Panelists at last night's Kennedy School event argued that the media needs to substantially change the way it covers the White House and national politics.

The discussion, entitled "The Media's Coverage of Clinton's First Year," drew about 300 people to the K-School's ARCO Forum.

Assistant to the President and White House Director of Communication Mark D. Gearan '78, said that while people want coverage of "real" issues which impact their lives, the press does not always provide it.

"People want a lot of coverage on the issues at the center of their lives, be that health care or whatever, and when we falter from that, we get into news that is less elevated," Gearan said.

Margaret Tutwiler, the former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, agreed that the press often fails to cover the important issues.

"Real news today has been crowded out by sensationalism," Tutwiler said. "We read so much about the Bobbit trial and about so-and-so getting divorced, that it affects quality."

Washington correspondent Thomas N. Oliphant '67, who writes for the Boston Globe, said substantive coverage of Washington has been crowded out of newspapers by sensationalist stories and over-analysis of events.

"I have seen a steep drop in the standards of the profession," Oliphant said. "Writing about things like political strategy has today crowded the serious substantive White House journalism out of journalism."

Oliphat suggested the tightening of libel standards as a means of combatting low-quality reporting.

Coziness

Panelists also noted evidence of an excessive closeness between government officials and some journalists.

"They take them out for dinner to Duke's, said Charles Peters, editor of the Atlantic Monthly.

But Gearan said the links between reporters and politicians are not so tight.

"I don't think the coziness is quite so graphic," Gearan said. "I think that by and large, people work hard to get their stories right."

Tutwiler denied that any "coziness" between officials and press exists.