Hot Air; All Talk, All the Time

New York: Times Books, Random House, 1996. First Edition [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. 25 cm. viii, 407 pages. Sources. Index. Inscribed on fep. DJ has some wear, soiling, and a piece missing at the back. Howard Alan "Howie" Kurtz (born August 1, 1953) is an American journalist and author with a special focus on the media. He is the host of Fox News Channel's Media Buzz program, and the successor to Fox News Watch. He is the former media writer for The Washington Post and the former Washington bureau chief for The Daily Beast. He has written five books about the media. Kurtz left CNN and joined Fox News Channel on July 1, 2013. He is a graduate of the University at Buffalo (SUNY). In college he worked on a student newspaper, the Spectrum, becoming the editor in his senior year. He then attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. After Columbia he went to work for the Record in New Jersey. He left New Jersey to move to Washington D.C. and to work as a reporter for syndicated columnist Jack Anderson. Kurtz left Anderson to join the Washington Star, an afternoon newspaper. When that newspaper closed in 1981 Kurtz was hired at The Washington Post by Bob Woodward, then the Metro editor. Kurtz has written for The New Republic, The Washington Monthly, and New York magazine. The author argues that the talk show culture is an explosive and corrosive force in our society. This 1997 book by Kurtz describes many failings of the talk show / political talk show format even as it had been rapidly proliferating on television and radio. Some of the problems he identifies include: superficiality, lies, hysteria, lack of preparation, sensationalism and conflicts of interest. Derived from a Kirkus review: Washington Post media reporter Kurtz looks at a nation awash in talk TV and radio, and concludes that it may be drowning. Kurtz surveys the vast expanse of talk media, from Oprah Winfrey to Meet the Press, from C-SPAN to Don Imus and Rush Limbaugh. He shows how the sausage is made, going backstage on Nightline and Larry King Live. Kurtz lets Phil Donahue defend the daytime TV talk show genre and explains the marketing philosophy behind the choreographed conservative vs. liberal fireworks on such programs as The McLaughlin Group and Crossfire. He traces the history of talk media, from its staid and conservative beginnings to its present wildness, where ``television has made deviance seem passé'' and where reporters and pundits trade honest journalism for fame and fortune. Kurtz is insightful but unexciting until he turns, in the last third of the book, to a critical examination of the influence of talk media, and especially talk radio. While Kurtz was himself a talk-show host for 16 months on a Washington radio station and is still a frequent guest on the talk-show circuit, he is ambivalent about the genre. ``Clearly, the talk phenomenon helps viewers and listeners feel connected to a political world that seems increasingly remote from their daily existence,'' he writes. On the other hand, says Kurtz, talk shows are often mindless and repetitive, merely a vehicle for their insincere or strident hosts. Kurtz applauds the talk-show genre as a ``wonderful, impassioned forum for debate'' but laments its lack of both self-regulation and restraint. ``The real question,'' Kurtz finally concludes, ``is whether there is a significant market for talk that is not driven by bluster, sensationalism and superficiality.'' Given the evidence he offers of the enormous political influence of talk shows, it is a sobering question at the heart of a sobering critique.