Broadcast Blues: Dispatches from the Twenty-Year War Between a Television Reporter and His Medium

Emmy Award winner Burns came to think of himself as superior to his medium and left television after two decades. He started his career working for local stations in West Virginia and Minnesota. Named a correspondent for NBC News, he stayed for seven years, until the network determined he should become a hipper Charles Kurault, a decision that failed because Burns did not have ``the ability, or willingness, to see only the best in his fellow man.'' Burns wrote a four-hour script on the history of smoking and drinking in the U.S. for PBS, which was not produced because it drew objections from potential backers. He reached his nadir working for Entertainment Tonight , interviewing actors and actresses and doing video reviews which came to be regarded by viewers as elitist. Burns ended his TV career with jobs at small stations and a cable channel. Readers may not be charmed by the idealist naivete that underlies this disillusioned view of life behind the tube, although the book has its moments. (May)