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Tonight at Six: A Daily Show Masquerading as Local TV News
In Tonight at Six, veteran journalist Michael Olesker paints an intimate, behind-the-scenes picture of local television news as few have ever seen it. He describes the long slide of a medium that was once assumed to be the golden future of American journalism, but is now widely considered an afterthought for viewers seeking serious news coverage. In his two decades as a nightly on-air commentator at Baltimore's WJZ-TV, Olesker watched as the station tumbled from pre-eminence as one of the country's top-rated local affiliates-where the on-air news personalities included the two top-ranked anchors in the country, plus a young woman named Oprah Winfrey-to inglorious runner-up in its own market. Tonight at Six offers a personal look at many of those public news personalities. But it's also a story about the decline of all TV how commercial considerations, short-sighted management, and the constant pressure of ratings forced the dumbing-down of local news programs around the country. It's the true story of how television stations purporting to cover the stories of huge metropolitan areas-their governors, mayors, city and county councils, school systems, police, criminal courts, neighborhoods, and more-quietly attempt this with no more than a handful of reporters. How do they do it? As Olesker explains, they don't. "While this account eviscerates three Baltimore network affiliates, the sad truth is that they are no worse-and no better-than all local TV news operations. Olesker paints a high-definition picture of the façade beneath the façade." Ira R. Allen Former UPI Reporter and White House Correspondent
308 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2008
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February 12, 2010
Michael Olesker was one of my heroes growing up -- he appeared on the nightly news with consistently well-written commentaries that stood out from the usual reportage and banter. He was one of the major reasons I almost became a journalist; in many ways, I wanted to be him when I grew up. So it's fascinating to hear his point of view on the experience, and I think I need to think it over more before I really know what I think about the book.
The biggest elephant in the room with this is that although he blasts local TV news for having very little journalistic integrity, he himself was forced to resign from his position from the Sun because he was caught plagiarizing other papers -- a crime he actually goes to some lengths in the book to condemn as the worst of the worst. Granted, I did some research on Olesker's situation since it's been some years since it went down, and it looks like it was more a sin of omission than a malicious one. And it is also true that his newspaper exploits are outside the scope of the book. But still, it eats away at his credibility.
It's also a little weird who Olesker chooses as his heroes and his villains. He likes Denise Koch despite the fact that she was an actress, not a journalist, but he thinks Rudy Miller is an airhead. I felt like if he had been working at WBAL, his opinions may very well have been reversed.
Anyway, the book is at its best when it describes the personalities working at JZ and the events that shaped its history. By the book's end, it becomes a eulogy for the station, a place that has fallen from its former glories (however flawed Olesker feels were the means through which they were attained). That part of the story is fascinating, and I wish more of the book's focus was on that instead of spilling so much ink over the failings of local TV news at large. Maybe he was just preaching to the choir in this particular instance, however.
The biggest elephant in the room with this is that although he blasts local TV news for having very little journalistic integrity, he himself was forced to resign from his position from the Sun because he was caught plagiarizing other papers -- a crime he actually goes to some lengths in the book to condemn as the worst of the worst. Granted, I did some research on Olesker's situation since it's been some years since it went down, and it looks like it was more a sin of omission than a malicious one. And it is also true that his newspaper exploits are outside the scope of the book. But still, it eats away at his credibility.
It's also a little weird who Olesker chooses as his heroes and his villains. He likes Denise Koch despite the fact that she was an actress, not a journalist, but he thinks Rudy Miller is an airhead. I felt like if he had been working at WBAL, his opinions may very well have been reversed.
Anyway, the book is at its best when it describes the personalities working at JZ and the events that shaped its history. By the book's end, it becomes a eulogy for the station, a place that has fallen from its former glories (however flawed Olesker feels were the means through which they were attained). That part of the story is fascinating, and I wish more of the book's focus was on that instead of spilling so much ink over the failings of local TV news at large. Maybe he was just preaching to the choir in this particular instance, however.
Displaying 1 of 1 review