My Turn at the Bully Pulpit: Straight Talk about the Things That Drive Me Nuts

by Greta Van Susteren

Greta Van Susteren, respected for her acute legal analysis and her intelligent, dogged interviewing style, offers up a collection of rants and opinions on the subjects that matter most. Van Susteren tackles America's major issues including gun violence, the death penalty, our judicial system, gay rights, plastic surgery and much, much more. To each topic she brings her signature humor and her take-no-prisoners style. Van Susteren tackles each issue, takes a stand, and plunges into the heart of the controversy. Each section closes with a few of the most strident, and in some cases amusing, emails from her viewers, responding to the shows in which the topics were debated, along with Van Susteren's equally strident-and amusing-responses. Rants and unvarnished opinions about the most controversial issues of the day, from America's most popular female news anchor on cable TV.

Genres: Politics

Audio CD

First published August 26, 2003

About the author

Greta Van Susteren is an American journalist and television personality on the Fox News Channel where she hosts On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. She previously appeared on CNN from 1991 to 2002.

Reviews

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got through the first 20% or so before I became too bored to continue. In addition to being meandering and somewhat outdated, MY TURN AT THE BULLY PULPIT treats readers as though they were simpletons. I don't mean that the tone or the language is condescending; I'm referring to how Ms. Van Susteren treats obvious, commonsense information as though she's giving us the "inside scoop." I mean, did you know that news programs try to book in-demand guests on their shows? And that TV journalists are very cutthroat in trying to land these guests? Did you know that a bad guest can result in a terrible interview? These are the kind of things Van Susteren teaches us about journalism.
Even still, I might've appreciated the book as a sort of introductory text for young readers were it not for the way it hopscotched from journalism to her political views to personal anecdotes about things like riding on aircraft carriers and hanging out with the Osbournes. There just wasn't enough of a through-line for me. Maybe it would've also helped if I was a bigger fan of Van Susteren and more familiar with her TV show, which I've never actually watched for more than two minutes at a stretch.

[Fayette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in 2003 (15 years ago!) and much of Susteren’s opinions/chapters are focused on what was then current events. Other than the O.J. Trial I have not really followed her career. I did enjoy her down-to-earth conversational style.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I find interesting about this book is that many of the things Greta writes about are still issues today, you just have different names. A nice quick read.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but not one of those books that you can't put down. I'm not sure if I ever finished it?