News & Media

Film Critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Broadcast News," the romantic comedy that takes a satiric look television news. It stars William Hurt, Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks.

Sportswriter and HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant. He discusses the world of boxing, the disintegration of neighborhood boxing clubs in the big cities and how television has changed the image of the boxer and the audience response.

New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger will discuss the contemporary urban skyline.

Herblock, the Pulitzer-Prize winning editorial page cartoonist for The Washington Post since 1946. His cartoons are syndicated in more than 300 papers.

Michael Kinsley, editor of The New Republic, the weekly liberal journal whose influence extends far beyond its circulation. Kinsley is the author of the TRB column, the widely read and discussed column that appears at the front of the magazine. Kinsley is the past editor of Harper's Magazine.

New York Times columnist William Geist, who wrote the paper's popular "About New York" column. He has collected his favorite columns in a book titled City Slickers. Geist recently left the Times and is now a contributor for the CBS News show, "CBS Sunday Morning."

"CBS Sunday Morning's" media critic Ron Powers. He's written a book about his hometown, Hannibal, Missouri, titled White Town Drowsing.

Brendan Gill. He has written for The New Yorker magazine for more than 50 years, writing poems, prose, profiles and film and theater reviews. Gill also writes about architecture and has just written a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Adventure essayist Tim Cahill. Cahill's writing appeared in the premiere issue of Outside magazine and has been a regular feature ever since. In his latest odyssey, Cahill drove from the tip of South America to Purdhoe Bay in Alaska. His newest collection of adventure tales is titled Jaguars Ripped My Flesh.

Journalist John Conroy. Conroy lived in a poor Catholic neighborhood in violence-torn Belfast, Northern Ireland. He recorded stories of the life there in his book Belfast Diary.

Edna Buchanan, Pulitzer Prize-winning police reporter for the Miami Herald. Buchanan has written a book that details her daily routine. It's titled The Corpse Had a Familiar Face.

Dan Wasserman, political cartoonist for The Boston Globe. A collection of his drawings has just been published; it's titled We've Been Framed. Wasserman will explain who he and fellow political cartoonist are secretly hoping will win the Presidency.

Writer Tom Wolfe, known for his "New Journalism" in the 60s and 70s. His books from that period included The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, Radical Chic and Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers and The Right Stuff. His new book, his first novel, is titled The Bonfire of the Vanities.

Writer Joan Didion. Known for her self-reflective essays and reporting, Didion is one of America's most important writers. Her books include A Book of Common Prayer, Slouching Toward Bethlehem and Salvador. With her husband John Gregory Dunne, she co-wrote the screenplay for "True Confessions." Her new book is titled Miami.

Randy Shilts, author of And the Band Played On - Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic, a controversial book that reveals the identity of the first person to the bring AIDS to the United States. The book also raises questions about the government's response to the crisis.

Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly, creators of Raw, an adult comic magazine filled with original and sophisticated graphics.

Book Critic John Leonard reviews Belfast Diary, the non-fiction account of the civil war that has flared through Northern Ireland. The author is Chicago journalist John Conroy.

Film Critic Leonard Maltin. Some TV viewers know him for his segments on "Entertainment Tonight," but he is perhaps as well known for his reference book Leonard Maltin's TV Movies and Video Guide.

James Conaway, author of The Kingdom in the Country, which looks at the wide expanse of public lands in the West and how the myths of the west - cowboys, gunslingers, gold miners - are enduring.

Don Novello, a.k.a Father Guido Sarducci, the Vatican gossip columnist of "Saturday Night Live" fame.