Reality Show; Inside the Last Great Television News War

New York, NY: Free Press, 2007. First edition. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/very good. Sewn binding. Paper over boards. xiv, 464, [2] p. Notes. Index. Inscribed by the author on fep/ DJ has slight wear and soiling. Howard "Howie" Alan Kurtz (born August 1, 1953) is an American journalist and author with a special focus on the media. He is the host of Fox News Channel's Media Buzz program, and the successor to Fox News Watch. He is the former media writer for The Washington Post and the former Washington bureau chief for The Daily Beast. He has written five books about the media. Kurtz left CNN and joined Fox News Channel on July 1, 2013. In 1981 Kurtz was hired at the Washington Post by Bob Woodward. Kurtz has written for The New Republic, The Washington Monthly, and New York magazine. In Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War--Kurtz chronicles the struggles at the three "traditional" broadcast television networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) to enhance the stature, credibility and audience-draw of their evening news anchors (Gibson, Couric, and Williams). In an age of instantaneous Internet news, cable echo chambers and iPod downloads, who really needs the evening news? And, by extension, who needs Katie Couric, Brian Williams, and Charlie Gibson? In this freewheeling, intimate account of life atop the media pyramid, award-winning bestselling author Howard Kurtz takes us inside the newsrooms and executive suites of CBS, NBC, and ABC, capturing the deadline judgments, image-making, jealousies, and gossip of this high-pressure business. Whether it is Couric trying to regain her morning magic while coping with tabloid stories about her boyfriends, Williams reporting from New Orleans and Baghdad while worrying about his ailing father, or Gibson weighing whether to follow his wife into retirement while grappling with having to report the explicit details of sex scandals, Kurtz brings to life the daily battles that define their lives. The narrative reflects an extraordinary degree of access to such corporate chieftains as Jeff Zucker and Les Moonves, star correspondents, and the anchors themselves. Their goal: create an on-screen persona that people will tune in to and trust. Yet they are faced with a graying, shrinking audience as younger viewers flock to Jon Stewart, whose influence on the real newscasts is palpable. Here is the untold story of what these journalistic celebrities think of their bosses, cable competitors, bloggers, and each other.