Much doing a lot of but if fantastic work in the sense that television is a great excuse to write about everything, and it reflects whatever people are are interested in or best with, so i wrote about reality tv, i wrote about the news, ive, you know, could write about this. [laughter] if, you know, the circumstances were right, so a pretty vast field. How much time dow do you spend now with the networks as opposed to netflix, amazon, hulu, et cetera, et et cetera . Theres vast drop now in content ocean. You know, it used to be, you know, every fall, the big three or four networks would release the content, the shows they were going to premier for the coming season, that was what you were going to be concerned with all year and now Television Among many, you know, so much on netflix, so much on amazon, hbo, showtime, basic cable, premium cable, so what we used to think of as tv, its a tinny amount of what is television now, television that i write about is not on what we call television, its not cable, its not broadcast, something that comes pipe intoed your piped do your home over the internet. Quote from new book which is coming out this fall, battled trump, typewritings character was born on august 21st, 1980. What does that mean . That was the date of Donald Trumps first Major NationalTelevision Appearance on the today show with tom, talking about the the building of trump tower and various other projects and what i mean by, you know, particularly for the purposes of my book is that my book is not biography per se although it follows Donald Trumps life, the study of a character, longtime decades long performance in the media that donald trump sought out and cast himself as and played for years, so, you know, speaking to although nobody recognized it at the time, speaking to the host of today on a network where he would later host the apprentice, president ial debates, you know, excess hollywood, that was really the birthday of a television character and a longtime performance that would become significant. Was it a purposeful performance in your view . You know, i sort of say in the book that its difficult to get into the question particularly with donald trump on, you know, whats the real donald trump and whats not. That is, you know, people actually wonder about this, is what he does in the media on television, a fiction, is it the real him, is it himself amplified whenever he notices attention on him, i generally tend to believe that the latter, extreme form of yourself or depending on the circumstances, modulated form of yourself, depending on what the audience, what that sort of, you know, camera eyeball thats on you requires, so i think that there was always something performative about donald trump from the very beginning. The manner of the performance, what he was trying to get across from it, the tenure and the tone of the performance shifted with time with his goals at the time and really with the sort of temperaments of the media which changed tremendously from 1980 till the time when he was able to become less successful. Has he been consistent in his use of the media . He has been consistent in that he has used the media, i mean, you know, one thing i say and inspiration for me for writing the book is that ive seen a lot howie how do we get President Trump and i think that to me celebrity always came through to him. Even in the 1970 70s, before nationaltion, he was getting himself in new york, he was courting gossip columnists, he came from the notion that he wanted to bring show business into his work, that he felt that his work was show business and he, you know, eventually figured out how to leverage that into a brand into business success, et cetera, et cetera. Now, consistent but when you go back and you look at those very first tv appearances, sounds like a very different donald trump from what you hear now. What does it sound like . Sentences, paragraphs, a tone of, you know, certain of entertainingly ambitious businessman, but not sort of kind of trump that we saw on the campaign trail. As i say in the book, there are many operations for that, people, you know, changes in the way we speak as we agema change but i also thinking hearing voices of Mainstream Media at the time, 3 network area in which many people watched the same shows and one sort of head performance that was broadly palatable rather than targeted in audience as you say in Television Via context or at a base as you would say in the political context. Well, in your view has the news we get from tv improved or degraded over the years as somebody who observes it . You know, thats thats i will give you the question, good question, hard to say simply, you know, i think that although im very critical often of the 24hour news cycle, you know, also having lived through a period, i think its great that there is a lot, that you can turn on news when theres big news happening and find out immediately rather than waiting for 6 30 or the next mornings paper of things that have happened. If one is sort of selective media consumer, then you have access to a lot more information and i think thats good, thats a very good thing in theory, now in practice, i also think that while even going back to 1980s and theres always been entertainment element tv news, you know, in cable news, i think, particularly that has been exaggerated because youre putting on a news product, 24 hours a day, you have a business imperative of how do you agitate people, how do you excite people whether there are things happening or not and keep them watching and often thats what is sen particularly angry and here to donald trump who did not just make himself reality tv star but fox news before he ran for president. And i really think, you know, because we in television are always in feedback mode that affects the way we relate to each other, it makes sort of the just the temperature, the heart beat of the conversation much more agitated. How do you become a critic . Practice, practice. I will honest i will say for all the kids out there who get in the business, almost everybody i know who has done the job has done it accidental. Ive always been, you know, tv junky as a kid like a lot of kids, i had older brothers and sisters that would watch thing that were age inappropriate until i got a broad education on tv, but, you know, i was always interested in media and how it reflects larger, i didnt set out with 5year plan and i was a Brilliant Writer in the 90s working for particularly writing about the media and related subjects and got phoned up by Time Magazine at one point who had an opening and, you know, i fell into it a little bit honestly as it is to say. That is particularly a donald trump reference. Im talking about Donald Trumps presidency, im talking about not just how donald trump used television but how he has often been used by it, which is to say he has he is an avid cable news viewer, wakes up with fox and friends, gets agitated by television, tweets about it, the tweets become the news, watches the news reaction to his to, to further. There is something in our modern media culture where its like were living in a show that is being produced for one viewer in chief. I also like to thank the book or the title as larger residents because one thing the book is talking about as well as donald trump is this tendency in media to move on this sort of monoculture , smooth tone mass Media Audience to this internet bubble, miss bonnie where we are broken down into smaller and smaller groups. Do you find yourself with a grudging respect for Donald Trumps manipulation of television to mark. I think you dontbecome president without being good at something. And donald trump became president because he is very good at directing attention tohimself and using attention. Television i believe, i am biased from my profession but it is one of the most Popular Forces in our culture and he is instinctually i think and purposely merged with it. He thinks like a Cable News Television camera which is to say he has this instinctual hunger for conflict and for knowing the pressure points in his audience and what line is going to get aresponse. Just whats going to extend theleader into the red. And call it respect, call it whatever you want, its hard not to be on by that i think if you study it at any length. That is a quick preview of audience of one. New York Times Television critics james poniewoziks firstbook, thank you for joining us on book tv. On our Author Interview program after words, Research Center founder and president brett bozo argued the media is biased against President Trump. Heres a portion of the discussion. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Isnt it a fascinating, how the media are constantly savaging the president for the language he uses while calling him a nazi, while calling him a fascist, while calling him every kind of despicable name. You could hurl at the president of theunited states. This is, again, this is one of the things that the findings of the book at all modicum of decency has been cast aside. The nerve of donald trump to his opponents and from his opponents to him, they call him far worse things. They are attempting to be far worse to him and that what they accuse him of doing for them. Its telling. I have no right. I have a right, you have rights, these folks have a right to pass judgment on Donald Trumps language. To watch the rest of this program, visit our website booktv. Org. Click on the after words tab at the topof the page. Now on to the main event, were lucky to have a guest with us this evening. Lyz lenz contributing to the columbia journalism review. It appeared in the Washington Post and Huffington Post to name a few and her essays appeared in roxanne gaze anthology not that bad. Youll be hearing about that one tonight but he also has a second book called belabored so keep an eye out for that. And on land, lyz asks the question what is happening to