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Now the news: The story of broadcast journalism
Book Reviews
“therapist” works to humanize and personalize then-President Reagan and helps clarify the contradiction that status and prestige, particularly the kind of status acquired by the President of the United States and his wife, are not necessarily separate from “Middle-American virtues of moderation and simplicity.” It is this type of thought-provoking dissection of 60 Minutes and its stories that drives Campbell’s book and provides the reader with an interesting perspective from which to assess the show’s ability to impact and stimulate its viewers, even through the most subtle of techniques. Campbell points out that reporters in 60 Minutes segments, for example, tend to typically be shot from medium range, providing “more space and control” and allowing them to “better mediate the narrative tension.” An individual being interviewed who complains of the evils of big business (a popular 60 Minutes villain) and speaks of poor treatment by this “villain” is usually granted less visual space to portray a sense of helplessness and accentuate this “victimization.” Campbell also addresses how the program’s advertisements tie into and subtly enhance the content. He uses an excellent example here in the General Motors “Heartbeat of America” spot, which boasts the slogan “The Great American Road belongs to Buick.” On a particular evening, Campbell notes, this spot was directly followed by a 60 Minutes report on an “Iowa farmer fighting insensitive bureaucracies,” showing how both advertising and news content work as one to provide continuity to the program’s Middle America themes. On the whole, Campbell’s book avoids inundating the reader with scientific jargon and academic rhetoric and instead, offers a well-researched and highly readable look at what he calls “60 Minutes and its Mythology,“a “mythology in search of middle ground and common sense.” While a few chapters get a bit bogged down in excess research data early on Campbell consistently provides summaries at the end of each chapter and connects his research findings quite clearly to the book’s focus. 60 Minutes and the News: A Mythology fey Middle America may not alter one’s love-hate relationship with Wallace, Morley Safer and their cronies, but it will certainly add a new dimension and level of critical thinking to an understanding of this perennial news program as a powerful media voice for Middle America, aiming to “bridge the jagged gap between the private and the public domains.” Joseph Zappala Assistant Professor Utica College of Syracuse University Edward Bliss, Jr. Now the News: The Sto y of BroadcastJournaLism New York: Columbia University Press, 1991, 575 pp.
Whenever you’re asked to review a book written by a legend known for his writing and editing, one should have an easy task. This Winter 1992
409
Public
Relations
Review
should have been the case with Edward Bliss’ Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism. An author whose reputation as a colleague of Edward R Murrow and Walter Cronkite precedes him and who chose “the,” instead of “a,” for the subtitle of his book sets for himself an ambitious task. The book’s jacket indicates that earlier reviewers found this work “engrossing,” “invaluable,” “splendid” and “required reading for anyone who teaches, studies or practices the craft (of broadcast journalism) .” This reviewer is more reserved in praise for the work. Bliss, former head of the broadcast journalism program at American University and “the Edward R Murrow of (broadcast) journalism” as yet another reviewer on the jacket calls him, has written a work that is pretty good but there are some parts of the story where he misses it, does not explain enough, or his broadcast establishment bias painfully shows. The pluses. Bliss succeeds in getting in one volume the major events of the development of broadcast journalism from “sandbox years,” as he calls them, of the 1920s to the Persian Gulf War. The dates and places, as I have learned and read them elsewhere, are accurate. The cast of hundreds who attained their 15 minutes or more of fame and significance are there. Any book on this subject that purports to be definitive would not be a quick read or a short one and NTN is neither. Although the narrative runs nearly 500 pages, thankfully Bliss divided NTNinto 50 chapters that, nonetheless, make for a pleasant read. NTN exhibits a strong and not surprising, considering the author’s background, nostalgia for the good old days at CBS. While Bliss’ CBS background seems an asset for most of the book, that perspective becomes its flaw later on. This reviewer’s problems started with the last third of the book. The most disappointing chapters were “Let Freedom Ring” (LFR) and “If You’re White and a Male, O.K.” (IYWM) dealing respectively with television’s coverage of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and the changing of the racial and gender composition of the news staffs. In “LFR” Bliss never deals with the question of why it took broadcast journalism so long to address the paradox of racial inequality in the USA and the principles on which America was founded. Did he and the other gatekeepers never discuss this topic? Why wasn’t the race question really news until the 196Os? Why didn’t Murrow and Friendly tackle racism with the cool calculus they did McCarthyism? But why would this be expected from the television network that gave America “Amos ‘N Andy. j” Bliss was there; he should know.. . and tell his readers. In “IYWM,” the reader is left with the impression that America is black and white. Who were the first Asian-American, Native American and Hispanic-American male and female network reporters? Shouldn’t their selection and achievement deserve mention as well. Bliss paraphrased rather than recited the media’s pitiful 1960s equal opportunity record. Why was CBS, the “Tiffany of the networks” not the first to hire llltime a black reporter? Why was Mal Goode not interviewed for this book? Why omit the fact that Goode is a college graduate
410
Vol. 18, No. 4
Book Reviews
when this fact was included about so many other reporters? Bliss leaves the impression that Mal Goode was a “token” who didn’t do any real reporting. However, the United Nations was no navel-gazing job as Goode proved during ABC’s coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The rest of the book raised other questions. As Bliss moved through the history of television news, I began to take more issue with his some of his characterizations, descriptions, omissions and conclusions. One expects a historian to get the facts right and Bliss does. However, when the historian was eyewitness and participant to events, more is expected. Why was Murrow allowed to editorialize? How did Murrow feel about being treated as a privileged character? Why was doing “Person to Person” okay? Why was Ted Turner’s attempt to takeover CBS an “efh-ontery” given that CBS was started by William Paley, the heir to a cigar fortune who was merely fascinated with broadcasting? Does Spiro Agnew’s no contest plea to income tax evasion negate his basic charge that only a few people decide and produce the news and these people now move between networks with ease in puzzling bidding wars by network executives? Given the monopoly held by the networks for so long and CBS’ attitude toward “crackpot” political candidates, why are the equal time political coverage rule and the Fairness Doctrine such anathema? Bliss seems to decry the development of cable television. Do/did the men at the networks want to have their cake and eat it too? Why is the cable industry characterized as a type of jackal scavenging the networks too solid flesh? The Bather-Bush brouhaha and Bather’s pique over being preempted by a tennis match are also missing. Space will not permit the other questions I have. In his preface, Bliss acknowledged some of these limitations and indicated a desire to have told more of the story. This reviewer wish he had. N7Nis a pretty good book that will no doubt be widely accepted, cited, read. However, readers are urged to read the last third of Now The News with occasional furrowed forehead or raised eyebrows. Phillip Jeter Associate Professor Florida A&M University
Joseph E. Persico Edward R. Murrow: An American Original
McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1988, 562 pp. Pioneer, Pessimist, Patriot. From war correspondent in London during World War II to television celebrity interviewer on “Person to Person,” the biography of Edward R Murrow is a colorful portrayal of a man of contradictions. Friend and advisor to world leaders such as Churchill and Kennedy, Murrow’s biography chronicles not only a man but the rise of CBS and an entire industry that he helped shape. The early days of CBS and personalities such as Paley, Stanton, Friendly, and
Winter
1992
411
“therapist” works to humanize and personalize then-President Reagan and helps clarify the contradiction that status and prestige, particularly the kind of status acquired by the President of the United States and his wife, are not necessarily separate from “Middle-American virtues of moderation and simplicity.” It is this type of thought-provoking dissection of 60 Minutes and its stories that drives Campbell’s book and provides the reader with an interesting perspective from which to assess the show’s ability to impact and stimulate its viewers, even through the most subtle of techniques. Campbell points out that reporters in 60 Minutes segments, for example, tend to typically be shot from medium range, providing “more space and control” and allowing them to “better mediate the narrative tension.” An individual being interviewed who complains of the evils of big business (a popular 60 Minutes villain) and speaks of poor treatment by this “villain” is usually granted less visual space to portray a sense of helplessness and accentuate this “victimization.” Campbell also addresses how the program’s advertisements tie into and subtly enhance the content. He uses an excellent example here in the General Motors “Heartbeat of America” spot, which boasts the slogan “The Great American Road belongs to Buick.” On a particular evening, Campbell notes, this spot was directly followed by a 60 Minutes report on an “Iowa farmer fighting insensitive bureaucracies,” showing how both advertising and news content work as one to provide continuity to the program’s Middle America themes. On the whole, Campbell’s book avoids inundating the reader with scientific jargon and academic rhetoric and instead, offers a well-researched and highly readable look at what he calls “60 Minutes and its Mythology,“a “mythology in search of middle ground and common sense.” While a few chapters get a bit bogged down in excess research data early on Campbell consistently provides summaries at the end of each chapter and connects his research findings quite clearly to the book’s focus. 60 Minutes and the News: A Mythology fey Middle America may not alter one’s love-hate relationship with Wallace, Morley Safer and their cronies, but it will certainly add a new dimension and level of critical thinking to an understanding of this perennial news program as a powerful media voice for Middle America, aiming to “bridge the jagged gap between the private and the public domains.” Joseph Zappala Assistant Professor Utica College of Syracuse University Edward Bliss, Jr. Now the News: The Sto y of BroadcastJournaLism New York: Columbia University Press, 1991, 575 pp.
Whenever you’re asked to review a book written by a legend known for his writing and editing, one should have an easy task. This Winter 1992
409
Public
Relations
Review
should have been the case with Edward Bliss’ Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism. An author whose reputation as a colleague of Edward R Murrow and Walter Cronkite precedes him and who chose “the,” instead of “a,” for the subtitle of his book sets for himself an ambitious task. The book’s jacket indicates that earlier reviewers found this work “engrossing,” “invaluable,” “splendid” and “required reading for anyone who teaches, studies or practices the craft (of broadcast journalism) .” This reviewer is more reserved in praise for the work. Bliss, former head of the broadcast journalism program at American University and “the Edward R Murrow of (broadcast) journalism” as yet another reviewer on the jacket calls him, has written a work that is pretty good but there are some parts of the story where he misses it, does not explain enough, or his broadcast establishment bias painfully shows. The pluses. Bliss succeeds in getting in one volume the major events of the development of broadcast journalism from “sandbox years,” as he calls them, of the 1920s to the Persian Gulf War. The dates and places, as I have learned and read them elsewhere, are accurate. The cast of hundreds who attained their 15 minutes or more of fame and significance are there. Any book on this subject that purports to be definitive would not be a quick read or a short one and NTN is neither. Although the narrative runs nearly 500 pages, thankfully Bliss divided NTNinto 50 chapters that, nonetheless, make for a pleasant read. NTN exhibits a strong and not surprising, considering the author’s background, nostalgia for the good old days at CBS. While Bliss’ CBS background seems an asset for most of the book, that perspective becomes its flaw later on. This reviewer’s problems started with the last third of the book. The most disappointing chapters were “Let Freedom Ring” (LFR) and “If You’re White and a Male, O.K.” (IYWM) dealing respectively with television’s coverage of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and the changing of the racial and gender composition of the news staffs. In “LFR” Bliss never deals with the question of why it took broadcast journalism so long to address the paradox of racial inequality in the USA and the principles on which America was founded. Did he and the other gatekeepers never discuss this topic? Why wasn’t the race question really news until the 196Os? Why didn’t Murrow and Friendly tackle racism with the cool calculus they did McCarthyism? But why would this be expected from the television network that gave America “Amos ‘N Andy. j” Bliss was there; he should know.. . and tell his readers. In “IYWM,” the reader is left with the impression that America is black and white. Who were the first Asian-American, Native American and Hispanic-American male and female network reporters? Shouldn’t their selection and achievement deserve mention as well. Bliss paraphrased rather than recited the media’s pitiful 1960s equal opportunity record. Why was CBS, the “Tiffany of the networks” not the first to hire llltime a black reporter? Why was Mal Goode not interviewed for this book? Why omit the fact that Goode is a college graduate
410
Vol. 18, No. 4
Book Reviews
when this fact was included about so many other reporters? Bliss leaves the impression that Mal Goode was a “token” who didn’t do any real reporting. However, the United Nations was no navel-gazing job as Goode proved during ABC’s coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The rest of the book raised other questions. As Bliss moved through the history of television news, I began to take more issue with his some of his characterizations, descriptions, omissions and conclusions. One expects a historian to get the facts right and Bliss does. However, when the historian was eyewitness and participant to events, more is expected. Why was Murrow allowed to editorialize? How did Murrow feel about being treated as a privileged character? Why was doing “Person to Person” okay? Why was Ted Turner’s attempt to takeover CBS an “efh-ontery” given that CBS was started by William Paley, the heir to a cigar fortune who was merely fascinated with broadcasting? Does Spiro Agnew’s no contest plea to income tax evasion negate his basic charge that only a few people decide and produce the news and these people now move between networks with ease in puzzling bidding wars by network executives? Given the monopoly held by the networks for so long and CBS’ attitude toward “crackpot” political candidates, why are the equal time political coverage rule and the Fairness Doctrine such anathema? Bliss seems to decry the development of cable television. Do/did the men at the networks want to have their cake and eat it too? Why is the cable industry characterized as a type of jackal scavenging the networks too solid flesh? The Bather-Bush brouhaha and Bather’s pique over being preempted by a tennis match are also missing. Space will not permit the other questions I have. In his preface, Bliss acknowledged some of these limitations and indicated a desire to have told more of the story. This reviewer wish he had. N7Nis a pretty good book that will no doubt be widely accepted, cited, read. However, readers are urged to read the last third of Now The News with occasional furrowed forehead or raised eyebrows. Phillip Jeter Associate Professor Florida A&M University
Joseph E. Persico Edward R. Murrow: An American Original
McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1988, 562 pp. Pioneer, Pessimist, Patriot. From war correspondent in London during World War II to television celebrity interviewer on “Person to Person,” the biography of Edward R Murrow is a colorful portrayal of a man of contradictions. Friend and advisor to world leaders such as Churchill and Kennedy, Murrow’s biography chronicles not only a man but the rise of CBS and an entire industry that he helped shape. The early days of CBS and personalities such as Paley, Stanton, Friendly, and
Winter
1992
411