End of an era for political TV broadcasting

The watering down of political broadcasting on TV is an issue being debated on both sides of the Atlantic this weekend.

In the US, the FT looks at how, in an era of cable news and a soundbite culture, the “commanding heights” of political news have disappeared, following the death of NBC’s Meet The Press anchor Tim Russert and the retirement of talk show veteran Robert Novak.

Here in the UK, The Observer looks at whether the demise of weekend political shows such as ITV’s The Sunday Programme means politicians are less exposed to public scrutiny.

Meanwhile, the US media has been criticised for keeping silent for nine months about news that former democrat presidential candidate John Edwards was having an extra-marital affair. The story, which was broken by the National Enquirer, was carried on blogs but was not touched by other papers.