REPORTING AMERICA AT WAR

Multiple voices imitate famous war reporters, covering combat from the Spanish Civil War to the present, with laudable impersonations of the familiar voices of Walter Cronkite and Andy Rooney. Rooney's reaction to seeing rows of bodies on the beaches of Normandy after D-day exhibits a sensitive soul we don't see on "60 Minutes." Sometimes several journalists--played by male and female readers, some British, some American--join together in narrating a single mini-biography. This approach works well to differentiate the various sources of the material. The personal sketches produce eye-opening portrayals of how the press survived battles, related to combatants, pecked out fresh copy, filed their stories, and competed for scoops. J.A.H.
(c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 04]