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Top Of The Morning: Inside The Cutthroat World Of Morning TV (2013)

by Brian Stelter(Favorite Author)

3.27 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1455545368 (ISBN13: 9781455545360)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Grand Central Publishing

review 1: Top of the Morning chronicles the ratings rise of Godd Morning America and the simultaneous fall of the Today Show (which I watch faithfully for precisely the reasons its ratings have slipped, at least if Stelter's book is to be believed)in 2012 - beginning with the ouster of Ann Curry from the anchor chair. I found the book's story interesting, although the ratings detail might have been a little overdone. But I expected more precise, less cliche-ridden writing from a New York Times reporter - the tone is inconsistent, sometimes over-the-bar casual and sometimes strict news reporting,with no particular reason for the switch apparent. Becausue I watched it all happen, I was appreciative of the back story, and I'm glad I read it.
review 2: Living proof that bes... moretsellers can be horrible, badly written books.....Where to start? Look, pick a tone. You can't be all serious 'your grandmother is dying' while giving me a smarmy wink and a smile. If you want me to believe that this is anything but subjective conjecture, keep yourself out of the story, save the asides for your talk show tour, and kill the freakin cliches.In the first third of the book, every factual event is accompanied by clearly biased descriptions of the facts. All of the descriptions about Ann Curry are negative. She's described as ambitious, but then we're quickly reminded: women aren't allowed to be that, are they? Total justification to assassinate her character! All of the worshiping of Matt Lauer is equally subjective. "Every man wants to be him, every woman wants to sleep with him...." Uh no. Shockingly, parts of America thought he was a smug bastard, even before the "Operation Bambi' events. Get out of New York every once in a while, k? The last third of the book spends a lot of time on the ratings....as if it's as prestigious as winning an olympic medal or as crucial as the invasion of Normandy. If these people really do spend that much time on something so trivial (viewers at ALL COST!), it really does give America a good indication of what is wrong with our news and media in general. Entire pages of this book could be skipped and still get the same amount of information. The whole Today show/NBC News hierarchy that reads like a Biblical chapter of begats: impossible to follow and honestly, who cares? This adds nothing to the story except more snarky posturing in what is already a litany of inference that these professional people do nothing but whisper about each other in the cafeteria and stab each other in the back. I half-expected Winona Ryder to pop up asking "What's your damage Heather?" The GMA staff and talent come out looking pretty good in this book, so that's something, I guess. However, why even bother to position this tabloid trash as serious investigative journalism? If the goal is to make a few bucks, more people would buy it if marketed as the gossipy rag it is. less

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