An Insider's Novel about the TV News Business

Forrest Carr is a well known TV news executive who has been a news director of many of the top local news organizations around the country. He knows his stuff. And he just released a novel about the news business and as you might suspect it is filled with ideas that come from the real world of TV news.

The novel is available on Amazon and here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ECK0DBK

This is a crime thriller and the story about Messages is that sometimes getting the story will get you in trouble that is worse than missing the story. This really happens -- and it happened to me. I "got stories" that resulted in me needing police protection -- and I won't say more than that.

Here's more from Forrest:

Synopsis
It was the Golden Age of TV News. Three friends embark on a broadcast journalism career at a time when television was the most powerful communications medium man had ever known. In their quest for Truth, Justice, and Ratings, they'll risk it all, battling profit-minded owners, sometimes idiotic managers, dishonest businessmen, out-of-control public officials, dangerous criminals, and fellow journalists often of questionable ability and motivation. Before it's all over, one of the friends will have to fight for his job, another will be fighting for his sanity, and the third will be in a fight for his very life. Written by Forrest Carr, an award-winning veteran of local TV news, and co-author of a respected college textbook on broadcast journalism now in its fifth edition, this novel gives a never-before-seen glimpse into the inner workings of local television newsrooms and of the journalists who work and struggle within them, spinning a captivating yarn, and in the process providing unique insight into how the industry evolved into the state it's in today.

Author's Message
"In writing Messages, I drew on my 33 years of experience fighting in the local TV news trenches, more than half of which were spent in management. The novel is set in the early 80's (those who care to pick up on the clues will be able to pinpoint the precise dates). It's a crime drama that unfolds in a medium-market television newsroom environment – sort of a "buddy cop" story, featuring journalists instead of police officers. But there's much more to it than that. Readers will also come away with a gut-level understanding of what local TV news and the sometimes colorful characters who fought to be a part of it, practiced it, and struggled with it were like back then, all of which set the industry on the path to what it's become today, for better or worse. The overall tone is serious, but many of the incidents (some of which were, as they say in the movies, "inspired by actual events") are quite humorous. Although it's now starting to change, over the past 40 years most Americans have gotten their local news from small-to-medium market television stations – yet the story of what life is like in those newsrooms has never been adequately told. Most movies and TV shows devoted to the subject of broadcast news have been dramas, sitcoms, romcoms, or farces that have focused on newsrooms in a handful of big cities or at the network level. Those operations are very different from the vast majority of local TV newsrooms around the country, which number in the hundreds. Station owners, managers, and the journalists themselves don't always grasp the power of the impact their actions have on their communities and even on the very fabric of our society. This book is intended, above all, to tell a captivating and hopefully entertaining story, but also to give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse that you haven't had before, written by an insider, into local TV news – a process at the very heart of our nation's democratic life. For some of you, it may be an eye-opening experience; it certainly was for me as I lived it. I hope you enjoy reading Messages at least half as much I did writing it, which was grand fun. If you do, please let me hear from you on my author page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/forrestcarrauthor), where you can also find pictures of some of the authentic locations referenced in the novel."

A Note about the Content
This book is written for adults. The language is rough in places, as was characteristic of the times (in at least some newsrooms), and some of the situations are lacking in taste, to put it mildly. Think of it in terms of an "R" rating, primarily for language. If "f-bombs," crude humor, and sexual situations offend you, proceed with caution.