AWM President Carey Cranston interviewed Bill Kurtis about his new memoir Whirlwind: My Life Reporting the News. Kurtis was prone towards rambling and losing his train of thought, but eventually always found his way back to his point.

The only downside of taking the train, instead of Cranston driving, was that Cranston ran out of time to ask about Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (he told me later), instead concluding with a question about “the elephant in the room,” meaning the apparent demise of 60 Minutes. Kurtis was quite frank in his assessment of the damage being done to the freedom of the press.

In regard to his coverage of the Manson trial, Kurtis kept referring to the cult leader as “Charlie,” or I guess it could have been “Charley,” but in either event it seemed a little odd to me.

Kurtis spoke of the advantage of being a lawyer in covering trials (though he never actually practiced law), but I felt like his insights as to gag orders missed the mark.

I liked his insights about television reporting vis-a-vis newspapers, and even early television, especially when he noted editing for time constraints by removing adjectives and adverbs because the viewer themselves could see the video, and thus many of the qualities the reporter might otherwise feel the need to describe.

Kurtis will be on a panel discussing memoirs at the upcoming AWM Festival on Sunday, June 7 at the Harold Washington Library.