candidate for the ABC Washington job before he went to the White House, Bettag dismissed rumors of his coming to ABC now “as absolute nonsense” and said “the notion that he would get the President to talk to ‘Nightline’ (out of some possible relationship with ABC) is ridiculous.”

Deputy White House Press Secretary Ginny Trezano said that officials there saw the ABC offer as “a great opportunity for the American people to see their President at work. ‘Nightline’ presented a creative idea, as other networks have done with other programs the President has appeared on. We don’t think the other networks were shut out on this trip.”