Networks follow Obama overseas

By Paul J. Gough

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - When Barack Obama leaves for his trip to Europe and the Middle East sometime this month, he'll be making time for the Big Three anchors to interview him while he is on road.

The Obama campaign seeks to shore up its candidate's foreign policy credentials, one of the places where GOP rival John McCain bests him in most opinion surveys. To get the word out, campaign officials during the past several weeks have been talking to the broadcast networks about logistics for each of the exclusive interviews, all in foreign locales.

The details remain sketchy for security reasons, though it's confirmed that NBC's Brian Williams, ABC's Charles Gibson and CBS' Katie Couric all will have exclusive interviews with Obama on separate days. The exact dates of the trip have not been made public, also for security reasons.

But the intense coverage that Obama's trip will generate is causing debate within the halls of the network news divisions. A network executive said that no one's enjoying the position that the Obama campaign is putting them in, not to mention concerns about fairness. McCain's overseas trips didn't rate accompaniment from the network anchors or even, in at least one case, a full complement of network correspondents.

The networks also are talking to the McCain campaign to make sure that it's not all Obama, all the time next week.

"We have already reached out to them (the McCain campaign) to provide an equal opportunity to them," said ABC "World News" executive producer Jonathan Banner.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter