The Media Show: The Changing Face of the News, 1985-1990

A professor of journalism at NYU and media columnist for New York magazine, where some of these essays first appeared, Diamond is chiefly interested in news as presented on television. In the past five years, he concludes, TV news coverage has gone from worse to worse, largely because the three major networks have ``downsized'' their spending on news and public affairs broadcasts; the brightest spot in the half-decade has been the emergence of Cable News Network (CNN). Diamond considers such topics as the early reporting on AIDS, in which Victorian prudery reigned, and the presentation of people in the news as images rather than as authentic individuals, citing the altered public perception of Nancy Reagan engineered by her husband's ``secretary of symbolism,'' Michael Deaver. He discusses the camera's love affair with John Gotti and the role that electronic and print journalists have assumed as ``character cops.'' While some of the points of view seem neither new nor arresting, Diamond offers much substantial food for thought. (Nov.)