Rough Draft

A Memoir

Katy Tur

• Publisher: Atria/One Signal Publishers
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781982118198
• eBook ISBN: 9781982118204
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Journalist Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“It’s a hell of a story.” —The New York Times
“A stunning and revelatory memoir.” —Oprah Daily

From MSNBC anchor and instant New York Times bestselling author Katy Tur, a gripping memoir about journalism, family legacy, and personal struggles, recounting her volatile childhood, the burden of legacy, and her climb to success in a demanding career.

When a box from her mother showed up on Katy Tur’s doorstep, months into the pandemic and just as she learned she was pregnant with her second child, she didn’t know what to expect. The box contained thousands of hours of video—the work of her pioneering helicopter journalist parents. They grew rich and famous for their aerial coverage of Madonna and Sean Penn’s secret wedding, the Reginald Denny beating in the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and O.J. Simpson’s notorious run in the white Bronco. To Tur, these family videos were an inheritance of sorts, and a reminder of who she was before her own breakout success as a reporter.

In Rough Draft, Tur writes about her eccentric and volatile California childhood, punctuated by forest fires, earthquakes, and police chases—all seen from a thousand feet in the air. She recounts her complicated relationship with a father who was magnetic, ambitious, and, at times, frightening. And she charts her own survival from local reporter to globe-trotting foreign correspondent, running from her past. Tur also opens up for the first time about her struggles with burnout and impostor syndrome, her stumbles in the anchor chair, and her relationship with CBS Mornings anchor Tony Dokoupil (who quite possibly had a crazier childhood than she did).

Intimate and captivating, Rough Draft explores the gift and curse of family legacy, examines the roles and responsibilities of the news, and asks the question: To what extent do we each get to write our own story?

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Prologue
• Chapter One: “I’ve Decided to Become a Woman”
• Chapter Two: “Like an Angel”
• Chapter Three: “How Dare You. I’m Your Daughter”
• Chapter Four: “You’re Bob Tur’s Kid”
• Chapter Five: “Princess”
• Chapter Six: “Bob Tur Is Dead”
• Chapter Seven: “Send Me Now!”
• Chapter Eight: “Zis Ees Not What We Do en France”
• Chapter Nine: “I Hear You Have a Crazy Father Too”
• Chapter Ten: “Now the Fun Begins”
• Chapter Eleven: “Thinks She Is Cronkite”
• Chapter Twelve: “She Left?… She Left”
• Chapter Thirteen: “Katy Tur, Go Home!”
• Chapter Fourteen: “Fake News Anchor”
• Chapter Fifteen: “We’ve Got to Get Him Out Now”
• Chapter Sixteen: “Can I See Your Nipples?”
• Chapter Seventeen: “It’s Gonna Be Great”
• Chapter Eighteen: “Happy New Year!”
• Chapter Nineteen: “Are We Going to Keep Our Jobs?”
• Chapter Twenty: “Congratulations! Today Is Your Day”
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• Reading Group Guide
• About the Author
• Copyright