cover image Out of Thin Air: The Brief Wonderful Life of Network News

Out of Thin Air: The Brief Wonderful Life of Network News

Reuven Frank. Simon & Schuster, $24.45 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-67758-9

Frank joined NBC-TV in 1950 after three years in print journalism. Network news was then in its infancy, sponsors were rare and top radio newscasters, doubtful of the new medium, were reluctant to get involved. When Frank retired 38 years later, he had been a producer of many programs, including the fabulously successful Huntley-Brinkley evening news; the creator of award-winning documentaries; and ultimately the president of the NBC news division. During the early 1950s, the philosophy of evening news was that viewers already knew about the headline stories and should merely be shown pictures about them; then came the era when the medium presented the news; now, in Frank's view, network coverage is back where it started. The book's revelations about executive maneuverings, hirings and firings will likely interest only insiders, while Frank's observations about some of the stars of TV news are courteous albeit candid, involving and meaty. (July)