Customer Reviews

Risk and Redemption: Surviving the Network News Wars

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I read this book expecting Arthur Kent to be arrogant but what I found was a dedicated journalist. Kent never wavered from his ethical standards. He took the giants at NBC to task for their disregard for him and others who believe that news should be reported with honesty and integrity--not for the corporate bottom line. His story is highly readable with the people he met in Afghanistan, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, and Tiananmen Square coming to life (and death) through Kent's compelling stories. When he files a lawsuit against the corporate giants, you too will be on his side. Kent deserved every cent he got. We should all put pressure on the media to give us worldwide news coverage presented by men and women who serve to provide us with the facts--not the sensation-packed news we see today. Marie Wilson (mwilson@kapla.com), Fountain Hills, Arizon

Arthur Kent takes you on his compelling journey as a foreign news correspondent. His story is told with candor and self-effacing humor. Going from the treetops of Afghanistan to that infamous rooftop in Dhahran, you will be consumed by the bloody chaos of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Just when you think you can't be shocked anymore by scenes of war and destruction, political repression, natural disaster and apathy, the equally shocking truth of what goes on behind the scenes of broadcasting is exposed. This book makes you think, not just about what is happening in the world around us, but what or who determines how much we learn of it. Kent shows us the risks some journalists take everyday, in order to bring real news to us. We owe them more than just passively sitting in front of our T.V. sets accepting whatever the networks choose to feed us. It's nice to know that old cowboy movies aren't the only place where the guy wearing the white hat can still win the battle

This was a very strange book to read. Here is an writer, an eyewitness to some of the most interesting and dangerous moments in recent history. Yet he seems to have had little time to reflect on what he has experienced, so pressured has he been to get the film in and on air, to say someting quick and marketable. There is no doubt about this man's courage, his credentials as a journalist, or NBC's incompetent attempts to destroy him.(It makes one never to want to watch anything on NBC or buy anything from its owner GE) But for a man who has been through so much I fear that much of what he has to say has not been digested. He appears still very much wounded by his own sucessful lawsuit and the betrayal of an organization that he risked his life for. Yet as much as I want to admire the man, there is something dishonest about this book. I do not dispute the facts, but the book presentation sounds more like a public relations effort to recusitate his career- or a recapitulation of the notes he gathered for the trial. In every chapter there is the constant effort to prove to the reader how brave he and his friends are, how stupid and deceitful are his enemies. Everything is black and white, almost nothing new or interesting or thoughtful in between. I think in the years to come we may read something far better from Kent. Kent an interesting new kind of man-a product of the news business. I would say that anyone in the news media or even thinking about it -or anyone who draws his primary information about the world from the networks -should definitely read this book for its strengths as well as its weaknesses.(One will never watch TV news again with the same trust.) But as an insightful discussion of current events or autobiography, be forwarned.