This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV Book

I really like books that take a look at the inside world of journalism and network news. This was an easy to read account of Bob Shieffer's career beginning in radio in Fort Worth, Texas, moving to the print media, and finally to television news. The book brought home how random events can make the difference in a national career or a noncareer--that pesky being at the right place at the right time. The section on the infighting at CBS over who would replace Walter Cronkite was particularly interesting. Loved the account of Roger Mudd storming out of the building when he didn't get the call and starting a career with another network. Two stories stood out for me. The first was that Senator Sam Nunn (D-Georgia), the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was Bob Shieffer's best friend in Washington and he refused to give Shieffer any inside information. In fact, it was only while researching the book, and after Nunn had been out of office for years, that Shieffer found out that Nunn had been offered the job of Secretary of Defense before it was offered to Senator John Tower (and we all know how that turned out). The other story dealt with the Long family of Louisiana with whom I have been fascinated for years. While working for the leading newspaper in Ft. Worth, Texas, Shieffer got a first-hand look at Governor Earl Long getting off an airplane in Ft. Worth with a paper bag over his head with eye holes cut in it. He wanted to slip into town unnoticed. Good try, Earl. No wonder Long had to eventually be placed in a mental institution in Texas for a short period. (He couldn't be put into a mental institution in Louisiana because as governor he could sign himself out.) And, of course, Shieffer touched on the Blaze Starr stories about Earl Long--the old governor and the stripper trick. (I've already told you my stories about Blaze Starr up close and personal in Baltimore in the late 1960s.)