Harry Reasoner was one of the most trusted and well-liked
journalists of the golden age of network television news. Whether
anchoring the evening newscast on CBS in the 1960s or on ABC in the
1970s, providing in-depth reporting on 60 Minutes, or hosting
numerous special programs covering civil rights struggles, the
Vietnam War, and Watergate, Reasoner had "that almost mystical
quality it seems to take for good television reporting, exuding
this atmosphere of truth and believability," in the words of Walter
Cronkite. Yet his reassuring manner and urbane, often witty, on-air
persona masked a man who was far more complex and contradictory.
Though gifted with the intelligence and drive to rise to the top of
his profession, Reasoner was regarded by many colleagues as lazy
and self-indulgent, a man who never achieved his full potential
despite his many accomplishments.
Harry Reasoner: A Life in the News covers the entire sweep of
this enigmatic journalist's life and career. Douglass K. Daniel
opens with Reasoner's Depression-era Midwestern upbringing and
follows him through his early work in newspapers and radio before
he joined CBS in 1956. Focusing on Reasoner's thirty-five-year
tenure in television news, Daniel presents fascinating,
behind-the-scenes accounts of Reasoner's key role in founding the
top-rated newsmagazine 60 Minutes. He also explores Reasoner's
highly publicized move to ABC in 1970, where he anchored the
nightly newscast, first with Howard K. Smith and later with Barbara
Walters--a disastrous pairing from which Reasoner's career never
fully recovered.
Based on scores of interviews and unpublished letters, memos,
and other primary sources, this first biography of the man once
rated second in credibility only to Walter Cronkite illuminates an
entire era in broadcast journalism, as well as many of the unique
personalities, from Andy Rooney to Mike Wallace, who made that era
distinctive.
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