Inside Washington

"Inside Washington" is a political roundtable show hosted by WJLA news anchor and chief political reporter Gordon Peterson. It is produced by Allbritton, owner of WJLA, and distributed to PBS stations nationwide. In each broadcast, Peterson has four panelists discussing their opinions on political topics that are in the news during the week, and infrequently will bring in a fifth panelist or guest journalist via a satellite television feed.

"Inside Washington" is the descendant of "Agronsky & Co.", a show hosted by Martin Agronsky and produced by Post-Newsweek, owners of WUSA 9, from 1969 to 1988, and aired on WUSA in the Washington, D.C. area. Upon Agronsky's retirement in 1988, Peterson took over as host, and the show was renamed "Inside Washington". Gannett took over production for the remainder of the show's run on WUSA. When Peterson moved to WJLA in the autumn of 2004, the show and all of its regular panelists at the time were brought to WJLA as well. Its regular broadcast time was switched from Saturday evenings (as also had been the practice with "Agronsky & Co.") to Sunday mornings, although the show maintained a Saturday evening presence after the switch to WJLA by beginning to air on NewsChannel 8, a Washington, D.C.-area local news cable television channel, at the same time the show switched to WJLA. The show also began airing on Washington, D.C.-area PBS station WETA on September 2, 2005.

In the Washington, D.C. area, "Inside Washington" airs on WETA Friday nights at 8:30 PM - this broadcast is simulcast on the WETA World PBS cable television channel - on NewsChannel 8 Saturday nights at 7:00 PM, and on Sunday mornings at 9:00 AM on WJLA. Although the Saturday evening broadcast time is consistent, WETA and WJLA sometimes change the broadcast times on Fridays and Sundays respectively for brief periods, and over the years the regular Sunday time slot for the show on WJLA also has varied.

The tone of "Inside Washington" is very different from that of "The McLaughlin Group", one of its major competitors. Where the "McLaughlin Group" panelists and John McLaughlin himself are prone to loud voices and direct arguments, the " Inside Washington" panelists tend to remain at a normal speaking voice and are rarely combative. In addition, Peterson is much less likely to provide his personal opinion on the topic than McLaughlin.

The show's current regular panelists are Colby King, Charles Krauthammer, Mark Shields, Evan Thomas, and Nina Totenberg, four of which appear on each show. Although it is not common, the fifth regular panelist occasionally will participate in all or part of show via a satellite television feed. When two or more of the regulars are unavailable during the same week, other journalists will participate to keep the number of panelists at four and to substitute for Peterson when he is unavailable.

External links

* [http://www.insidewashington.tv/ - "Inside Washington" Official website]
* [http://www.weta.org/about/press/kits/37354 WETA announces addition of "Inside Washington"]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421370/ The Internet Movie Database "Inside Washington"]
* [http://washingtontimes.com/news/2004/nov/09/20041109-094859-5664r/ "The Washington Times" "WUSA Rethinks Roundtable"]