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Brinkley's Beat: People, Places, and Events That Shaped My Time
by David Brinkley
Charming essays from a top Washington journalist.
In his posthumously published book,television journalist David Brinkley gives the reader snapshot accounts, as the subtitle says, of "People, Places, and Events" that influenced his time.
For more than four decades, David Brinkley was one of the top television journalists in Washington, first coming to national prominence as half of the nightly Huntley-Brinkley Report ("Goodnight, Chet. Goodnight, David") in the mid 1950s on NBC. His notoriety extended through his years with ABC on This Week with David Brinkley.
In his book, Brinkley's essays lean toward the idiosyncratic, especially the first group of pieces about people. Among those Brinkley writes about, he portrays J. Edgar Hoover not so much as a crime buster or super snoop, but as a master bureaucrat, and Senator Joe McCarthy comes off as more pitiful than evil. Brinkley seems to have developed a grudging respect for Ronald Reagan, though he says he disagreed with many of Reagan's policies. As for Bill Clinton, Brinkley writes that it is “hard not to be disappointed by how far Clinton's actual achievements fell below the initial expectations.” Calling Clinton “undisciplined,” both personally and in his political commitments, Brinkley says that Clinton's failures were at least partly his own fault.
In this piece Brinkley admits to having had a bout of “foot in mouth” disease. On the night of Clinton's re-election in 1996, Brinkley, mistakenly thinking he was no longer on the air, commented to his fellow reporters how boring Clinton's victory speech had been. He did apologize for his remarks soon after when he interviewed the president.
In the second section, Brinkley writes about a number of places he visited as a reporter. Five of the six pieces are about the 1960s and deal mostly with the Civil Rights movement and the Cold War. These essays, as with everything else in the book, are written in a charming and readable style. Readers may sometimes feel as though they have happened upon letters from years ago. Those familiar with Brinkley's droll and slightly ironic delivery will almost hear him speaking the words as they read.
In the third section, on events, two pieces stand out. In one, Brinkley gives a thumbnail history of national political conventions. Not surprisingly, he pays the most attention to television coverage of the conventions, which started in 1948. Brinkley began reporting from the conventions in 1956. In more recent years, he writes, the national parties tried to get more control of the proceedings and turned them into long political advertisements.
Brinkley bemoans that the conventions have become so contrived, the major networks have felt the need to cut back on their coverage. The other notable essay in this section is a reporter's eye view of John Kennedy's assassination. Brinkley skillfully describes the depth of emotion he witnessed, among the normally restrained reporters with whom he worked. He starts with the confusion and lack of information after the first reports that shots had been fired and continues through the president's funeral, when for the first time the nation turned to television rather than radio and newspapers to get the latest news.
Any reader can savor Brinkley's story-telling ability, insightful with hints of humor and melancholy, but his fans especially will relish these bits of the author's life and times.
Title: Brinkley's Beat: People, Places, and Events That Shaped My Time
Author: David Brinkley
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 0375406441
Review written by: William Keogan
Reviewer's Rating:8
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
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