Grinning boyishly, Mr. Stephanopoulos denies the presence of a White House enemies list.
Hewitt and Stephanopoulos faced each other at the 15th annual Brown University/Providence Journal conference titled: ``America's Media: Are They Out of Control?'' ending today. Their exchange was not just about access to the president, or recalling the impact of the ``60 Minutes'' program in 1991 when candidate Clinton responded to questions about Gennifer Flowers.
Behind their exchange were the wrenching competitive forces challenging and changing the media today. The heart of the matter, says Hewitt, is that as the ``entertainment media'' have gained in popularity, journalistic standards have fallen.
Supermarket tabloids, radio talk shows, and sensational TV shows thrive on the provocative and bizarre. Huge audiences are listening, watching, and reading. Some 2.8 million copies of The Star, a supermarket tabloid, are sold each week. An estimated 5.2 million households watch ``A Current Affair'' every night.
As a result, newspapers, TV magazines, and network news broadcasts are pressured to include tabloidlike, off-beat stories in their lineup of serious fare.
While TV entertainment shows emphasize a more sensational content, their newslike format - with anchors, reporters, and taped interviews - give the appearance of being news. But according to tabloid editors, the subjects are often paid thousands to tell their stories.
Editors like Robert Feldman of ``A Current Affair'' admit to being as ``much of a businessman as a journalist'' with the objective of attracting and keeping as many viewers as possible. Although the networks have the same motive, the difference is that entertainment shows never say whether or not interviews were paid for.
For Richard Kaplan, editor of The Star, the mainstream press has indeed become more tabloid in much of its coverage. ``But it should go back to doing what they do best, and leave me alone,'' he says during another panel at the conference.
While supermarket and TV tabloids may have influenced the mainstream press, some critics say the impact of CNN on news has been revolutionary. The traditional ``news cycle'' no longer exists. CNN is collecting and presenting news 24 hours a day.
By the next morning, when newspapers hit the stands, say Mr. Rosenstiel and Stephanopoulos, the nightly news has set the agenda for these papers.