Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip by Jeannette Walls

Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip Reviews

• 
  Judi

  In this book Jeannette Walls chronicles tabloid journalism from the 1930's to the present. The rose colored glasses were torn from my eyes and any illusions regarding serious journalism vs tabloid shattered. The biggest shock to my nervous system was learning that my beloved "60 Minutes" is/was primarily based on smarmy standards akin to The Enquirer. Celebrity sleeze and scandal. Shock and awe. Eeeek. I used to watch it faithfully every Sunday and my world view was based on the trust that 60 Minutes was journalism at it's finest. Had I known its true nature at the time I would have choked on my Harvey Wallbanger. Dish is enlightening,disheartening and well written. Highly recommended!
• 
  Leslie

  "I cannot avoid the temptation of wondering whether there is any other industry in this country which seeks to presume so completely to give the customer what he does not want" - Rupert Murdoch on the media and the desire to tell the end user what the media wanted them to know
  
  This is a book which was published in 2000 and does an excellent job of showing how gossip based media was created, evolved and became mainstream. The first time that gossip took over the Networks and traditional Newspapers was the death of Elvis Presley. How Michael Jackson, OJ and Princess Diana were the forces that took gossip out of the gutter and into the major network newsrooms. It studies not just the news, reporters and media, but also the PR teams that make the celebrities available or unavailable to outlets. Since it was written in 2000 there is some comment on Matt Drudge and the blue dress but the internet simply wasn't that important. Another interesting thing was how it inadvertently debunks the myth that the internet killed Newspapers. Newspapers have been slowly killing themselves since the early 60s when there was a 100+ day strike.
  
  In all honesty this was a 5 star book except for one incredible much repeated mistake that made my head explode. There is an entire chapter about the Donald Trump 1991 divorce. The first time she is mentioned they say "Maria" Maples. So I was unperturbed thinking it was the way the story started but it is repeated several dozen times. I cannot fathom how this book was edited and proofed in the late nineties or 00 and NO ONE caught this. The other woman was Marla NOT Maria. The mistake even appears in a separate chapter about PR. Later in a chapter about Anthony Pellicano his car is described as a "black Nexus" (Hair care or legal search ?) And in a chapter about Princes Diana; which excellently points out the hypocrisy of mainstream media which we all know made its bones on Di stories calling out the paparazzi on causing her death while purposefully ignoring the 4 x's the legal limit driver speeding through a tunnel. However I was surprised to learn that "Diana spent 0,000 a week on grooming and personal care"
  
  I still recommend the book for students of the media malfeasance that is modern reporting.
• 
  Heather

  I love Jeannette Walls and I thought I'd love this book, too. I thought it would be really intriguing. But I just couldn't get into it. There weren't any "characters " I cared about. Guess that's why I don't like to watch the news. I think the subject is fascinating, because the news really is just another gossip show. Just watching all those up-and-coming reporters as they fake their emotions makes me sick. I wanted the book to be a more scathing rant against what current news programming has become. Maybe it's that way towards the end, but I didn't even finish because I just didn't care.
• 
  Kirsti

  Early nonfiction from the author of The Glass Castle. Very interesting to read about how 60 Minutes staffers were once associated with sleazy, checkbook journalism. Also a surprise to find out why People magazine is called that: Its creator wanted it to focus on people only--not on places (like National Geographic) or issues (like Time or Newsweek) or ideas.
  
  I would have liked to read more about celebrities who refuse to work with the media most or all of the time (there are a few).
  
  Minus one star for getting the Van Halen brown M&M's story wrong. Here's the real deal:
  http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/v...
• 
  April Hochstrasser

  If you don't think the world of gossip is bought and paid for by the people who are portrayed, think again. This was an eye opening book about the back story of publications such as People and the Enquirer and TV shows such as Entertainment Tonight. I was very much surprised at the deals that are struck by the stars and the rags, (If you'll give us a scoop about your alcoholic son we won't publish a story about your infidelities). All the popular names in recent history, JFK, Bobby Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Cher, Bette, Whoopi, Trump, Ivana, etc. have really false public personas that have been well crafted by the media for the entertainment of the public. There is some truth but more of it is lies. For example, Donald Trump, through the media claimed to be worth $50 billion, then he was getting loans and doing business based on that amount. The real amount was closer to $50 million....but he didn't want anyone to know that. Not worth the read unless you are really into gossip about the stars.
• 
  Cat

  very helpful read, especially after the Britney doc
• 
  Carolyn Di Leo

  I really enjoyed this book. I was a bit surprised by the complicitness of the stars in dishing their own dirt. Call me naive, but I really believed that celebrities were angry by the tales told by the tabloids. Not so, not so, at least in many cases. I was also amazed at how much information was kept back from the public regarding our political leaders. That was a bit disturbing. My naivite again, I guess.
  DISH is an entertaining read and the other flavors it with tidbits of juicy gossip along the way.
• 
  Nightengail

  I read this book based on my good opinions of the author's other books, "The Glass Castle" and "Half Broke Horses". I found the history of tabloid journalism and the evolution of such publications as "The National Enquirer" and "People" fascinating. I may never look at "60 Minutes" the same again. There were several revelations made and those I took as entertainment, like I take current celebrity gossip. I have no way of knowing if any of it is true but it is fun to read. I wish there were photographs of the people discussed, especially those from early Hollywood. I found myself searching for their images on the Internet. I am surprised that Jeannette Walls made her living as a gossip columnist as she is such a good writer. I supposed it paid her bills and allowed her to write her other books.
• 
  Stephanie

  I picked this book up at the library because I loved Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle. Walls is a gossip writer in New York (the opposite of her difficult childhood?), and this book is about the history of gossip/tabloid media (newspaper, TV, internet). It is really fascinating, very dense (slow going sometimes)--not a quick read but very interesting and well-written.
• 
  Robin

  I really enjoyed reading this book. It gives the back story of the gossip industry, which is practically all journalism nowadays! I had read Jeannette Walls' two memoirs and this was completely different. This book was very well researched and she names all the names. Fascinating!
• 
  Nicole

  The history of celebrity gossip. Sounds great, right? Not so much.
• 
  Cathy

  I can't say I was impressed with this one. It was somewhat interesting, but it wasn't what I expected. I stopped half way through, as it appeared to be just a history of the National Inquirer. I expected this to be an analysis and the trends of the general news industry. Perhaps it moves this direction in the second half, but I wasn't willing to continue to find out.
• 
  Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken

  Ugh. You'd think a book about gossip would be interesting. Spoiler alert: it's not. At least not in the hands of this author. Snooze fest. Unforgivable typos/editing misses. Blech.
• 
  Gina

  I had high hopes for this book because I adored her novels (Half broke horses/glass castle). At first it was very interesting, but then it began to feel extremely gossipy instead of factual. Then I arrived at a part in the book where she was trying to illustrate how extreme celebrity had become in the late 70's/early 80's. Saying how demanding celebrities had become, she cited a legendary story involving Van Halen and brown M&M's and I knew she had the facts wrong because I'd seen a documentary some years back. Here is another video I found on the subject.
  http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/20...
  
  From then on, I just didn't enjoy the book as much.
• 
  Sandy

  This book title intrigued me...because I wondered how the nightly news and/or newspapers had become so "gossipy". The author has done her research and has documented the trend of straight newsreporting into the current news shows which prevail either on network TV, cable or printed matter. I chose 3 stars because, although the Cliff note version of the book would have suited me as well or better, this is a well written, very well documented book of the history of written and spoken journalism.
• 
  Susan

  It was ok, I am a big Jeanette Walls fan, but frnkly this book could have been written by anyone. The topic was entertaining, but it was very redundant. The book was wrought with combersome detail, that almost seemed repetitive at times.
• 
  Amy

  I flew through this book...it is a fascinating, well-written look at the origins of gossip media and what a cut-throat industry it has become.
• 
  Ainsley

  Very interesting and a quick read. I'd love to read an updated version for the internet age. I bet Jeannette Walls would have some things to say about TMZ and Perez Hilton.
• 
  Andrea

  Gives the scoop on gossip columnists, broadcasters, and scandal sheets like the National Enquirer.
• 
  Cathryn Conroy

  Oh, how juicy! And oh, how very informative!
  
  This extraordinarily well-researched and imminently readable book by Jeannette Walls is essentially the history of celebrity journalism, beginning with the first newspaper gossip columns of the 1950s that were largely controlled by the movie studios, the explosion of tabloid newspapers and TV shows, the premiere of "People" magazine and finally the reluctant acquiescence of hard-news outlets to include celebrity news, lest they perish in the ratings game.
  
  This is a truly fascinating look at how celebrity news and gossip are reported with captivating details on what happened behind-the-scenes with some of the biggest celebrity stories of the '70s, '80s and '90s—Elvis Presley's death, Donald Trump's divorce from Ivana (which actually stole headline space from the fall of the Berlin Wall), Michael Jackson's scandals, the Nicole Brown Simpson/Ron Goldman murders and Princess Diana's life and death, among others.
  
  Find out the nefarious tricks some less-than-scrupulous reporters will play in order to get a photo or tip, as well as the shocking things some of the celebrities will do to get the coverage they want and squelch the coverage they don't want.
  
  Even if you scoff at the "National Enquirer," only read "People" in your doctor's waiting room and wouldn't think of wasting your time watching a tabloid TV show, you will still enjoy and learn a lot from this book. Like it or not, celebrity gossip is an integral part of American culture, and Jeannette Walls shows us how this sausage is made.
  
• 
  Heather

  This book wasn't quite what I was expecting. I picked it up because I really enjoyed The Glass Castle, and I was curious to see what Walls would do with non-fiction. I also thought it sounded relevant to the current times. I didn't realize that Walls was a gossip columnist by profession and that this book was written in 2000.
  
  
  What I liked: It was entertaining, and Walls really lays out the transformation of media through the influence of gossip. In the 18 years since she wrote it, the move towards gossip in news has only accelerated.
  
  What I didn't like: As the book progressed, it seemed to get less journalistic and more gossipy itself. Also, there were some really glaring editorial errors that made me question the credibility of the entire book. The primary example was that Marla Maples was referred to as Maria throughout the whole book. I wondered if it was maybe a Kindle error, but it was pervasive and very distracting.