''Inside Washington'', formerly ''Agronsky & Co.'', was a political roundtable show hosted by the
WJLA
WJLA-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Washington, D.C., affiliated with ABC. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (alongside dual Fox/MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFF hannel 45in Baltimore), and is also sister ...
news presenter and chief political reporter Gordon Peterson that aired from 1988 to 2013. It was produced by Allbritton, then-owner of WJLA, and distributed to public television stations nationwide by
American Public Television
American Public Television (APT) is an American nonprofit organization and syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States. It distributes public television programs nationwide for PBS member stations and independ ...
. In each broadcast, Peterson had four panelists discussing their opinions on political topics that were in the news during the week, and occasionally brought in a fifth panelist or guest journalist via a satellite television feed.
History
''Inside Washington'' was the descendant of '' Agronsky & Co.'', a show hosted by
Martin Agronsky
Martin Zama Agronsky ( ; January 12, 1915 – July 25, 1999), also known as Martin Agronski, was an American journalist, political analyst, and television host. He began his career in 1936 working under his uncle, Gershon Agron, at the ''Palest ...
and produced by
Post-Newsweek
Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post Company) is a diversified American conglomerate holding company. Headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia, and incorporated in Delaware, it was formerly the owner of ''The Washington Pos ...
, the owners of WUSA 9, from 1969 to 1988, and broadcast on WUSA in the
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
area. On Agronsky's retirement in 1988, Peterson took over as host, and the show was renamed ''Inside Washington''.
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.NewsChannel 8, a Washington D.C. area local news
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
channel briefly known as TBD TV, at the same time the show switched to WJLA. The show also began to be shown on the Washington, D.C.-area
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
station WETA on September 2, 2005.
When it debuted in 1969, ''Agronsky & Co.'' was a pioneer of the "talking head" format of television
journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
in which journalists discussed the news of the day with one another in a roundtable format instead of interviewing the newsmakers themselves. The format was inexpensive to produce and appealed to a niche market of affluent viewers. Many shows have since adopted the format, and it has become a staple of television opinion programming.Farhi, Paul, "After more than 40 years, ‘Inside Washington’ will go off the air," washingtonpost.com, September 8, 2013. /ref>
In early September 2013, Gordon Peterson announced that ''Inside Washington'' would cease production in late December 2013, ending a continuous run of 25 years for ''Inside Washington'' and a combined 44 years for ''Agronsky & Co.'' and ''Inside Washington''. The last new episode of ''Inside Washington'' aired on WETA on December 20, 2013, on Newschannel 8 on December 21, 2013, and on WJLA on December 22, 2013.
Broadcast
In the Washington, D.C., area, ''Inside Washington'' was broadcast on WETA on Friday nights at 8:30 PM (this broadcast was simulcast on the WETA World PBS cable television channel), on TBD TV on Saturday nights at 7:00 PM, and on Sunday mornings at 9:00 AM on WJLA. Although the Saturday evening broadcast time was consistent, WETA and WJLA sometimes changed 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 varied. ''Inside Washington'' was syndicated to PBS stations around the United States.
''Agronsky & Co.'' always had a more staid tone than most of its later imitators. The tone of ''Inside Washington'', although somewhat more opinionated than under Agronskys stewardship, nonetheless was very different from that of many "talking head" shows that followed, including ''
The McLaughlin Group
''The McLaughlin Group'' was a syndicated half-hour weekly public affairs television program in the United States, during which a group of four pundits, prompted by the host, discusses current political issues in a round table format. John ...
'', one of its major competitors. Where ''The McLaughlin Group'' panelists and host
John McLaughlin John or Jon McLaughlin may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* John McLaughlin (musician) (born 1942), English jazz fusion guitarist, member of Mahavishnu Orchestra
* Jon McLaughlin (musician) (born 1982), American singer-songwriter
* John McLaug ...
himself are prone to loud voices and direct arguments, the '' Inside Washington'' panelists tended to remain at a normal speaking voice and were rarely combative. In addition, Peterson was much less likely to provide his personal opinion on the topic than McLaughlin.
The show's regular panelists in its later years were
Colbert I. King
Colbert Isaiah King (born September 20, 1939) is an American columnist for ''The Washington Post'' and the deputy editor of the ''Posts editorial page. In 2003, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
Early life
King was born to Amelia ...
,
Charles Krauthammer
Charles Krauthammer (; March 13, 1950 – June 21, 2018) was an American political columnist. A moderate liberal who turned independent conservative as a political pundit, Krauthammer won the Pulitzer Prize for his columns in ''The Washingt ...
,
Mark Shields
Mark Stephen Shields (May 25, 1937 – June 18, 2022) was an American political columnist, advisor, and commentator. He worked in leadership positions for many Democratic candidates' electoral campaigns.
Shields provided weekly political anal ...
,
Evan Thomas
Evan Welling Thomas III (born April 25, 1951) is an American journalist, historian, and author. He is the author of nine books, including two ''New York Times'' bestsellers.
Early life and career
Thomas was born in Huntington, New York, and r ...
, and
Nina Totenberg
Nina Totenberg (born January 14, 1944) is an American legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR) focusing primarily on the activities and politics of the Supreme Court of the United States. Her reports air regularly on NPR's new ...
, four of whom appeared on each show. Although it was not common, the fifth would occasionally participate in person or in all or part of a show via a satellite television feed. When two or more of the regulars were unavailable during the same week, other
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
s would participate to keep the number of panelists at four and to substitute for Peterson when he was unavailable.
The theme song for ''Inside Washington'' was "Procession of the Nobles" from the
ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
''
Mlada
''Mlada'' (russian: Млада, italic=yes, the name of a main character) was a project conceived in 1870 by Stepan Gedeonov (1816–1878), director of the Saint Petersburg Imperial Theatres, originally envisioned as a ballet to be composed by ...
'' by the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n composer
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...
. This also was the theme song of ''Agronsky & Co.''
Washington Week
''Washington Week''—previously ''Washington Week in Review''—is an American public affairs television program, which has aired on PBS and its predecessor, National Educational Television, since 1967. Unlike other panel discussion shows which ...