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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 23, 1992                   TAG: 9202210188
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SUSAN KING LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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`WASHINGTON WEEK IN REVIEW' TURNS 25

"Washington Week in Review," the longest-running public affairs program on PBS, celebrates its 25th anniversary this week.

Moderated for the past 18 years by veteran journalist Paul Duke, the Duke award-winning, half-hour weekly series focuses on the important news events of the week and features a round-table discussion of the week's news by leading newspaper and magazine journalists in Washington.

The series first aired Feb. 23, 1967, on the district's public station, WETA. In January 1969, it became the first locally produced program to air on the new Public Broadcasting Service.

The future of the series at one time was in peril. After the 1972 presidential election and the unfolding of the Watergate scandal, the Nixon administration generated pressure against public affairs programs on PBS, specifically "Washington Week." The program's outspoken reporting by the late Peter Lisagor of the Chicago Daily News supposedly had been giving Nixon sleepless nights. Some 15,000 letters from viewers saved the series.

Duke has been involved in journalism since he was 13, putting out his own handwritten neighborhood newspaper in his hometown of Richmond, Va. In the late '50s, Duke began covering national politics for The Associated Press. After four years writing for the Wall Street Journal, Duke joined NBC News in 1963 as the network's congressional correspondent. He joined public broadcasting in 1974.

Today: "Washington Week in Review" airs at 4 p.m. on WBRA-Channel 15.

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