Randall Garrett 59 min read

In an age when TV 'reporters' are handsome actors reading the news, one genuine newsman doesn't fit the type at all.

Randall Garrett's 1958 story skewers media specialization through Terrence Elshawe, a real reporter in a world where the on-screen faces are just polished performers. Wry, prescient social SF about news, image, and authenticity. Read it for a sharp golden-age satire that saw the anchorman-as-actor coming.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

59 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

H. R. Van Dongen