Friendly is the man who brought Edward R. Murrow into television and later developed the Public Broadcasting System, putting his huge fingerprints on American television in its first 40 years. Journalism scholar Engelman chronicles the life and career of this volatile man, whose memory elicited strong emotions in colleagues interviewed for the book. Although Murrow and Friendly gained heroic status for standing up to McCarthyism, Engelman notes that the pair were late in challenging the rabid anti-communism that put many colleagues on a blacklist. Together, Friendly and Murrow burnished CBS Reports into a major news feature. Friendly’s incendiary temper, challenging CBS corporate heads over coverage of the Vietnam War, led to his departure. But it moved him on to head the Ford Foundation, where he realized an old dream of a public-supported television network. Friendly later went on to the Columbia University journalism school, where he insisted on recruiting more minorities into television. A big man with a big ego, Friendly was so passionate and visionary that his ideals came to be known as Friendlyvision. --Vanessa Bush
Review
Broadcast news might have been saved if we had figured out how to clone Fred Friendly. Read this book and you'll understand the gruff, restless, brilliant, temperamental, and driven giant of a man who fought to make the vast wasteland safe for journalism.
(Bill Moyers, award-winning journalist and public commentator 9/1/09)
Friendlyvision is an important and rigorous piece of scholarship that is also well written and highly readable. A first-rate biography of an important figure, this book conveys the values Fred Friendly enunciated and the industry he helped forge, which remains more important than ever.
(Everette Dennis, Fordham University 5/1/10)
This book is a significant and original contribution, not only because it is the first scholarly biography of an important figure in television, but also because it uses new archival sources to fill gaps in our knowledge and give us an opportunity to reinterpret key events in Fred Friendly's life.
(Don Carleton, Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin Vol 97, No 3)
[A] complex, rewarding portrait of one of network television's most memorable figures.
(James Boylan
Columbia Journalism Review )
A substantial and useful study of the underknown pioneer whose conviction and energy did much to shape the content and character of American broadcast journalism.
(
Kirkus Reviews )
A revelation.... Engelman ably brings [Fred Friendly] to life.
(J. Max Robins
Wall Street Journal )
Richly detailed... The book opens a singular window on an important vision that Friendly shared with others... Recommended.
(
Choice )
Friendlyvision will likely become not only the authoritative biography of Fred Friendly, but also a valuable secondary text.
(Ben Eltham
Media International Australis )
A nuanced and thoughtful portrayal of one of the foremost figures in the history of American broadcast journalism.
(Michael Curtin
Journal of American History )
