NEW YORK — As the 2008 presidential campaign moves into its final, frenzied push, the race has never been more competitive.
In this case, the rivals are the broadcast television news divisions and their cable news challengers jockeying to win viewers for their political coverage. The cable channels showed clout during the party conventions, but ABC, CBS and NBC are hoping that their evenhanded style and high-profile exclusives will keep people watching this fall.
One sign of the broadcasters' continuing sway: Tonight ABC's "World News" will air the first part of anchor Charles Gibson's interview with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the only one she has granted since becoming the Republican vice presidential nominee. The fact that it went to Gibson -- who is interviewing Palin in Alaska over two days, with the final installment airing on Friday's "20/20" -- speaks to the lasting regard for the Big Three's anchors.
The campaign did not tell ABC why it chose to do the interview with Gibson, but news division President David Westin said he believes it was because of the anchor's experience and approach to campaign coverage.
"We have continually done our very best to be honest and complete and fair to all sides and not to take any positions and not to be used by a campaign for its purposes," he said.
But cable network executives argue that it's only a matter of time before such exclusives land on their channels, which are increasingly becoming purveyors of political developments because of their nonstop nature.
"We can stay in touch with viewers 24/7, and that's an enormous advantage over the broadcasters, which are severely restricted in their footprint," said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. "They can only deliver news at certain and increasingly inconvenient times."
Even with less air time, broadcasters argue that they deliver weightier and more substantial coverage. "What we have chosen to do is offer what viewers can't get in all of the blather on cable," said Rick Kaplan, executive producer of "CBS Evening News." "You present a really solid, substantial, meaningful set of reports."
Still, four years after Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather were the dominant television figures covering the presidential race, there's no question that the authority traditionally wielded by network anchors is eroding.
