Three Winners From University Publishers
Lou Grant: The Making of
TV's Top Newspaper Drama
By Douglass K. Daniel
Syracuse University Press
Book review by
Carl Sessions Stepp
Carl Sessions Stepp (cstepp@umd.edu) began writing for his hometown paper, the Marlboro Herald-Advocate in Bennettsville, South Carolina, in 1963, after his freshman year in high school. He studied journalism at the University of South Carolina, where he edited The Gamecock. After college, he worked for the St. Petersburg Times and the Charlotte Observer before becoming the first national editor at USA Today in 1982. In 1983, he joined the University of Maryland journalism faculty full time. In the ensuing 30 years, he also has served as senior editor and book reviewer for AJR, writing dozens of pieces. He has been a visiting writing and editing coach for news organizations in more than 30 states.
Lou Grant: The Making of
TV's Top Newspaper Drama
By Douglass K. Daniel
Syracuse University Press
270 pages; $17.95 paperback
From 1977 to 1982, the Los Angeles Tribune was, as the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Tom Brazaitis once said, "the biggest and possibly the best newspaper in America." And, of course, it was fictional, part of a weekly TV show, but one with exceptional credibility and impact. Douglass Daniel, a Kansas State journalism professor, traces the program from its carefully researched creation (actors shadowed Los Angeles Times staff members) to its controversial cancellation (after star Ed Asner's liberal politics clashed with the emerging Reagan right). It's a tribute that nearly two decades later the names Animal, Mrs. Pynchon and Lou Grant still evoke such bull's-eye images. Asner made city editor Grant both tough and compassionate, a blend many journalists still cite as a model. Through 114 episodes, the show succeeded in "depicting the mechanics of journalism in a dramatic medium while remaining realistic." The relevance of the themes remains striking: the push for scoops at the expense of compassion, sexual relationships between reporters and sources, even a famous football player in court on a brutality charge. Daniel's study is not only intriguing but also important; it reminds us that Americans may have learned more about journalism from Lou Grant than from all the real-life city editors combined. News Values: Ideas for an Information Age By Jack Fuller University of Chicago Press 200 pages; $19.95
Jack Fuller isn't a household name like Lou Grant, but he is certainly a journalist to take seriously. His 30-year career has taken him from cop reporting to Pulitzer-winning editorial writing to editing the Chicago Tribune to his present job as its publisher. Plus he's written five novels. He draws on all these experiences in this book, essentially a meditation on news and news-gathering, journalism ethics and education, and the changing nature of media, community and technology. The book is thoughtful but tends to slide generally over many topics. Fuller joins others, for instance, in urging journalists to "resist the cynical impulse" and "help recreate public discussion," but he's short on specific recommendations. His most provocative sections grow out of his experiences as both editor and publisher. Uncomfortable with the traditional hostility between editorial and business interests, he argues that "it's time to bring the two sides..into line with one another again." These may strike some as publisher code words for reining in newsrooms, but Fuller seems to go deeper. He challenges the anti-mercenary self-image of journalists, points out that "the future of newspapers is most secure if the decisions concerning it make financial sense," and suggests newspeople and marketers work honorably together. These are important matters, and I wish he had treated them in more depth. Women Politicians and the Media By Maria Braden University Press of Kentucky 240 pages; $14.95 paperback
This book will make a lot of men squirm and a lot of women nod, even though its conclusions aren't surprising. ýhe thorough study traces almost 100 years of coverage of women politicians, from Jeannette Rankin to Christine Todd Whitman. Maria Braden, a University of Kentucky journalism professor, concludes that reporting has gradually improved, but only to a point. "Coverage of women politicians is not always blatantly sexist, but subtle discrimination persists," she writes. ýith numerous examples, she demonstrates how coverage still stresses women's appearance (the preoccupation with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's changing hairstyles, for example); is "trivialized by the gender-specific words journalists commonly use" such as plucky, spunky and feisty; and can "perpetuate stereotypes of women politicians as weak, indecisive, and emotional." Braden fairly points out that journalists have consciously striven for more equal coverage. But her evidence makes you wince, as when she quotes NBC's Tom Brokaw, for example, exclaiming in 1984: " 'Geraldine Ferraro... The first woman to be nominated for vice president... Size six!' " Interestingly, Braden also finds that the increase in women within the media hasn't made that much difference. The key, she believes, isn't the gender of the reporter but "a conscious effort by a journalist, male or female, to become more sensitive."
Stepp, AJR's senior editor, teaches at the University of Maryland College of Journalism. ###
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