Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal: Washington Week - Fact Sheet

Program overview:

A weekly half-hour roundtable discussion of the week’s top news stories by a rotating panel of journalists from major news organizations.

Air day and time:

Broadcast live each Friday at 8:00pm ET. (Check local listings for airtime.)

Carriage:

Broadcast by more than 300 PBS stations, covering 97% of U.S. households.

Production:

The program is produced by WETA Washington, D.C.

Moderator and Managing Editor:

Gwen Ifill

Panelists include:

Dan Balz, The Washington Post
Jeffrey Birnbaum, The Washington Post
Gloria Borger, U.S. News & World Report and CBS News
David S. Broder, The Washington Post
Michael Duffy, Time
Tom Gjelten, National Public Radio
Linda Greenhouse, The New York Times
John Harwood, The Wall Street Journal
Doyle McManus, The Los Angeles Times
Alan S. Murray, The Wall Street Journal
Barbara Slavin, USA Today

History:

The program’s first broadcast was February 23, 1967. Beginning in May 1967, it was broadcast over the 14-station Eastern Educational Network. In January 1969, “Washington Week” became one of the first programs to air on the new Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Now in its 39th year, “Washington Week” is the longest-running public affairs program on public television.

John Davenport, then WETA’s public affairs director, served as the program’s first moderator. He was succeeded by Max Kampelman, Washington attorney and chief arms control negotiator in the Reagan administration; Robert MacNeil, co-anchor of “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour”; former CBS newsman Lincoln Furber; veteran Washington journalist Paul Duke; and Ken Bode, former correspondent for CNN. In October 1999, Ifill became moderator and managing editor.

Awards:

Winner of numerous awards, including the duPont-Columbia Journalism Award, a Silver Medal from the International Film and Television Festival of New York and local Emmy Awards.

Funding:

Corporate funding is provided by Boeing Company, Chevron, the National Mining Association and Norfolk Southern. Major funding is provided by Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS.