This is the second part of a two-part interview. In the first part we talked more about the author and for this part I focus more on his book Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War.
Howard Kurtz is the media reporter for The Washington Post. In Reality Show he looks at how network news has changed in recent years, partially due to the Internet, as well as exploring other related issues.
How did you find time to write Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War since your output is already phenomenal, between your Washington Post articles, hosting CNN’s Reliable Sources and other writings?
Sleep was an early casualty. So was any semblance of a social life. But now that the book is done, my schedule is back to being merely crazy rather than insane.
How did the logistics of this book work? You write like you’ve followed Brian Williams, for example, to New Orleans as he does a broadcast. Did you go with him or did you have he and the other anchors walk you through thinking process?
I was in New Orleans at the time. I was often in meetings, newsrooms and control rooms. At other times I pieced together what had happened through intensive reporting.
How did you get such access in the first place?
I told each of the networks that if they would let me spend time there and talk to the key people, I would produce a substantive narrative that would attempt to capture the essence of what they do.
Some critics, including Marvin Kalb in your own newspaper, questioned why you did not have more specific sourcing for your book, opting instead for what I call the Bob Woodward style where there are footnotes but not nearly enough to tell who told you what. Did you consider doing more direct sourcing? Do you think this is a fair criticism?
It’s a fair question. But I was quite diligent about this approach. If I wasn’t there, someone in the conversation had to have been there, and to have provided a verbatim account. If that person wasn’t sure of the exact words that were used, I paraphrased. And in many cases I double-, triple- and quadruple-checked with others who were there.
Since the first half of our interview there was an odd flap about anchor Brian Williams hosting Saturday Night Live. What did you make of the flap? Was this indicative of change in the media (i.e. part of a larger shift in the media) or was this more just about Brian being Brian (i.e. him trying to show his loose side as you talked about in the book)?
Article comments
1 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Solid interview, Scott--you did cover the waterfront.
2 - Scott Butki
Thank you, Gordon. I'd never heard that compliment before Kurtz made it but I'll take it.