That's the Way It Is

This "engaging and important" study examines the evolution of TV news and its long history of blending journalism and entertainment (American Historical Review).

Today's media critics often decry the state of television news, saying that it's too dumbed-down, becoming more entertainment than information. But this familiar narrative fails to acknowledge real changes in media and Americans' news-consuming habits. It also harkens back to a golden age that, on closer examination, is revealed to be not so golden. As Charles L. Ponce de Leon explains in That's the Way It Is, TV news has always walked a fine line between hard news and fluff.


Ponce de Leon traces the entire history of televised news, from the household names of the late 1940s and early '50s, like Eric Sevareid, Edward R. Murrow, and Walter Cronkite, through the rise of cable, the political power of Fox News, and the satirical punch of Colbert and Stewart. He describes an industry forever in transition, where newsmagazines and celebrity profiles vie with political news and serious investigations. The need for ratings success—and the lighter, human interest stories that can help bring it—Ponce de Leon makes clear, has always sat uneasily alongside a real desire to report hard news.


Highlighting the paradoxes at the heart of TV news, and telling a story rich in familiar figures and fascinating anecdotes, That's the Way It Is offers an insightful and engaging account of how television has presented our history as it happens.