Walter Goodman

Walter Goodman (1927–2002) was a television critic for The New York Times. The Forbes Media Guide Five Hundred, 1994 states:

Intelligently covering TV, Goodman always delves beneath the surface with originality and wisdom. He analyzes what's on, who produces it, and who watches it. But he mixes heavy prose with a wit so dry it often fails to amuse, and his cerebral style weighs down, his complex, cynical pronouncements about what's wrong with the world....Goodman reliably reviews documentaries and other challenging TV fare, providing a valuable resource to intelligent viewers.

Goodman was born in New York on Aug. 22, 1927. He graduated as a journalism major from Syracuse University. After writing a novel he decided was not worth publishing, he moved to London as an editor for the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a bureau of the American Central Intelligence Agency that that monitored radio news content. He returned to New York and held various positions writing and editing for magazines such as The New Republic, Redbook and Playboy. He then took positions at The New York Times, Newsweek and WNET television. He finished his career at The Times as a critic and increasingly specialized on television, with a focus on news and documentary programs.

Goodman wrote nine books, and many magazine articles. His critical history of the House Committee on Un-American Activities was published in 1968 as The Committee: The Extraordinary Career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.