Fighting for Air: In the Trenches with Television News

by Liz Trotta

Book Overview

In this piercing look into the grit and the glamour of television news, award-winning journalist Liz Trotta traces her career from the early days of broadcast news to the slick superficiality of today. The first female television correspondent in Vietnam, Trotta tells the searing truth about being a woman in a male-dominated industry and recounts many of her most fascinating stories, from the scandal of Chappaquiddick to the campaign trail of George...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067167529X
• ISBN13: 9780671675295
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 395 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A true pioneer

Trotta was one of the first female war correspondents on television. This book is a must read for her Vietnam reflections as well as her story of what it was like to be a woman in the network "boys club".

Trailblazing Journalist

Liz was an awesome reporter in Vietnam; she could get down and dirty in the mud with the troops in an era where talking heads reported from mahogany desks in NYC thousands of miles away. She was honest and conservative in an industry which was devaluing both. Finally she was a woman, one of the first to go into the jungle to get the tough stories. This is a compelling book of a great reporter's life, and the story of an amazing woman.

Fighting for the Truth

If you like most of us receive your news primarily through television you need to read Liz Trotta's book Fighting for Air. She was present at the transformation of TV news from a reportorial medium to an editorializing, prostelytizing one. Trotta too often was a lone voice for truth in reporting amidst a wilderness of ratings, liberal bias and pretty talking heads. She recounts the ups and downs of a traumatic career that took her from battleground to political campaign and back again. Few incidents of significance occurred in the two plus decades that Liz has covered the world that she has not seen and reported on. Her greatest contribution - in this era of finally revealing the shallow nature of TV news - is that some people are able to look beyone the surface and see what is really important.This book is a must-read for all concerned with current affairs and with how the media deliberately attempts to shape your thinking. Buy it and send it to a friend after you finish. Thanks to Liz Trotta for being ahead of her time.