David Brinkley

As a non-native English speaker who has been watching ABC's "This Week" all these years, I've always found David Brinkley's manner of speaking concise and easy to understand with short sentences and simple vocabulary. This was far cry from many other loud talking heads, including David's own colleagues on his Sunday program. He taught me how English could be spoken plainly but precisely and effectively. His memoir is written exactly the way he spoke. He gets to the point without being wordy and beating around the bush. One thing I liked about this memoir is that he wrote more about his professional life than personal, which was of little interest to me. This memoir is also a history of American TV journalism, filled with episodes that were new to me. I was particularly interested in learning what he had to say about Joe McCarthy, whom David's own sister served as secretary for many years. Quite a bit is written about Kenndey brothers, too, including JFK assasination. So glad he published this memoir before he passed away.

Having grown up with the Huntley-Brinkley report and watching them at all the conventions, I truly enjoyed this book. Especially interesting is how Brinkley trashes Jesse Helms.

To me, Brinkley always seemed a cut above the modern TV journalist / anchor -- more sober, more professional and less interested in focusing the attention on himself rather than his subject.David Brinkley tells his life story in this quick book. Growing up with the new medium of television, he and his partner (Chet Huntly) wrote much of the playbook for the way network news and tv interview shows are conducted.This is an interesting story that tells not only of Brinkley's growth and development but also of the maturation of the tv news industry. Along the way, Brinkley was witness to many seminal events and has of course met many of the notables of his era. The man's integrity and dedication to the profession of journalism shines through in this book. I can't imagine Sam or Cokie or Dan or Peter writing this book. Too much would be devoted to image and the their impact on the news. Brinkley was able to achieve the incredible credibility he enjoyed because he was made of different stuff -- this is the story of a darn good journalist who understood the difference between covering the news and entering it.

Being born in the early 1970's, the only way that I remember and have become endeared to David Brinkley was on ABC's "This Week with David Brinkley." It was Sunday morning must-see viewing for a political junkie like me. Tim Russert's "Meet the Press" has outstanding questioning of his guests, but for some reason Brinkley's show was my favorite. This book was a treasure for me to read because it was like seeing the history of modern politics from the front-lines. Brnkley was there as tv gained its foothold, and then its firm grip as THE MEDIUM to campaign for president. His insights into the different presidents since FDR are non-partisan and quite funny. He pulls no punches about who he liked and disliked and keeps his political ideology to himself for the most part. Though in the final chapter of this book, he does provide some biting commentary on the money-grubbing and unfair tax practices in this country. This book can be confusing at times, because Mr. Brinkley seems to have pieced it together as his thoughts were coming to him. It is random and does not follow any cohesive time-line. He will jump from talking about the 1950's then to the 1970's then back to the 1950's and 60's again. Frankly I did not understand the point and thought it might be easier to read had he decided to write in chronological order. I was also surprised to learn that Brinkley and his co-anchor Chet Huntley were the top rated news broadcasters of hteir day. All this time I had thought Walter Cronkite had ALWAYS been the #1 rated broadcaster and in fact his CBS program only gained on NBC in the early 1970's. Mr. Brinkley continuously expresses his fierce competitiveness towards the other networks and their newscasters. Some habits die hard for this career journalist who was constantly working hard to provide the BEST presentation in his field. This book is really an enjoyable read and I would recommend it anyone interested in the pre-CNN days of tv journalism. David Brinkley was a national treasure and I miss him every Sunday. He was truly the glue to that program among the huge egos of Sam Donaldson and George Will. Even if you just come across this book in a book store, I would especially take a good read towards the end, about page 245-246. He writes about a page and a half on the men that died on the beaches of Normandy. It is heart wrenching and tears welled up in my eyes while I was reading it. Then I reread it again and highlighted the section, because I will save that portion one as of the most outstanding tributes to the men of that "greatest generation" who died that day. It's worth it's price for that page alone.

I very much enjoyed reading David Brinkley's memoir. As pages turn, one can hear his voice as though he was reading aloud, complete with his trademark short sentences and his unique half-Southern and half-like-no-other accent (he explains this, by the way). I finished Walter Cronkite's fine book "A Reporter's Life" a while back, and found a number of parallels since obviously they are of the same topics and era. But Brinkley's was even more fun to read in my humble opinion -- his dry wit comes across perfectly, and it's just very entertaining and enlightening. A fascinating, fast-paced read.