I write nonfiction, but I read mysteries. I've gone through every author of mysteries, police procedurals, and legal thrillers I can think of. But the unthinkable happened recently: I didn't have a book to read. I was near panic. Too late to go to Borders; library closed; nothing interesting on Kindle. That left only my own, overloaded bookshelves. I must own close to 500 books (well, 487; I just counted them), of which I have read an embarrassingly small number. I decided to go shopping.
One whole shelf is devoted to biographies, autobiographies, and memoir. Since I had just written my own memoir, I decided to see what I did wrong. I noticed I had a large number of books by and about journalists. What a surprise. I picked at random. My choice was a brilliant accident: "And So It Goes" Adventures in Television by Linda Ellerbee.
The quite yellowed dust jacket said: "In a world of blow-dried anchors, Linda Ellerbee is that rare creature—a literate, sophisticated, breezily irreverent journalist who treats the viewer as if he were not an idiot ... she offers not only a truly hilarious and telling memoir but the strongest, most candid book on television and television news ever written."
I wish I'd written that. In fact, I wish I'd written the book. It is so funny, I laughed out loud, but so disturbing, I'll never watch network news again. Actually, I don't watch network news. There is no way to do her writing justice. Linda Ellerbee is a true master of the craft. I want to hang out with her and just listen to her talk.
Here is her description of a senior producer at NBC. "Then there is Cheryl Gould. She is younger, smarter, skinnier, prettier, nicer and probably a better writer than I am. I like her anyway. She is a teacher in the best sense, a woman so sure of her skills and talents she never minds sharing them with those of us less skilled, less talented." (I put a bookmark there, I loved that paragraph so much.)
I could quote the whole book if I had room. Linda Ellerbee's writing is savvy, acerbic, moving—everything I would like my writing to be. She wrote this book in 1985. On the back cover are endorsements from Ted Koppel, Leslie Stahl, Mike Wallace, Sam Donaldson, and Connie Chung. Need I say more?
What to read next? It's a choice between Making Waves: The 50 Greatest Women in Radio and Television and Reporting Live by Leslie Stahl. I have lots of books and lots of time; it's only June.
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