THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603180180
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHTERY
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
HOT AIR
All Talk All The Time
HOWARD KURTZ
Times Books. 371 pp. $25.
Howard Kurtz's latest book, Hot Air, is a broad overview of the down-and-dirty world of talk: Talk radio and talk television. If it accomplishes nothing else, the book will make anyone with a 9 to 5 job very grateful he has something to do all day to keep from joining the millions of Americans addicted to the country's lowest common denominator: television talk shows.
In excruciating detail, Kurtz traces the growth of the talk show genre from Phil Donahue's beginnings in Dayton, Ohio, with a show called ``Conversation Piece'' (where he interviewed the likes of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King) through the 1980s and '90s, when Donahue's topics took a sharp prurient turn to sleazy subjects like ``Married Housewives Fulfill Their Secret Desire to Strip in a Club.''
Kurtz, media critic for The Washington Post, casts a cold eye on deviant America as portrayed by Oprah, Montel, Sally, Leeza, Geraldo and company. He chronicles how they have upped the ante as they compete for ratings in the increasingly cut-throat world of television talk.
But TV talk shows take up only one chapter (``Daytime Dysfunction'') in the author's gambol along the airways. He also looks at the Sunday morning political talk shows, the confrontational political forums (such as ``The McLaughlin Group'') and radio talk shows. Two of the crown princes of gab - Larry King and Rush Limbaugh - rate their own chapters. So does ``Nightline'' host Ted Koppel, whom Kurtz praises for his commitment to journalism - and his efforts not to cover the O.J. Simpson trial.
One of the most interesting parts of the book deals with Michael Kinsley's reluctant seduction from his respectable beginnings at The New Republic into the fast-paced, superficial set of TV's ``Crossfire.'' Ultimately, Kurtz concludes that Kinsley did it for one reason: the money.
And who wouldn't? According to Kurtz, successful talk show regulars can earn millions of dollars each year in salaries and speaking fees. Rush Limbaugh rakes in $25 million a year, Kurtz says.
The author is toughest on so-called broadcast journalists - Sam Donaldson, David Brinkley and Cokie Roberts to name three - who pal around a bit too cozily with the people they cover. Kurtz seems to expect more from this crew than the traditional talking heads. To that end he asks disturbing questions about the common practice of journalists accepting fat speaking fees from organizations and interest groups. Why, he asks, shouldn't journalists hold themselves to the same standards they demand of public officials?
Kurtz's book is timely as the nation embarks on another presidential election season. Anyone who has read Hot Air will tune in to the political punditry from a new perspective. MEMO: Kerry Doughtery is a staff editorial writer. by CNB