Everyone Needs an Editor

Rude, raucous and often funny in a newsroom, Larry McCoy has stuck to that winning combination in this memoir covering his life from an inexperienced writer at UPI to news director at CBS Radio to a retired journalist who is as appalled as non-journalists by what many news organizations consider news these days. Too old to be hired again now, he pokes fun at former employers and many of their products and practices. He denounces performance reviews, the U.S. media's obsession with the British royal family, broadcasters who talk down to their audience, journalists who make up stories, know-nothing bosses, and a universe where virtually everyone feels the need to tweet. Never comfortable swimming with the tide, McCoy says the best journalist he ever met didn't even finish high school and that newswomen may ask better questions than newsmen. As a public service to workers in all professions, he provides guidelines on how to write a smart, snappy note to your boss and, if that doesn't do the trick, to your boss's boss. But he has kind words for writers, producers, overseas stringers, desk assistants, technicians and, yes, even a few anchors. McCoy was a writer, editor, and producer at UPI, ABC, CBS and Radio Free Europe. While a manager at CBS, the radio newsroom won two treasured Peabody Awards. He wrote or edited copy for some of the biggest names in broadcasting, including Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Ed Bradley, Charles Osgood, Dallas Townsend, Douglas Edwards, Christopher Glenn and Ted Koppel and has a story or two about each of them. LARRY McCOY grew up in Indiana and lives on Long Island, New York with his wife, Irene, also a writer. More than half a century ago, a radio station owner told him, "Sarcasm doesn't go in a small market." He's still trying to prove her wrong.