Outside the Box: A Memoir

Sherr, an ABC correspondent and pioneer in network news, here offers a memoir as well as historical perspective on television news, the women’s movement, and how the two came together in her long career. Sherr was part of a “mod squad” of young female reporters for the Associated Press sent forth to record the cultural shifts of the 1960s and 1970s, a time when she and other female reporters supported the “burgeoning new women’s movement and other assorted rebellions,” making them less than the objective observers the profession required. Of Jewish descent, but with the blond looks and Philadelphia Main Line background and Wellesley education that favored women making advancements in the 1960s, Sherr ventured into television journalism and defied the stereotypes about her sex and her looks. She covered politics and the U.S. space program, even as she suffered the criticisms of her dress and hairstyle made by network executives. Amidst recollections of touching stories and the competitive silliness that sometimes accompanies television journalism, Sherr also recalls the painful loss of her husband to cancer and, later, her own battle with the disease. Sherr is candid, amusing, and completely engaging in this look back over her life and a respected career.

Sherr’s memoir is a savvy, witty, and moving recount of the events that have shaped her life and her career as one of the first women to break through in broadcast television

As a reporter for 40 years, most of them on television, Lynn Sherr has brought clarity and insight to many of the most compelling news events of our day―from politics to murder trials to the space program. Now this widely respected award-winning journalist lets us in on what she’s seen “inside the box” as she steps outside for a reality check. She tells how television journalism has changed over the years, for better and for worse, and explores the critical state of TV news today. Her accounts of the political and cultural upheavals she covered also make this a social history of our time.

When she first began in the industry, newspaper editors bluntly told her, “We don’t hire girls”, but Lynn persevered, both covering and experiencing the emergence of modern feminism. All that despite being fired from her first TV job! She also addresses the heartbreak of her husband’s death followed by her own battle with colon cancer. Lynn Sherr opens up about those painful times with an honesty that will touch and inspire readers. Her personal accounts―growing up in Philadelphia, where her father was a pioneering professional basketball player; suddenly becoming a stepmom; slipping off to commune with giraffes―all underscore her insistence on always keeping one foot outside the box.

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