by Ben Stein
Ben Stein wrote editorials for the Wall Street Journal and speeches for Richard Nixon before heading west to turn out scripts for Norman Lear. After a splendid, evocative Hollywood novel called California Dreemz, Stein has put together a strong work of nonfiction on the men who mold prime-time television. By his lights, those writers and producers have amazingly similar backgrounds and almost totally uniform liberal—and cynical—views of businessmen, police, the Pentagon, small towns, the rich, the clergy and America itself. TV is, in short, the "alternative reality." (Basic Books, $8.95)
Your Reaction
