Abstract
Pauline Frederick, the distinguished broadcaster and true pioneer for women in radio and television news who died in 1990, was long overdue for a biography. Hence, Greenwald’s book fills a gap, not only in the history of women in broadcasting but also for an important era when broadcast news grew from nascent novelty to its “Golden Age” as a global information source. The subtitle references Frederick’s coverage of the Cold War, but Pauline Frederick Reporting covers much more.
The book documents a career that began in the mid-1920s with Frederick’s high school newspaper and occasional contributions to her hometown Harrisburg (PA) Evening News, and continued through a distinguished career covering mostly politics and international affairs first for newspapers and news services, then in radio and television. Along the way, the book notes, Frederick achieved many milestones: first network news reporter, first female head of the U.N. Correspondents Association, first woman to win a national duPont award for reporting, first woman to broadcast news from China to the United States, first female anchor for national convention coverage (on radio in 1956), and first woman to moderate a presidential debate (between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter in 1976).
As a lesson in journalism history, the book serves as an eye-opening reminder of the struggles women faced in establishing a career in news generally and broadcast news in particular. At the newspaper in Harrisburg, Frederick’s main opportunity came as a fill-in for the society editor. In the 1930s, working at the predecessor for U.S. News & World Report, she wrote under the byline P.A. Frederick to downplay her gender. According to the book, in 1934, Frederick made US$2,400, less than half the average of (male) full-time reporter’s salary.
Frederick was repeatedly told not to pursue a career in the then-new medium of radio because a woman’s voice “didn’t carry authority.” (Much later, in her television career, she would endure criticism of her looks.) When Frederick did get her first break in radio in 1938, it was as an editorial assistant to a man with a print background and resonant voice who was delivering short news broadcasts for the NBC Blue network (later ABC). Frederick began her own on-air career in 1939, hosting a program called “Let’s Talk It Over,” in which she would interview the wives of diplomats and politicians. A talented and enterprising “multi-media journalist” long before the term came into vogue, Frederick would turn her radio interviews into articles for The Washington Evening Star.
After Frederick’s unsuccessful attempts to obtain credentials as a foreign correspondent to cover World War II, her chance eventually came in mid-1945 when she signed on for a trip with a military air transport unit that was resupplying Allied bases in China and other countries. The next year, she returned to Europe as a freelancer to cover the post-war devastation and Nuremburg trials, earning as little as US$25 per story and facing the problem of editors who, Greenwald writes, were not interested in negative coverage of ongoing war-related issues.
The book traces the trajectory of Frederick’s career covering the United Nations, first in radio and then in television. It documents her coverage of numerous issues around the Cold War, which in itself provides a useful primer on some of the major world events of the mid-20th century. Frederick interviewed Fidel Castro in 1959, pressing him with probing questions about his plans in Cuba that, as Greenwald notes, would soon prove prescient. The book devotes considerable attention to Frederick’s unusually close relationship with U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold, and her devastation at his tragic and untimely death in 1961.
Frederick’s experiences covering the devastation of World War II and the mission of the United Nations seemed to fuel what we might today call activist journalism. She became an increasingly outspoken critic of U.S. actions in Vietnam, angering President Johnson along the way. In her later years, she offered critical assessments of every president from Eisenhower to Carter.
The book is well-researched, using everything from National Archives records to Frederick’s personal papers and recollections from her niece. The latter two sources are useful in understanding Frederick’s private life and the sacrifices she made for her career, including the loneliness and hardships she endured on long overseas trips and the toll on her sister worrying about Frederick’s safety. Frederick finally married at age 61, and the book includes several photos reflecting that part of her life.
The main failing of the book is that it is often disjointed, jumping back and forth between dates and topics in a way that is difficult for the reader to follow. In one section, it jumps from 1953 back to 1950 within a paragraph or two. Another section details Frederick’s interviews conducted in 1969-1970, then refers back to the John F. Kennedy assassination. Yet another section discusses Richard Nixon’s trip to China in 1972 (Frederick was passed over for the trip in favor of a younger Barbara Walters), then reverts back to more about LBJ and Vietnam. In a similar fashion, some details of Frederick’s career are repeated, each one phrased as if we are hearing it for the first time. Such is the case with the fact of Frederick heading the U.N. Correspondents Association, which is mentioned—and re-explained—3 times over the spread of 58 pages.
In many places, the book requires the reader to either understand a reference implicitly or wait many pages for an explanation. The Suez Crisis of 1956 is mentioned at least twice before any details or its significance is offered many pages later. One chapter is titled “Perils of Pauline,” but it is 55 pages and two chapters later before the origin of that phrase is explained. The book also occasionally devolves into tangents, such as a section of several pages about The Huntley-Brinkley Report and The Today Show with nary a mention of Frederick at all.
Despite its shortcomings, the book fills an important niche documenting Frederick’s life and trailblazing role for women in broadcast news. Appropriately, the foreword was written by a woman who followed in Frederick’s footsteps, Marlene Sanders. She died in July 2015, a poignant reminder that the history of these pioneering women is slipping further into the past and needs to be told.