The Press: TV Looks at Impeachment

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino was handed a note during the impeachment debate last Thursday afternoon. He glanced at it, then arched an eyebrow at CBS Reporter Roger Mudd, who followed a messenger from the committee room. Mudd learned that a bomb threat was about to interrupt the meeting and that the bomb's alleged location was in "a CBS camera." "I guess that this is one of those things that television brings," he said on the air during the ensuing recess.

TV's impact on the Judiciary Committee proceedings— was hardly limited to anonymous threats. Four cameras and a panoply of klieg...