LATEST SALES & OFFERS: PROMOTIONS
"Formerly a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard, DANNY SCHECHTER made waves in the mainstream and alternative media for more than 30 years. Called the ""alternative Walter Cronkite,"" he witnessed and participated in the history-making events of our age, from the founding of the Yippies in 1967, to Nelson Mandela's triumphant presidential election in 1994, for which Schechter was designated the exclusive filmmaker, to the Media and Democracy Congress of 1996, which he helped organize, to his most recent television production, Rights & Wrongs, which aired weekly on over 150 PBS and cable outlets nationwide. His many TV specials and films include Beyond Life: Timothy Leary Lives (1997), Countdown to Freedom: Ten Days that Changed South Africa (1994), narrated by James Earl Jones and Alfre Woodard, Sarajevo Ground Zero (1993), Mandela in America (1990), and The Making of Sun City (1990). For eight years a producer at ABC's 20/20, where he won two National News Emmys, Schechter reported from 45 countries and lectured at many schools and universities. He was co-founder and executive producer at Globalvision, a New York-based television and film company where he produced the award-winning series South Africa Now and co-produced Right & Wrongs: Human Rights Television with Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Schechter passed away in 2015."
This behind-the-scenes look at America's media monopoly might more aptly be titled The More You Write, the Less You Remember Your Point. Although Schechter offers many interesting insights about the world of journalism and where it is going (downhill, fast), this book suffers from a lack of cohesion. If this were one of the documentaries or news programs Schechter (Emmy Award-winning producer for 20/20 and CNN) directed or produced, you'd have to assume he'd be yelling, Cut, cut! Hints that this was going to be more than a tad rambling come in the introduction, which is a whopping 54 pages long. There is also more than a little back-patting going on in this memoir/expose. Readers are constantly reminded that plenty of other journalists may have sold out, but Schechter did not. That said, he does America a service by warning of the problems inherent in a society in which journalism has become synonymous with entertainment, and media mergers mean news that is one-sided and sanitized. Not one to simply whine, Schechter closes the book with suggestions about what journalists and the American public can do to change the status quo. (Kirkus Reviews)
