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Risk & Redemption: Surviving the Network News Wars
New Hardcover DEN2-WMC
- GenresNonfiction
308 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1997
4 people want to read
About the author
Arthur Kent
2 books2 followersAuthor and journalist Arthur Kent has traveled the world in pursuit of the facts. His new book is a true crime investigative thriller, Murder In Room 117: Solving The Cold Case That Led To America's Longest War. The book reveals previously-concealed evidence in the 1979 murder of U.S. Ambassador Spike Dubs.
Over the past five decades, Arthur Kent has reported for news organizations including NBC and CBC News, BBC News, CNN, TBS, PBS, A&E's The History Channel, The Observer newspaper and Maclean's magazine. He won Emmy Awards for his part in NBC's coverage of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre and the December, 1989 Romanian Revolution.
In the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, Kent was forced into a legal battle with NBC management over the intrusion of entertainment values into news. He won a record settlement from NBC, and the right to publish the case's discovery evidence in his 1997 book, Risk and Redemption: Surviving the Network News Wars.
Kent's documentary, Afghanistan: Captives of the Warlords was broadcast by PBS in June, 2001, three months prior to the September 11 attacks. The film received the Gold WorldMedal at the New York festivals and a Golden Eagle award from CINE.
On the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Kent produced a documentary short subject, Black Night In June, based on his own video footage of the massacre, restored in 4K HD. Black Night In June recorded more than one million views on YouTube in the six days prior to the June 4, 2019 anniversary.
Over the past five decades, Arthur Kent has reported for news organizations including NBC and CBC News, BBC News, CNN, TBS, PBS, A&E's The History Channel, The Observer newspaper and Maclean's magazine. He won Emmy Awards for his part in NBC's coverage of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre and the December, 1989 Romanian Revolution.
In the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, Kent was forced into a legal battle with NBC management over the intrusion of entertainment values into news. He won a record settlement from NBC, and the right to publish the case's discovery evidence in his 1997 book, Risk and Redemption: Surviving the Network News Wars.
Kent's documentary, Afghanistan: Captives of the Warlords was broadcast by PBS in June, 2001, three months prior to the September 11 attacks. The film received the Gold WorldMedal at the New York festivals and a Golden Eagle award from CINE.
On the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Kent produced a documentary short subject, Black Night In June, based on his own video footage of the massacre, restored in 4K HD. Black Night In June recorded more than one million views on YouTube in the six days prior to the June 4, 2019 anniversary.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 24, 2022
In this combined autobiography/memoir published in 1996, respected international news journalist Arthur Kent shares his experience bringing NBC news to task over its policy of focusing on entertainment and ratings rather than on a commitment to bring unbiased and honest reporting of world news to its viewers. He was the first person to force executives at NBC to account for their policies under oath in a court of law and was successful in winning a substantial award in the process.
His book consists of two parts, the first begins with his early life growing up in Alberta as the son of a newsman following in his father’s footsteps. He shares his reasons for choosing journalism as a career and his early work experience at the Calgary Herald in 1993 and his later move to CBC news, followed by a period of reporting independently and filing news stories for NBC, CBC and the Observer. In 1989 he joined NBC news as the network’s Rome correspondent and won Emmy Awards in 1989 for his coverage of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the Romanian Revolution.
In 1991, still at NBC News as a correspondent in Saudi Arabia, he reported on Desert Storm, a conflict flashed nightly on television news screens as fiery scud missiles fell from the sky behind him. In the following days as his nightly reports continued, this experienced, good-looking journalist was shown dressed in his leather jacket with his hair blowing lightly in the breeze, standing in the middle of a dangerous war zone, calmly reporting on progress in the war. His profile caught the attention of viewers and suddenly Arthur Kent, formerly not widely known outside news circles, but now given intense high-profile coverage as a correspondent, emerged a media star, known by the moniker “Scud the Stud”. He had been covering the news for years but suddenly had become a celebrity. Ratings during his newscasts rose and NBC recognized they had a potential bullet on their hands.
Kent had no use for the celebrity profile NBC was grooming him to take on. He wanted to do his job, report the news, not become a movie star. Of course, even as he shares his compelling journey as a foreign news correspondent and the experience in Desert Storm that turned him into a media star, one senses a bit of irony. It was this profile that actually brought him to prominence as a reporter and gained him his widespread international reputation.
Not long after the Gulf War, Kent had a contract dispute with NBC News and was fired in August of 1992. He sued them for breach of contract, fraud and defamation, a case settled in 1994 which he details in this book. In the final agreement, NBC paid Kent a huge amount (reportedly 25 million!), retracted comments they had made about Kent and the dispute, and gave Kent the right to publish testimony from the discovery phase of his suit. It is this evolution of this legal process which fills the second part of the book.
Some critics have called this a courtroom procedural with a bit of autobiography thrown in. In the first section he covers some exciting ground in his eye witness accounts of harrowing episodes in Afghanistan, China, Germany and Romania where he travelled in dangerous places during the 1980s. But the focus is on the legal suit and what Kent wants to reveal to the world at large, that entertainment and the demands created by network ratings are interfering with the reporting of world news.
Kent describes how the time and space allocated to the reporting of news has been encroached by entertainment in an effort to secure high ratings, attract advertisers and bring in greater profits. Sensational reporting of stories such as the infamous murdering Mendez brothers was given space that should have been devoted to reporting important world events such as the growing conflict in Afghanistan. Viewers distracted by entertainment, were thus wholly unprepared for the 9/11 disaster because they were so ill-informed about world affairs.
This evolution towards entertainment as a part of newscasts began years ago when executives recognized the growing potential of a visual media outlet. As early as the 1950s, Edward R. Murrow began hosting celebrity interviews during the time slotted for news reports which were very popular. However Kent connects the more recent concerted push in this direction to General Electric’s purchase of NBC in the early eighties. Citing a need to cut costs, the new parent company began closing foreign news desks and cutting experienced journalists. Those cuts created a sense of unease and fearing potential job loss, many aligned themselves with NBC’s shift in direction. It was a very successful strategy, with the network using the fear of job cuts needed to balance the books, as a way to bring employees in line and conform with their wishes. Over the years networks competed to hire celebrity anchors to replace those with news credentials, all in an effort to capture the television viewer’s attention, push up ratings and bring in more advertising dollars.
The sections on the legal battle do not reveal NBC in a good light. After the Gulf War NBC realized they had a hot commodity on their hands with Kent and wanted to groom a group with a similar profile for their news programs. Kent however, refused to play ball with their plans. In 1992 he refused an assignment in the former Yugoslavia because the network had not done the groundwork necessary for a news team to work safely in a war zone. NBC suspended him, which ultimately led to Kent’s law suit in 1994.
Kent encourages readers to think carefully about the news they choose to listen to, to think about who decides what they hear, how much they hear and whether they can accept and trust what they are told. It is often difficult to get the facts when news is sensationalized and Kent warns viewers what the encroachment of entertainment on TV news could mean for the future. Much of what he predicted back then has come to pass and his warnings are even more relevant today.
This was an interesting book I read several years ago. It is startling to look back and see how Kent’s predictions are now firmly embedded in our reality as networks continued down the path he predicted they would travel.
His book consists of two parts, the first begins with his early life growing up in Alberta as the son of a newsman following in his father’s footsteps. He shares his reasons for choosing journalism as a career and his early work experience at the Calgary Herald in 1993 and his later move to CBC news, followed by a period of reporting independently and filing news stories for NBC, CBC and the Observer. In 1989 he joined NBC news as the network’s Rome correspondent and won Emmy Awards in 1989 for his coverage of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the Romanian Revolution.
In 1991, still at NBC News as a correspondent in Saudi Arabia, he reported on Desert Storm, a conflict flashed nightly on television news screens as fiery scud missiles fell from the sky behind him. In the following days as his nightly reports continued, this experienced, good-looking journalist was shown dressed in his leather jacket with his hair blowing lightly in the breeze, standing in the middle of a dangerous war zone, calmly reporting on progress in the war. His profile caught the attention of viewers and suddenly Arthur Kent, formerly not widely known outside news circles, but now given intense high-profile coverage as a correspondent, emerged a media star, known by the moniker “Scud the Stud”. He had been covering the news for years but suddenly had become a celebrity. Ratings during his newscasts rose and NBC recognized they had a potential bullet on their hands.
Kent had no use for the celebrity profile NBC was grooming him to take on. He wanted to do his job, report the news, not become a movie star. Of course, even as he shares his compelling journey as a foreign news correspondent and the experience in Desert Storm that turned him into a media star, one senses a bit of irony. It was this profile that actually brought him to prominence as a reporter and gained him his widespread international reputation.
Not long after the Gulf War, Kent had a contract dispute with NBC News and was fired in August of 1992. He sued them for breach of contract, fraud and defamation, a case settled in 1994 which he details in this book. In the final agreement, NBC paid Kent a huge amount (reportedly 25 million!), retracted comments they had made about Kent and the dispute, and gave Kent the right to publish testimony from the discovery phase of his suit. It is this evolution of this legal process which fills the second part of the book.
Some critics have called this a courtroom procedural with a bit of autobiography thrown in. In the first section he covers some exciting ground in his eye witness accounts of harrowing episodes in Afghanistan, China, Germany and Romania where he travelled in dangerous places during the 1980s. But the focus is on the legal suit and what Kent wants to reveal to the world at large, that entertainment and the demands created by network ratings are interfering with the reporting of world news.
Kent describes how the time and space allocated to the reporting of news has been encroached by entertainment in an effort to secure high ratings, attract advertisers and bring in greater profits. Sensational reporting of stories such as the infamous murdering Mendez brothers was given space that should have been devoted to reporting important world events such as the growing conflict in Afghanistan. Viewers distracted by entertainment, were thus wholly unprepared for the 9/11 disaster because they were so ill-informed about world affairs.
This evolution towards entertainment as a part of newscasts began years ago when executives recognized the growing potential of a visual media outlet. As early as the 1950s, Edward R. Murrow began hosting celebrity interviews during the time slotted for news reports which were very popular. However Kent connects the more recent concerted push in this direction to General Electric’s purchase of NBC in the early eighties. Citing a need to cut costs, the new parent company began closing foreign news desks and cutting experienced journalists. Those cuts created a sense of unease and fearing potential job loss, many aligned themselves with NBC’s shift in direction. It was a very successful strategy, with the network using the fear of job cuts needed to balance the books, as a way to bring employees in line and conform with their wishes. Over the years networks competed to hire celebrity anchors to replace those with news credentials, all in an effort to capture the television viewer’s attention, push up ratings and bring in more advertising dollars.
The sections on the legal battle do not reveal NBC in a good light. After the Gulf War NBC realized they had a hot commodity on their hands with Kent and wanted to groom a group with a similar profile for their news programs. Kent however, refused to play ball with their plans. In 1992 he refused an assignment in the former Yugoslavia because the network had not done the groundwork necessary for a news team to work safely in a war zone. NBC suspended him, which ultimately led to Kent’s law suit in 1994.
Kent encourages readers to think carefully about the news they choose to listen to, to think about who decides what they hear, how much they hear and whether they can accept and trust what they are told. It is often difficult to get the facts when news is sensationalized and Kent warns viewers what the encroachment of entertainment on TV news could mean for the future. Much of what he predicted back then has come to pass and his warnings are even more relevant today.
This was an interesting book I read several years ago. It is startling to look back and see how Kent’s predictions are now firmly embedded in our reality as networks continued down the path he predicted they would travel.
November 26, 2023
An interesting account of Arthur Kent's coverage of major world upheaval events: Tiananmen Square, Afghan War, Iraqi War, fall of Berlin Wall, and more. His fearless forays into the thick of war zones earned him respect and awe. I found this interesting reading. He almost lost his life many times.
Then....NBC fired him, and slandered his name. The last third of the book is about his preparation for a defamation lawsuit and damages. This part was less interesting, but I slogged through.
Worth reading if you want to know what it is like to carry a camera and sound crew into the middle of a riot or war theatre.
Then....NBC fired him, and slandered his name. The last third of the book is about his preparation for a defamation lawsuit and damages. This part was less interesting, but I slogged through.
Worth reading if you want to know what it is like to carry a camera and sound crew into the middle of a riot or war theatre.
November 2, 2017
This book has been fired.
Such a waste of paper. The trees weep.
Such a waste of paper. The trees weep.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews