ANCHORS: BROKAW, JENNINGS, RATHER AND THE EVENING NEWS

by Robert Goldberg and Gerald Jay Goldberg

Edition History:

Birch Lane, New York, 1990.
(Jacket design by Gregory K. Wilkin)

Japanese translation by Jiro Hirano
Hayakawa Shobo, Tokyo, 1991.

Korean translation by Soung Bum Park
Koreaone Press, Seoul, 1992.

Finalist, “1990 Electronic Media Book of the Year,”
National Association of Broadcasters

Today’s Best Nonfiction (Anchors, Means of Ascent,
The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey, Feeding Frenzy),
The Reader’s Digest, Pleasantville, NY, 1991.

Praise for ANCHORS:

--The Goldbergs have written an absolutely first-rate examination of the three men, and the way in which the news is put together--as well as the way the networks’ new corporate owners have changed the process of choosing what goes on the air.
Los Angeles Times (December 23, 1990)

--The most elegant summation of the strengths and weaknesses of the three [anchormen] ever put on a page.
Atlanta Journal and Constitution (October 1990)

--Do you want to know what makes Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather tick? Do you want to know how they got to the pinnacle of their profession? Do you want to know what it takes to get an evening news show on the air on deadline? If so, Anchors…is the book for you. The book is also worth the price of admission for its dramatic accounts of Mr. Rather at Tiananmen Square last year and Mr. Brokaw on the spot as the Berlin wall came tumbling down. One cannot help being thrilled by the authors’ account of Mr. Rather’s sheer physical courage in going back to Tiananmen Square after Chinese officials closed down his live coverage of the student demonstrations.
Mary Perot Nichols
New York Times Book Review (October 14, 1990)

--“Broadcast News” (1987) could only imply, with one fictional example, what Mr. Goldberg and his co-author father, Gerald Jay Goldberg, have been able to fathom from three angles, helped by interviews with the anchormen themselves, by much on-scene reporting and by other hard factual material. So Anchors: Brokaw, Jennings, Rather and the Evening News gives its subject the full treatment and offers us newswatchers a full view of anchoring, “up close and personal”….The reportorial chapters are the best of this book…. The section on the crushing of the students in Tiananmen Square is a little gem.”
Raymond Sokolov
The Wall Street Journal (October 12, 1990)

--A gossipy, albeit informative, rundown on TV news and the three superstars who anchor the major networks’ prime-time broadcast….The authors also offer behind-the-scenes accounts of how news items are gathered throughout the world, transmitted to Manhattan, evaluated, illustrated, timed, and otherwise prepared for airing on early-evening programs. One producer interviewed compares the typically frantic process to “changing the fan belt on a car going 90 miles per hour” .…Savvy, human-scale coverage of a glamour medium in transition, if not crisis; worth tuning in.
Kirkus Reviews (July 15, 1990)

--“This is an important book published at a time in television-news history when anchors for evening newscasts race around the globe to scoop each other on fast-breaking international crises….The value of Anchors comes from its savvy grasp of the economic and political struggles within each network for survival and power, from the extraordinarily accurate understanding of how news gets gathered, processed and put on the air, and from its brisk yet pithy treatment of the major challenges to the news business….[The authors’] research is superb, their reporting immediate and their sense of broadcasting history keen.
Gary Gilson
Minneapolis Star Tribune (October 21, 1990)

--[The authors] have done a considerable amount of work documenting the inner machinations of the three networks and their anchors, who seem more similar than they are different once their backgrounds, goals and ambitions are laid out side by side by side….Robert Goldberg is television critic of the Wall Street Journal. Gerald Jay Goldberg, professor of English at UCLA, is also a novelist. The combination works well, and anyone interested in the way network news operates--especially at the top--is treated to data presented with extraordinary clarity. One of the most interesting sections of this book concerns the future of network news and its supersalesmen….
Eleanor Randolph
Washington Post Book World (November 1, 1990)

--Anchors offers detailed, uncompromised profiles of the three celebrities along with how networks gather, produce and deliver news. The authors were allowed to accompany network news teams on the road covering recent international stories in Berlin, Malta and China. It doesn’t hurt that material for this book was compiled during an astonishing international news year….Anchors is as informative and entertaining a read as exists about network news. Having attempted to understand the chaotic and frequently surreal work of network news, I’m in no way embarrassed to report I learned plenty from this book.
Paul Lomartire
Palm Beach Post (November 4, 1990

--It’s a ripping good read….The Goldbergs have combined their respective areas of writing experience in 376 pages of real-life broadcast news, set against the biggest news year in recent history.
Ann Hodges
Houston Chronicle (November 30, 1990)