A biographical tribute to a journalist nearly forgotten since his
suicide in 1954.A colleague of Edward R. Murrow within the CBS News
broadcasting empire, Don Hollenbeck invented contemporary media
criticism in 1947, when CBS Views the Press began airing on radio.
Until the 2005 release of Good Night, and Good Luck, his career had
been mostly lost in the mists of communications history. That film
portrayed Hollenbeck as a victim of anti-Communist hysteria - an
accurate perception as far as it goes, declares Ghiglione (Media
Ethics/Northwestern Univ.; The American Journalist, 1990, etc.),
but lacking depth and breadth. Born in Nebraska in 1905,
Hollenbeck, an only child, received an attentive upbringing before
entering the state university in Lincoln. His adoring mother became
increasingly unhinged and killed herself when he was 22. His
relationships with women were complicated, and the author gives
some attention to his failed marriages and his devotion to his
daughter. These passages are brief, since the author's primary aim
is to recount Hollenbeck's pioneering efforts as an informed,
incisive critic of the mass media. Before getting to that,
Ghiglione delivers an excellent chapter on his years reporting from
World War II's European theater, showing how important journalists
on the scene became to Americans far away from the fighting. The
author praises Hollenbeck's media criticism for its excellence and
daring, explaining how those very qualities led to vicious attacks
on the newsman by some of his targets. Singled out by Ghiglione as
the primary villain is Jack O'Brian, a vituperative New York City
newspaper columnist who perceived Hollenbeck - and portrayed him in
print - as a Communist endangering America's welfare.Well-written
and clear-eyed portrait of a crusading newsman. (Kirkus Reviews)
Loren Ghiglione recounts the fascinating life and tragic suicide
of Don Hollenbeck, the controversial newscaster who became a
primary target of McCarthyism's smear tactics. Drawing on unsealed
FBI records, private family correspondence, and interviews with
Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace, Charles Collingwood, Douglas
Edwards, and more than one hundred other journalists, Ghiglione
writes a balanced biography that cuts close to the bone of this
complicated newsman and chronicles the stark consequences of the
anti-Communist frenzy that seized America in the late 1940s and
1950s.
Hollenbeck began his career at the Lincoln, Nebraska "Journal"
(marrying the boss's daughter) before becoming an editor at William
Randolph Hearst's rip-roaring "Omaha Bee-News." He participated in
the emerging field of photojournalism at the Associated Press;
assisted in creating the innovative, ad-free "PM" newspaper in New
York City; reported from the European theater for NBC radio during
World War II; and anchored television newscasts at CBS during the
era of Edward R. Murrow.
Hollenbeck's pioneering, prize-winning radio program, "CBS Views
the Press" (1947-1950), was a declaration of independence from a
print medium that had dominated American newsmaking for close to
250 years. The program candidly criticized the prestigious "New
York Times," the "Daily News" (then the paper with the largest
circulation in America), and Hearst's flagship "Journal-American"
and popular morning tabloid "Daily Mirror." For this honest work,
Hollenbeck was attacked by conservative anti-Communists, especially
Hearst columnist Jack O'Brian, and in 1954, plagued by depression,
alcoholism, three failed marriages, and two network firings (and
worried about a third), Hollenbeck took his own life. In his
investigation of this amazing American character, Ghiglione reveals
the workings of an industry that continues to fall victim to
censorship and political manipulation. Separating myth from fact,
"CBS's Don Hollenbeck" is the definitive portrait of a polarizing
figure who became a symbol of America's tortured conscience.
General
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