{"product_id":"9781934074176","title":"Tonight at Six: A Daily Show Masquerading As Local TV News","description":"In Tonight at Six, veteran journalist Michael Olesker paints an intimate, behind-the-scenes picture of local television news as few have ever seen it. He describes the long slide of a medium that was once assumed to be the golden future of American journalism, but is now widely considered an afterthought for viewers seeking serious news coverage.\u003cp\u003eIn his two decades as a nightly on-air commentator at Baltimore's WJZ-TV, Olesker watched as the station tumbled from pre-eminence as one of the country's top-rated local affiliates-where the on-air news personalities included the two top-ranked anchors in the country, plus a young woman named Oprah Winfrey-to inglorious runner-up in its own market.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTonight at Six offers a personal look at many of those public news personalities. But it's also a story about the decline of all TV news: how commercial considerations, short-sighted management, and the constant pressure of ratings forced the dumbing-down of local news programs around the country. It's the true story of how television stations purporting to cover the stories of huge metropolitan areas-their governors, mayors, city and county councils, school systems, police, criminal courts, neighborhoods, and more-quietly attempt this with no more than a handful of reporters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow do they do it? As Olesker explains, they don't.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"While this account eviscerates three Baltimore network affiliates, the sad truth is that they are no worse-and no better-than all local TV news operations. Olesker paints a high-definition picture of the façade beneath the façade.\"\u003cbr\u003eIra R. Allen\u003cbr\u003eFormer UPI Reporter and White House Correspondent\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Apprentice House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50202291175664,"sku":"9781934074176","price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781934074176","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}