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Title: Brinkley's Beat: People, Places, and Events That Shaped My Time by DAVID BRINKLEY ISBN: 0-375-40644-1 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Great Way to Exit
Comment: This was Brinkley's last book before departing to the Great Studio in the Sky, and he saved some of his best for last.
His takes on the late, not so great Theodore G. Bilbo and the endearing Everett McKinley Dirksen represent the best "Brinkley-esque" strains, but the author also does an exceptional job of capturing the essence of the Casbah and the early-Sixties zeitgeist of Vienna. Brinkley always displayed incredible powers of observation, and they shine brightly in the "Places" section.
Another dividend of "Brinkley's Beat": you get a good sense of what David thought of our presidents during the last 40 years - good, bad, or fairly indifferent - and a bit of a window into his personal politics.
To sum up, this is highly enjoyable reading with a delightful aftertaste.
Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting Reading for the Most Part
Comment: David Brinkley's book is divided into three parts: People, Places, and Events. In the "People" section I especially enjoyed the stories of J. Edgar Hoover, Everett Dirksen, Jimmy Hoffa, Lyndon Johnson, and Bobby Kennedy. "Normandy, 1944 and 1994" and "The Mediterranean" I felt were the best in the "Places" section, and "The Kennedy Assassination" was the best artcile in the "Events" section. The book is a modest 204 pages long. I'm glad I read the book, but I bought it thinking it would be more interesting than it was.
Rating: 4
Summary: David Brinkley's Final "Good Night"
Comment: Broadcast journalism lost one of its truly unique voices in 1998 when David Brinkley hung up his microphone for the last time. He had spent more than a half century in the nation's capital, observing and commenting on the powerful and the not-so-powerful, always with a slightly jaundiced eye and a true gift for slicing through the mire of pomposity and hypocrisy that so often threatens to bury Washington, D.C.
In this book, Brinkley serves up a series of portraits of some of the most people he encountered in Washington; some of the most interesting places he visited; and some of the most memorable events. His word portraits are vivid, memorable and uniquely Brinkley. Among the people profiled is long-time FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. In Brinkley's view, Hoover was not quite the hero his supporters thought he was nor quite as evil as his detractors claimed him to be. The real tragedy of Hoover, in Brinkley's eyes, was that he stayed in power too long until he became irrelevant. Three presidents, five congressmen, journalist May Craig and Teamster's President Jimmy Hoffa round out Brinkley's gallery of people.
Although Brinkley enjoyed his anchorman role, he says he also found it important to get out around the nation and the world from time to time to help maintain a sense of perspective. The travel documentary may be a staple of television today, but it was Brinkley and his NBC colleagues who invented the form in the 1950s. He tells that he always loved exploring the ordinary even as most of his colleagues were proccupied with the great events of the day. The travel documentaries, he suggest, helped convey the message that the news is more than just great events--it's also "about the way ordinary people go about the business of life."
Recollections of the political conventions he covered and the shock and turmoil that followed President Kennedy's assassination help to round out the book. In a final rumination on the role of the anchorman, Brinkley suggests the newsreader gives the days' events a unique presentation, mediated "through his own voice and character and personality." Ultimately, that's my one regret about this otherwise enjoyable book. Brinkley on paper just doesn't quite pack the same punch as Brinkley on the air. I miss the voice, the face, the unique inflections. But I still appreciate this final farewell from one of the medium's true pioneers and innovators.
Good night, David.
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Title: The President's House : A First Daughter Shares the History and Secrets of the World's Most Famous Home by MARGARET TRUMAN ISBN: 0345444523 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by JON MEACHAM ISBN: 0375505008 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Everyone Is Entitled to My Opinion by David Brinkley ISBN: 0345409523 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 07 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Reflections: Life After the White House by Barbara Bush ISBN: 0743223594 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 20 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Madam Secretary: A Memoir by Madeleine Albright ISBN: 0786868430 Publisher: Miramax Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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