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Others point out, however, that Kelley's approach is becoming increasingly common in today's gossip-obsessed press. Gay Talese, author of The Kingdom and the Power, attacked the "holier-than-thou" attitude of many journalists over Kelley's work. "What Kitty Kelley represents is what most newspaper and magazine reporting is all about," he said. "Anyone in journalism who criticizes Kitty Kelley should examine themselves first."
The problem here may be one of definition. Kelley's book falls short of the standards of serious biography: it is too sloppy in its scholarship, too uncritical of its sources, too single-minded in its pursuit of the sensational and salacious. In a sense, the book is a compilation of the sort of speculation, freewheeling opinions and water-cooler gossip that journalists hear every day but that rarely make it into the news pages. As such, it has an understandable fascination -- and possibly some historical validity. Water- cooler gossip, after all, is not only entertaining. Sometimes it contains pieces of the truth.