HAPPY TALK: Confessions of a TV Journalist

by Fred Graham ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 12, 1990

An anecdotal memoir that, for all its easy air, should give pause to the majority of adult Americans who now rely on TV as their primary source of news. Fortuitously, Graham (The Alias Program. 1977) began his journalism career as a practicing attorney. After a brief stint in government, he joined The New York Times, where for seven years he covered the Supreme Court. Switching channels in 1972, the author joined CBS-TV as law correspondent. During his 15 years with the network, he played a significant if not leading role in a number of major stories, most notably, perhaps, Watergate. In the mid-1980's, however, takeover threats and the advent of an infotainment-oriented, cost-conscious management regime compromised the News Division's independence and led to staff cuts. With demand for reportage of constitutional issues on the wane and a bull market in ""magic moments,"" the author was more than ready to move on when the ax fell in 1987. And unlike many colleagues, Graham had a higher-paying job waiting for him, as anchor or a lackluster news operation in Nashville, his hometown. Despite the best of professional intentions, however, he soon learned that ""playing in Peoria is more complicated than being boffo on Broadway."" Unable to raise his programs' ratings soon enough, let alone adapt to the yappy, substance-free style of local TV, the author is again at liberty. Though he settles a fair share of scores (with, among others, Ed Joyce, media consultants, Dan Rather, and Dan Schorr) in the course of his disarmingly rueful narrative, Graham looks back with considerable pleasure and satisfaction. The author is appreciably less sanguine, though, on the future of broadcast news; trashy, tabloid thrust, he warns, is successfully pandering to the public's baser instincts. A low-key but thought-provoking audit of an inordinately influential medium, which also offers welcome measures of entertainment value and comedic relief.

Pub Date: March 12, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990

Categories: NONFICTION