You Should Have Been Here Yesterday
A Life in Television News
by Garrick Utley
Overview
From the Publisher
A witty, critical memoir--in print and on a DVD disc--of a life in front of the cameras and of the evolution of television news by one of America's leading TV journalists.
A generation of television viewers grew up watching Garrick Utley as he trekked to the far reaches of the Earth for NBC-News. What is life as a foreign correspondent really like? Is it all glamour and adventure? In this wise and witty memoir, Utley reveals what life is like behind the camera. He takes us from the battlefields of Vietnam to the backwaters of Belize, from communist Russia to revolutionary Rhodesia, in search of the most riveting, most important news stories out there.
But Utley's story is far more than a personal memoir--it's a sweeping history of network news. Utley reflects, in particular, on how the correspondent's role has shifted as centralized control, advanced technology, "infotainment," and profit margin have altered the way television networks operate and television news is reported. Packaged with a DVD of memorable Utley reports and dramatic footage from the heyday of network news, You Should Have Been Here Yesterday is an indispensable tour of the business and excitement of television news.
My thoughts
This book really wasn't what I expected at all, and maybe I enjoyed it even more for that very reason. I bought it anticipating exciting stories of being on location at major news events, and a great deal of the book covers that very thing. Reports from Vietnam are plentiful in the first part of the book. What I didn't anticipate is commentary on how news broadcasting for television was born and evolved into what it is today. That was an unexpected bonus that I found fascinating.
If I am to critique the book I'd say that I wasn't always sure what the book tried to be -- news stories or the history of television broadcasting. But either way, or perhaps both ways, the book worked. It was food for thought, it was entertaining, it was horrifying, it was exciting. I really enjoyed it.
Favorite Passage
Filming live in Vietnam during the war
"Did you see any Russian advisers?" We shook our heads and added that with the low level of fighting, just skirmishes, Russian advisers would seem very unlikely. "Well, we've gotten reports from our agents over there that two Russian advisers were seen at the post. We think they are bringing in new weapons; mortars, probably."
"Was that a week ago Friday, the day of your firefight?" I asked. The captain turned to look at a calendar hanging on the mess hall wall. "Yeah, that was it." Grant Wolfkill drank the last of his coffee, put the mug down, and wiped his mouth with a paper napkin from the alumninum dispenser on the table. "Well I think you're looking at your two Russian advisers. The mortar was the case for our camera tripod."
"Just shows you can never be sure of what you're getting in the agent reports," one of the sergeants said with a laugh. As we sat around the table, we let our collective imagination play with how the report could take on a life of its own: it had been passed on to Saigon for further analysis and then cabled to Washington, where it would be mentioned in a Pentagon strategy session (as an unconfirmed sighting, of course) and then communicated to the White House as one line in the daily Vietnam status report, where it might be leaked (no longer as an unconfirmed sighting) to a reporter who would publish the item, which would then become the subject of debate in Congress, which had to decide whether to increase aid to South Vietnam in order to stop Communist expansion, which now included Russian advisers moving inot he Mekong Delta.
