Boned

by Anonymous

After twenty years at Australia's number one commercial TV station, the feisty and talented Kate Corish is at the top of her game. She's come a long way since her days as a starry-eyed journalism graduate and has outwitted many who would have stood in her way. Now she's host of her own top-rating current affairs show, and her career looks secure.

But in the blokey world of TV, being a woman can be a distinct disadvantage. Kate's use-by date - aka her fortieth birthday - is approaching and rumours that management intends to bone her are flying thick and fast. The opening salvo has already been fired in the press. Kate knows her boss, the Machiavellian Mike Ripley, is behind the campaign.

So should Kate just accept her fate - or should she try to play Ripley and the rest of the boys at their own game?

378 pages, Paperback

First published June 2, 2008

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Andrew Walton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rollicking yarn between the factual and the fictional following a predictable plot line.
Easy to absorb.
Best part, the brutality honest character descriptions without holding back.

[Lea Hadley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a good read. Focus on how tough it is for women in journalism TV Current Affair shows. Men call the shots, context sexualised, men cover for each other. Tough world.

[M.A. McRae · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book detailing the rise and the career of Kate Corish, a journalist and later 'anchor-woman' of a commercial TV station in Australia. It is said to be fiction, with resemblance to people, living or dead, coincidental. However, it is obvious that this is a real story, of a woman talented and beautiful enough to make it in a very competitive world, who arrived at the 'use-by' date of forty, when her looks began to fade, and she was then 'boned,' her career assassinated. A friend and age-mate was a 'rising young star,' but he was male.

This book exposes the brutal, and disgustingly sexist world of commercial television journalism, where viewers are held in contempt, and 'news' stories geared for the lowest common denominator. The behaviour of the men in power is detailed - coarse, disgusting behaviour. Even ten years ago, I would have counted accounts of such conduct as exaggerated, but the older I get, the more I hear of the way men can behave, and now I wonder if it is exaggerated at all.

This is an eye-opener - stories of reporters crowding around some poor person's home in order to pounce on them to extract a comment, tears and distress welcome, any consideration for innnocent people almost non-existent, and of course, no consideration at all for ones they deem 'guilty.'

In many ways, this is a sad and sordid story, but also entertaining and educational. The only part I thought was probably real fiction was the wonderful man that Kate loved and was soon to have a family with.

Recommended.

[Lulu · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is ok but if you have watch Frontline then you have effectively read this book. No new insights.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only read this as I was trying to work out who wrote it... Rather self indulgent memoir masquerading as fiction...