I’ve been a big fan of Tom Shales since I started reading the WP online. Only a small handful of people – Roger Ebert, Shales, and possibly a few others – can do a negative review well.
But this review of the PBS series “Need to Know” is lousy hackwork.
- Starting off with a riff on A Tale of Two Cities is a cliche you’d expect from a lousy writer such as myself, not a Pulitzer-prize winning media critic.
- Shales spends three and a half paragraphs ranting about…computer viruses? before getting into the actual subject of his review.
- His main point seems to be that computers and the “digital revolution” are responsible for displacing Bill Moyers. I won’t get into my personal feelings about Moyers, and I never watched his show. But Shales seems to be basing much of his dislike for the show on his idea that Moyers was forced out.
I realize that this is a popular conspiracy theory, but it isn’t true. As PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler has noted, more than once, “Bill Moyers Journal” ended because Bill Moyers wanted to end it. Shales may not believe that, but it would be nice if he at least acknowledged there was a difference of opinion on the subject.
“Need to Know” may indeed stink. But Shales hasn’t proven it.