Happy Talk: Confessions of a TV Newsman - Hardcover

Graham, Fred

3.67

6 ratings by Goodreads

9780393027761: Happy Talk: Confessions of a TV Newsman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393027767 ISBN 13: 9780393027761

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1990

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The award-winning journalist reflects on the path that has led him from "The New York Times," to CBS News, and, ultimately, back home to Nashville, through Watergate and the Pentagon Papers to an era in which infotainment and happy talk dominate the news

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From Publishers Weekly:

Replete with closeups of famous people, this lively autobiography is filled with wryly humorous anecdotes. Graham, trained as a lawyer, worked as a legal reporter for the New York Times from 1964 to 1972, then in a similar capacity with CBS-TV until 1987. At the network he reported on the legal aspects of Watergate, Vice President Spiro Agnew's resignation and the Pentagon Papers, and covered the Supreme Court, the Justice Department and the FBI. During his years at CBS, Graham saw the news division change its emphasis from reporting and analyzing major events to "infotainment" as the rating wars intensified. Forced out of his network job, he became an anchor and senior editor at WKRN-TV in Nashville, where he had practiced law. Unsuccessful at "happy talk," the mainstay of local news broadcasting, he lasted slightly more than a year. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Graham, who covered legal issues for CBS News, shares his insider information on Dan Rather. He does this in the context of a captivatingly good read, as he tells his own TV story: moving from the New York Times to CBS in Washington in the Watergate years; learning on-the-job "how to do TV"; brushing against Rather along the way; being moved out to try his hand as a local anchor. Graham holds the reader's attention, especially those readers who want to know what TV network correspondents and local anchors really do. Recommended for general collections and for younger readers.
- Abraham A. Bass, Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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