ASHINGTON - While two of the broadcast networks have passed on at least one of the presidential debates, CBS has decided to step up its political coverage by providing five minutes a night for election news.
''Our goal is to serve the public interest while providing compelling political campaign coverage,'' said Joel Cheatwood, executive vice president of news for the CBS Television Stations division. ''This commitment from our stations will undoubtedly allow citizens in the local markets we serve to make more informed decisions come Nov. 7.''
The five-minute segments will be available beginning Monday through Election Day, covering the final 37 days of the political campaigns, CBS TV president and CEO Leslie Moonves said Thursday. Invitations have been extended to Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush to participate in a special edition of ''CBS Evening News'' on Nov. 6.
The segments renew CBS's commitment to a presidential commission - cochaired by Moonves - that recommended that the networks give five minutes a night to candidates. During the last election, CBS regularly made five minutes available to President Bill Clinton and Senator Bob Dole to address issues.
But this year the segments will be produced by the local stations, including WBZ-TV (Channel 4 in Boston), and will be broadcast between 5 and 11:35 p.m. within existing local news broadcasts. The segments will include a wide range of information for voters in federal, state, and local elections, including candidate-centered stories and issue-related features and forums.
''It may have been decent politics and good public service, but it was lousy television,'' executive vice president of CBS Television Martin Franks said of the 1996 effort. ''We hope this kind of special effort will get people to tune in. We know in 1996 they tuned out, so we didn't do it right.''
Free-time advocates applauded CBS's move.
''I'm delighted to see that CBS is not just talking the talk, but walking the walk,'' said Norman Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute resident scholar and cochairman of the presidential commission. ''Let's hope that its announcement leads the way for other broadcasters to meet this minimum standard.''
Paul Taylor, executive director of the Alliance for Better Campaigns, was also encouraged by the announcement.
''But if CBS can do it, why can't the others?'' Taylor asked. ''ABC, NBC, and Fox should stop treating democracy as if it were a cash cow and start opening the airwaves to something better than attack ads and sound bites.''
NBC defers on debate
Perhaps spurred by rumblings among its affiliates, NBC announced yesterday that it would allow local stations the option of broadcasting the baseball playoff game or the presidential debate on Tuesday. Earlier this week, after the network decided to preempt the first debate for the ballgame, local NBC affiliate WHDH-TV (Channel 7) announced it would air the Boston-based debate between George Bush and Al Gore anyway.
''This has been a difficult situation, we're trying hard to accommodate all of our audiences,'' said NBC Network president Randy Falco in a statement yesterday. ''We will leave the decisions to our local stations and affiliates - who know their audiences best.''
One place where the game could conceivably show up in Boston is on Pax station WBPX-TV (Channel 68).
MARK JURKOWITZ
