#PBS HOURLY NEWS PROFESSIONAL#
When the Trump White House gave its first interview following the spread of Covid-19 to ABC News in 2020, it specifically asked to sit down with World News Tonight anchor DAVID MUIR over then-chief anchor GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, a move that further heightened tensions between the two anchors, which eventually boiled over publicly early last year.īut while Trump interviews were coveted for their star-making potential - interviews generated huge ratings, headlines, and professional accolades for anchors - the PBS incident illustrates a different dynamic for those covering the White House in the Biden era: You may get only one chance to speak with the president one-on-one, if you get that chance at all. Intra-network friction between shows and anchors for high-profile interviews, particularly presidential ones, isn’t new. According to two people familiar with the discussions, AMNA NAWAZ and GEOFF BENNETT are seen internally as frontrunners, though a PBS official said Woodruff’s successor has “not yet been determined because there are not yet plans for Judy to step down.” Woodruff, an iconic journalist and the organization’s longtime face, is also one of the oldest nightly news anchors on national television, sparking some speculation about how much longer she plans to stay and who her eventual successor might be. The normally drama-free Washington mainstay has seen several departures recently including Alcindor, who recently joined NBC News as Washington Correspondent (though she remains the host of Washington Week). The tensions came at a delicate moment for PBS and NewsHour. PBS declined to comment specifically on the incident. Those PBS insiders said the interview caused tensions between the two shows: Some NewsHour staff felt that, while there was no explicit policy dictating Woodruff should get the first interview with Biden, it was understood that PBS shows shouldn’t be competing with one another for a sit-down. She had been in the dark that Alcindor, a rising starand newly-appointed moderator at the organization, was asking too and that the White House had been working with her on it. Woodruff, the news organization’s longtime anchor and host of its flagship program, had a longstanding request for an interview with Biden from the time he became president, but which was not granted during his first year at the White House. Three PBS insiders and people with knowledge of the incident said fellow PBS anchor JUDY WOODRUFF and some other staff at PBS’ nightly NewsHour program were miffed and frustrated when they learned that Alcindor had secured an interview for the network’s Friday program, Washington Week. Last year, PBS anchor and then-White House correspondent YAMICHE ALCINDOR was slated to conduct an on-camera interview exclusively with the president sometime around July 4, a date the White House was targeting for its celebration of 100 million Covid-19 vaccinations.īut the scheduled sit-down caught some at the news organization off guard. But one-on-one sit downs with President JOE BIDEN are so scarce these days that the prospect of access to the president can cause tensions within the same news organization. Networks and news outlets are used to jockeying with each other for coveted presidential interviews. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Alex | Email Tina | Email Max Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration.
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