Howard Kurtz's Stealth Campaign

Book publishers aren’t known for being coy. When they’ve got a book coming out that they want you to know about, they’ll carpet-bomb you with more information than you could ever care to ask about.

So it was ver-r-r-r-r-y curious when a Simon and Schuster representative contacted me via an alias e-mail and said – with the surreptitious nature of a corner drug dealer – “Free Press has an embargoed book coming out soon that we’d like to send to you. Do you have a mailing address where I can send that within the next few weeks?”

Hmmmmmmm. I tried to find out what the hubbub was about, but the book representative wasn’t taking the bait.

But in the days since, it’s all become clear. Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz has a book out today called “Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War.” The Post featured an exclusive excerpt yesterday.

(Yes, I realize this is the second post today about a book. What is this, Book TV?)

So I caught up with Kurtz – who is in the middle of a media tour, including “The Daily Show” – via e-mail and asked him a pair of questions about the book...

Matthew Felling: Why did you soft-shoe this book's build-up so much, not even having it titled on the Amazon website as of last week?

Howard Kurtz: We felt we had so much news in the book about the inner workings at the networks that we didn't want it to leak out early. So we settled on a stealth launch that, amazingly, worked in the most gossipy business on the planet. Besides, the reach of the Web now enables you to spread the word in the blink of a news cycle.

Matthew Felling: What was the biggest surprise out of the book, in your mind?

Howard Kurtz: What struck me most was how much relentless pressure the anchors are under and how frustrated they are that the coverage focuses on the ratings race and not the substance of journalism -- precisely what they're accused of doing in covering politics. I was also struck by how carefully targeted these newscasts are at older people, especially older women, which is why younger viewers find little reason to watch.