FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Emmy Award winner Trotta, who spent some 20 years as a TV reporter with NBC and CBS beginning in 1961, here tells the story of her career. She served two tours in Vietnam, accompanying GIs into the jungles, and is still haunted by the experience. Trotta also covered the India-Pakistan war, ``the Troubles'' in Northern Ireland, the Iran hostage story, the trial of Claus von Bulow and the Grenada invasion. Italian-American, Catholic, a strong conservative and a sharp observer, she often finds herself politically at odds with her colleagues, yet has never been accused of biased reportage. Writing with wit, freed from the constraints of her trade, Trotta skewers onetime presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy for his ``low opinion of the world,'' effectively harpoons ``oafishly macho'' Jimmy Breslin, ``small-town sorehead'' Dan Rather, the women's movement in the U.S.--with its ``special-interest crankiness masquerading as the people's will''--and Woodstock, acme of the ``druggy self-indulgence of the counterfeit hip world.'' (Jun.)

Library Journal
Trotta, a self-described ``conservative in the generally liberal climate of the media,'' tells her own war stories as the first female television war correspondent stationed in Vietnam. In a book that is not only a strong statement on television news but also a historical essay on the 1960s and 1970s, she also reflects on political campaigns, Chappaquidick, foreign news bureaus, television's role in the war, and women in the media during her time at NBC and CBS. Trotta's writing is vivid, descriptive, and detailed--sometimes defensive and self-righteous--with a sprinkling of self-conscious metaphors (``Everyday you carved yourself out a slice of the war pie, nibbling on a battle here, tasting a reconnaissance there . . . ''). Nonetheless, compelling reading from a gifted storyteller and journalist who has no patience with ``happy talk'' and `` `make nice' news.''