Network News Coverage of Congress

During the last decade, social scientists, pollsters, and journalists have attributed to network news coverage of Congress a remarkable assortment of political maladies. Among those things for which television has been blamed are: the increasing domination by the Senate of the presidential recruitment process;1 the decline in public trust and respect for the Congress as a whole;2 the growing reliance upon the Senate for providing policy innovation in Congress;3 the weakening of congressional leadership;4 and the trivialization of committee hearings. 5 What makes this collection of allegations more remarkable is the fact that the networks still cannot televise Congress from the floor, either during deliberation or voting. All these alleged effects are the presumed consequences of the attention given Congress on the network evening news.6 Perhaps the most striking aspect concerning television and Congress, however,