You Should Have Been Here Yesterday: A Life Story in Television News

by Garrick Utley

A foreign correspondant for NBC News describes the realities of reporting the Vietnam War, clashes in Israel, and revolutions in Russia, and explains how technology, profit, and viewership affect the role of correspondants.

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 19, 2000

Reviews

[Richard Tolleson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine my delight when I pulled this book, which I have owned for several years, off the shelf and discovered it was a signed first edition! Not only that, a CD-ROM of classic news video was still unopened in a pouch attached to the back cover.
Garrick Utley, a long-time NBC correspondent and anchor, relates anecdotes from his adventures around the world. He uses them to make points about the current (circa 2000) state of journalism and television.
Some of his observations have become dated. He saw CNN, where he spent the last few years of his career, as taking over the lead in television news from the 3 networks. While Fox News was already in existence, it wasn't yet the bastion of hard-right fanaticism it would become. He does bemoan the trend of large corporations' ownership of media, although the corporations involved have changed since Utley's time.
One wonders what Utley, who died in 2014, would make of today's media landscape. As I write this, none of the three network morning shows contain more than a bare minimum of news, and the three evening newscasts aren't much better. Cable news is a toxic garbage dump of hollering heads, and local news is rarely more than a collection of car crashes and murders interrupted by ads for ambulance-chasing lawyers and car dealers.
Utley acknowledged the rise of the internet, but streaming video and social media did not yet exist when he wrote this book. The ability of television to craft thoughtful stories with a perspective beyond "looky here" is a long-lost art.
Today's television journalists have access to better technology, but the minds and pocketbooks controlling that technology are inferior to the men (and some women) who labored in the information fields in Utley's day.
Utley doesn't quote Edward R. Murrow, but I will, because I think it's apt, given the comparison between the television news world Utley describes and the dystopian media landscape of today. Murrow said, "This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it's nothing but wires and lights in a box."
We're wired, and we're lit, but we're not well-informed, and it shows in our politics.
Thanks for trying, Mr. Utley.

[Garrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure I'm actually named after Garrick Utley. My parents didn't know him but while my mother was pregnant with me my parents were watching the NBC news, Garrick Utley came on and my parents had their name! My father actually stood in line when this book came out and bought me an autographed copy as well, so I suppose I was inclined to view this book favorably.

I agree with Jessica's prior review of this book, its alternates between being a reporter's autobiography and journalism theory and that creates two problems.

First, the anecdotes from a reporter whose career spanned the duration of the golden era of TV news and many of the most important events of this era are very interesting, entertaining and enlightening. Two highlights for me involve Utley returning to areas from which he previously reported under very different circumstances in Vietnam and Berlin and his description of the steps required to actually transmit foreign video reports before the development of satellite communication.

Second, the journalism theory, particularly the predictions about the future of journalism, feel very quaint and anachronistic to a contemporary reader in 2024. While it's charming that reporters may have actually focused on the integrity of their reporting instead of trying to anticipate what the producers wanted (as Utley describes his reporting from Vietnam), that era is so far gone now that using that idea as the foundation to predict the future path of journalism just didn't age well. For example, Utley's predictions regarding the confluence of print and video journalism, customization and online delivery medium were very common and not particularly insightful even when the book was written.

Overall, I found this an enjoyable read but it did leave me wanting more autobiographical anecdotes and editorializing from the author. I also wish I'd had the chance to meet Garrick Utley in person, I would have enjoyed hearing his stories and thanking him for the first name!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

The opening preface detailing Utley's first forays into news was really interesting. After that the book seems to be at war with itself. It's neither full on journalist autobiography nor journalism theory/commentary. Utley would have been more successful if he'd picked one theme for the book. By trying to tackle both, it doesn't feel as fleshed out as it could have.

[Russell King]

An interesting peek into the life of a television reporter and his perspective of how television reporting started and changed over time. What also came out of the book is the amount of travel and time spent traveling are required by a foreign correspondent, or were required, since it is unclear what current day demands are. Very little comes out of Garrick Utley's feelings or thoughts of the events he is reporting nor does much detail of his life outside of reporting, both of which would being interesting and would have added more depth and substance to the book.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Memoir by newscaster and former anchor Garrick Utley