Web Video: Celebrating 50 years of Washington Week with announcer Paul Anthony

The show began in 1967.

At the time, there were very few panel discussions. Now you see them everywhere. It was not the case then.

When it started, there were 3 networks and public television, which was in its fledgling stages to be sure, but that was it. That was the ball game. And there was no Twitter, no Facebook, none of that stuff. No cable television really.

One of our public affairs producers John Davenport came up with this concept where he would, in this case, moderate a show which would have four journalists who were pretty well known in journalistic circles but certainly not on television sit around and talk about their beats.

He was very particular about who he had on the program, OK? These were people he respected a great deal. And each of them in turn knew their beats. I mean, they knew what they were talking about in their respective fields.

So you would have Peter Lisagor who did the White House from the Chicago Daily News. Harry Ellis who worked for the Christian Science Monitor. He was the economics guy. Charlie Corddry who was the defense department for the Baltimore Evening Sun. And then Neil MacNeil was the Congressional correspondent for Time Magazine. They would sit around and talk.

The show was rather structured at that time where each of those guys got 6 minutes on the show. They would do, say a minute and half synopsis in their field and then would open it up to questions.

If the Saudis, for example, who are certainly not going to like the treaty, if they continue to provide subsidies for Mr. Sadat, all they need to do is keep the money coming no matter what they say. Remember the words of a famous politician, ‘Watch what I do, not what I say.’ That’s what we need to do in the context of the Saudis.

It was always a very civil show. There was never any controversy. You know, they would have disagreements about things, but it was not like pitched battle, you know, like you see sometimes.

We got a sense from the White House this week that it was really rock and roll, that it was skidding along. A lot of successes, but even family and medical leave for example, their bill signing all scheduled for Thursday night and ready to go and it didn’t go. It seems like everyone is being done by the skin of their chin.

Keep in mind that the Democrats have only run the White House for four of the last 25 years. So they’re out of practice.

I joined the station, first full-time job out of college, first full-time announcer for WETA, in 1964.

For the first years of it, the way it was structured is I would read a topical headline for each show.

The president approves mild sanctions for South Africa. One of the stories tonight on Washington Week in Review.

When Lyndon Johnson was in, he most weekends left to go to the Texas White House on Thursdays. And most of the town, it was the opinion of the panelists nothing happened on Fridays. You know, he was out of town. So the show was done on Thursdays. It was not done on Fridays. Only after he left did it move to Friday nights. And we did it live.

I did it live every single Friday for 12 or 15 years until Paul Duke came.

Now here’s moderator Paul Duke.

Good evening. A few things have happened this week. Sen. Bob Kerry won the Democratic primary in South Dakota. Congress has rejected President Bush’s economic recovery program. And the Supreme Court has joined in the battle against sexual harassment.

But if I run into somebody and they can’t comprehend what I do. I say, do you ever watch Washington week? Oh yeah. Well I’ve been the announcer of that program for many many years. Oh, ok.

Even my mother didn’t really know what I did. When I started doing the program, she lived in Florida at the time, I’d say tune in at 8 o’clock. For the first 3 or 4 weeks, she would call, where were you? I didn’t see you. You never see me, you hear me. Well I listened, I didn’t hear. When did you tune in? You have to tune in straight up.

Once again from the Mahaffey Theatre at the Progress Energy Center for the Arts, here’s moderator Gwen Ifill.

Thank you.

And thank you to Paul Anthony, our voice of Washington Week for 40 years, in person.

The civility of it was something extraordinary. Which is carried on in the NewsHour, for all those many years. The same kind of thing.

That’s how it began. It flourished after that.