RIP Tom Shales

“In 1988, he won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism — becoming the fourth TV reviewer to earn the top prize in journalism — for work that not only evaluated shows on their escapist and artistic merits, but also illuminated how broadcast coverage can shape the public perception of news events.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obit...les-washington-ppost-tv-critic-obituary-dead/

 

Really enjoyed his work.

 

Same. What a career. Really enjoyed his SNL book. RIP.

 

And the ESPN book, too. Both were great fun to read.

 

Loved his writing. Rest easy. No more deadlines. - 30 -

 

I always disliked his column because I thought it could be needlessly cruel to personalities he did not like and he would just keep piling on. For example, he really admired David Letterman. Fine. But he would treat Jay Leno as the antichrist. Peter Jennings was another person with could never do anything right,

 

I had problems with his obvious biases. In a conversation about "Live From New York," I mentioned that Gilda Radner doesn't come off particularly well. It made me wonder if Shales caught her at a bad moment, never got over it, and was exercising confirmation bias when choosing material to create the oral history's narrative. My buddy responded that Shales was not really trained to construct linear texts the way an actual oral historian would and Roger Ebert would tell you even the most disciplined, well argued criticism comes from personal bias.