The Unmuddling off Mudd

A loser in the Cronkite sweepstakes, unjolly Roger jumps ship

Roger Mudd learned the news only moments before it was officially announced last February: Dan Rather, the handsome, rat-a-tat-tat 60 Minutes correspondent, had been chosen to succeed Walter Cronkite as anchorman on the CBS Evening News. Until that instant, Mudd, 52, had been sure that the job would eventually be his. He had, after all, been filling in for Cronkite on weekends and vacations since the late '60s. Stunned and humiliated, Mudd took a paid leave of absence and in June began talking to rival networks ABC and NBC. "I have regarded myself as a news reporter," he intoned, "not as a newsmaker or celebrity."

Mudd finally made his move last week. He signed with NBC as "chief Washington correspondent," and there was speculation that he would succeed John Chancellor as anchorman, perhaps as early as next year. Said Chancellor: "I think I will stay beyond the elections, but I don't know how long." One knowledgeable correspondent sized up NBC'S anchor situation this way: "What [News President William] Small has in mind is keeping Chancellor on if he wants to stay and betting that Chancellor will catch up in the ratings with CBS when Cronkite goes. If he doesn't, then Small will try the combination of Jessica Savitch and Mudd or Tom Brokaw and Mudd, with Mudd based in Washington."

ABC offered Mudd an evening news anchor position in New York (joining those in Washington, Chicago and London), but he did not want to leave his native Washington, where he has worked in television for 24 years. Indeed, Mudd's professional reputation rests almost entirely on his reporting in the capital, a fact that seemed to hurt him in comparisons with Rather, who has done tours in London, Viet Nam and Washington. Says Washington Star Political Writer Jules Witcover: "Among the writing press covering politics, Mudd is considered the top broadcast reporter. He's the one guy who really covers politics in the off years, who gets around." Some CBS executives found Mudd to be smug and difficult to get along with in recent years, but they are paying a considerable compliment to his skills: CBS plans to hold him to his contract (it extends through 1980) until the day after the Nov. 4 elections.

During the past three months, NBC has slipped into last place in the evening news ratings, behind longtime leader CBS and newly aggressive ABC. Desperate to reverse the slide, NBC last month hired Diplomatic Correspondent Marvin Kalb, 50, away from CBS--but only after taking the questionable step of guaranteeing him a certain number of appearances on the nightly news each week. The network also announced that its Today Show would air ten "exclusive" interviews with Presidential Candidate John Anderson during the Republican Convention, a gimmick of dubious news value and fairness.

Mudd should help in more substantive ways. He has a wry sense of humor, and some of his better pieces have poked gentle fun at the foibles and failings of American politics and its practitioners. His interview with Senator Edward Kennedy last fall caught the candidate at his inarticulate worst and is possibly the most important work of political journalism of the entire campaign. On-camera, Mudd is soothing if somewhat stolid. For viewers who like someone more neutral than the electrifying Rather, Roger Mudd may some day be the man of the evening half-hour.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.