Network News and Presidential Elections

Less than two weeks after the presidential election, the presidents of the three broadcast network news divisions will meet at Stanford to discuss the future of network news journalism. The three men -- Andrew Heyward, of CBS News (pictured), Neal Shapiro, of NBC News and David Westin, of ABC News -- preside over a form of journalism whose share of the nation has been declining, but which still reaches a huge numer of people. During the first presidential debate of 2004, for instance, the three broadcast news networks reached an estimated 42.2 million people, while the three cable news networks (Fox, CNN and MSNBC) reached an estimated 15.2 million people.

The discussion will be moderated by Richard Wald, the Fred Friendly Professor of Media and Society at Columbia University.