‘Week in Review’ Anchor Bode Leaving Reworked PBS Program

Ken Bode is leaving as moderator of the Public Broadcasting Service’s “Washington Week in Review,” in the wake of what he says are plans to revamp the program to give it “a little more edge and attitude and opinion.”

Bode, who is also the dean of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, said he is leaving by agreement with the show’s producer, public station WETA-TV in Washington. Bode said he already had decided that he probably would continue doing both jobs only for another year or so, when WETA’s new chief programming executive, Dalton Delan, told him of plans to change the program, which features a changing round table of Washington journalists discussing their stories.

“Our objective has always been not to have people disagreeing with each other--to have working reporters with full notebooks, talking about the stories they’re covering,” Bode said. Among the changes that have been discussed, he said, are having regular panelists and guest panelists who are not Washington journalists.

“This other means of dealing with it sounds like a cable show to me. . . . I think it’s a mistake to do it that way, but it’s his program.”

A WETA spokeswoman denied major changes are afoot. She said the station is in the preliminary stage of evaluating the show, as part of a comprehensive look at all the station’s programs, and that among the changes will be a “tweak” in the “Washington Week in Review” format.

No replacement moderator has been chosen.

Bode, who has anchored the show since 1994, plans to leave in June. The program airs Friday nights on more than 300 stations, and is seen by about 2.7 million people weekly.