A spirited, fascinating insider's account of a troubled realm.
An examination of failing American newspapers from a unique perspective.
Journalist O'Shea (Dangerous Company: The Consulting Powerhouses and the Businesses They Save and Ruin, 2002, etc.) rose from investigative reporter to managing editor of the Chicago Tribune and then editor in chief of the Los Angeles Times. Three years ago, the author departed the Times under attack from a management team that cared more about executive bonuses and corporate profits than quality journalism. Numerous books have covered endangered daily newspapers, but few relate the sad saga from the perspective of a top editor with investigative reporting experience. O'Shea identifies factors in the overall economy and in the cultures of publicly held companies that have contributed to the declines of newspapers. Refreshingly, though, he also names names, identifying the villains in the corporate suites and the newsrooms themselves, with an overarching emphasis on what happened to diminish the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, once proudly independent newspapers. When Chicago-based businessman Sam Zell, without experience as a media mogul, purchased the newspaper company—as well as a package of assets that included the Chicago Cubs and urban real estate—any hope of vital journalism disappeared. Given O'Shea's level of detail and candor, some journalism icons will almost surely lose respect within their field. As for the individuals in the corporate suites of his two former employers, the financially irresponsible, sexually immoral and perhaps illegal conduct of those men (no women appear as villains in the narrative) should embarrass them to no end. Because O'Shea is an accomplished reporter, he does not make the mistake of slinging around accusations without detailed evidence, but at times, he seems to be settling scores, which might diminish his stature in the minds of some readers.
A spirited, fascinating insider's account of a troubled realm.Pub Date: June 28, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58648-791-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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