The Place To Be

Washington, CBS, and the Glory Days of Television News

As possibly one of the most boring people in the world, I decided that I really needed to read a book about television news reporters in the 1960s. Roger Mudd was Walter Cronkite's primary backup on the CBS Evening News, and later he anchored the NBC Nightly News aside Tom Brokaw. Now, in his 80s, he's written a book about his experiences. So, in short, I am not even interesting enough to read about primary news anchors.


Here's the odd path that brought me to Roger Mudd. Someone on the Slate Cultural Gabfest recommended Timothy Crouse's 1972 book "The Boys on the Bus" about the media.  I couldn't find that, so instead I read Hunter S. Thompson's great book about that campaign. I eventually did find the Crouse book in which he mentions Roger Mudd, at which point I remembered spotting Mudd's book in a bookstore a few months earlier.

And, of course, I loved it. It's not always the most well-written book. He jumps around from story to story at times, but it's a nice look at what television news was like back in its glory days. It's part memoir but also part a profile of the CBS Washington bureau. He interviews every major reporter who worked in that bureau, including even Dan Rather -- a bit awkward as the two were at times fierce rivals for Cronkite's anchor chair. Mudd is passionately proud of the work that CBS News did back then, and it's fascinating to read his stories.
 
I tried to find some clips of him on Youtube, but there aren't many. When it comes to old CBS News clips, it's mostly Walter-to-Walter coverage. Still, there is his famous interview with Ted Kennedy, in which Kennedy does not seem to know why he wants to be Presient.

And then there is an especially creepy broadcast of the 1969 draft lottery, which must have been horrifying to watch. As a commenter there pointed out, it was just like the NBA draft lottery, but with lives.

That clip is somewhat gruesome, so here's a blooper with Chris Wallace from his NBC days. Ol' Roger is really cracking up at this.

Update: He's also featured twice in news montages during the excellent "Frost/Nixon" which I finally saw.