Station Break, First Edition, First Printing, New

In the high-power, high-stakes world of television journalism, reporters often become bigger than the stories they cover. Steve Friedman, executive producer of "NBC Nightly News," knows this territory well. He and coauthor Rosemary Ford tell a riveting tale of one woman's fierce desire to make it in TV news - and the high price she pays.
Mary Reed is a beautiful, talented, and ambitious local news reporter for a San Francisco station. When she lands an exclusive interview with the head of a right-wing terrorist group, her career takes off, and she gets a high-profile reporting job in television's second largest market, Los Angeles, where her star continues to rise. Watching her every move, the man who launched her career tries to keep one step ahead of the law. His obsession with the glamorous reporter culminates in a gripping and memorable showdown, where Mary is forced to face the tragic consequences of the interview that once made her famous, but could now cost her more than her career.
The drama, intrigue, and excitement of television news leap off the screen and into the pages of this thrilling novel, told as only a television insider could tell it.

Friedman, an NBC Nightly News executive, and Ford, a PR specialist, make network news look like tabloid TV in this glitzy, cartoonish first novel. Do-or-die San Francisco reporter Mary Reed, 25, grabs national attention when she scores an exclusive televised interview with Jerry Radamacker, the lunatic leader of a well-armed white supremacist organization. Radamacker subsequently entertains fond thoughts of the savvy blond journalist as he and his despicable henchmen, who spout racial epithets and prayers in the same breath, plot a Nazi uprising. Meanwhile, Reed signs with a bigtime agent and leaves the Bay Area for Los Angeles, where she wins four Emmys in her first year and never realizes the threat Radamacker still poses. Friedman and Ford display their media expertise in detailed, realistic newsroom sequences, but their narrative, like hastily edited footage, is often choppy. The unkindest cut of all occurs when Mary forsakes her career to pursue a love affair, effectively denying readers a strong--or, indeed, any--female heroine. Despite all this, the authors are on the right track: their transparent melodrama will make a perfect movie-of-the-week.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A go-getting TV reporter crosses paths, twice, with a megalomaniac white-supremacist in TV news exec Friedman's supremely silly debut novel. Everybody knows workaholic San Francisco newsperson Mary Reed is a comer; she's ``not unkind, only a little selfish'' in her exclusive attention to her career (snubbed friends, neglected boyfriend, etc.). But little does she know how much that career will depend on right- wing messiah Jerry Radamacker's New Brotherhood, which moves smartly from paramilitary training in the desert to grand theft, counterfeiting, and terrorism without the slightest nod toward plausibility. When the New Brotherhood's people inside the Presidio turn an FBI sting operation into a raging inferno that Mary's lucky enough to cover live, and when she parlays a series of swaggering phone calls from Radamacker into an exclusive on-camera interview (Radamacker's masked, but will she recognize him if they meet again?) and ends up in the slammer for keeping her sources confidential, her name-recognition skyrockets: she's wined and dined by a high-powered L.A. agent, wooed by the big-time L.A. outlet, and launched on her way to four Emmys and an unheard-of co-anchor slot on the 6:00 L.A. news. Meanwhile, distantly pursued by dogged Bakersfield homicide dick Eddie Martinez, Radamacker and his racist buddies plot the end of American civilization. The burning question: What impact will their nefarious plans--botulism, anthrax, cyanide, phony $100 bills--have on Mary's career when they storm the studio for the story of her life? Tediously irrelevant (though presumably authentic) tidbits about news broadcasting alternate with novelettish descriptions of people you don't care about, cluttered and unconvincing action sequences, and limp parallels between Armageddon and a bad-hair day. Keep the remote handy. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

A behind-the-scenes look at TV news, this fast-paced story of reporter Mary Reed makes for exciting reading. An egotistical but highly intelligent, ambitious, and talented journalist, Reed hits the big time with an interview of a white supremacist maniac known only as Commander Zero. His attempt to take over the TV station almost succeeds. Told from the point of view of several compelling characters, the story includes a bank robbery, an explosion, and an FBI sting operation to catch illegal arms dealers. Readers will enjoy the thrilling plot and inside view of the broadcasting industry, where the players are "only as good as last week's ratings." Author Friedman is the executive producer of NBC Nightly News. Highly recommended.
- Marion F. Gallivan, Villa Maria Campus, Gannon Univ., Erie, Pa.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.