Hot Air

“[A] no-holds-barred look at America’s electronic media from radio and TV talk shows to the Sunday morning punditocracy, which he calls a testosterone-driven calling.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
 
“Kurtz covers in fascinating detail the cultural shift inherent in the proliferation of talk shows on both radio and television, where hosts are acting as political kingmakers and where the mores of society are being challenged by crudeness, rumor-mongering, bigotry of all stripes, sexual exhibitionism, and worse.
—Library Journal

“[A] fascinating survey of “talkathon culture” and its ‘high-decibel revolution in the way we communicate with each other and with our leaders…’ The talk circuit that Kurtz so vividly describes is also, depressingly, ‘merely part of a larger media phenomenon in which unconfirmed speculation crowds out verifiable fact.'”
—Booklist