WE INTERRUPT THIS BROADCAST: The Events that Stopped Our Lives... from the Hindenburg Explosion to the Attacks of September 11
Joe Garner, , foreword by Walter Cronkite, narrated by Bill Kurtis. . Sourcebooks/MediaFusion, $49.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-57071-974-5
First published in 1998, this book and double-CD set documents, in text, audio and black-and-white photographs, the moments when history, for better or for worse (though usually for worse), was made in an instant. Garner's updated third edition includes segments on the 2000 presidential election reporting fiasco ("the most embarrassing election night coverage since... 'Dewey Defeats Truman' ") and the events of September 11 (the collapse of Tower 2 in a "terrifying ballet of twisting, screaming metal"). In addition to the CDs' reports and sound bites—dramatically introduced and explained by longtime journalist Kurtis—each event gets about four pages of coverage, with an efficient summary and at least half a dozen photos. A smiling, handsome Robert Kennedy on one page becomes a mortally wounded man on the next, while on the CD, reporter Andrew West asks the senator a strategy question, and then—"Senator Kennedy has been shot! Is that possible?" he cries. "Is it possible?... Oh my God... He still has the gun, the gun is pointed at me right at this moment! Take a hold of his thumb and break it if you have to!" It doesn't matter that the clips and the photos are old news: from the
Reviewed on: 06/03/2002
Genre: Nonfiction