The presidents of the three broadcast networks' news divisions are
scheduled to meet at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 15, in Cubberley Auditorium, where they will discuss the future of electronic journalism. Titled "Network News and Presidential Elections," the discussion will be held less than two weeks after a presidential-election campaign in which journalism has been a focal point of criticism. The discussion will be moderated by Richard Wald, the Fred Friendly Professor of Media and Society at Columbia University.
The forum, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the
John S. Knight Fellowships for Professional Journalists at Stanford.
The three division presidents-Andrew Heyward of CBS News, Neal
Shapiro of NBC News and David Westin of ABC News-preside over a form
of journalism whose share of the national audience has been declining
but which still reaches a huge number 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.