Walter Goodman was born on August 22, 1927, in the Bronx, New York. He had one sibling, Daniel. Goodman graduated as a journalism major from Syracuse University.
Goodman moved to London as an editor for the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a bureau of the American Central Intelligence Agency that monitored radio news content. He returned to New York and held positions writing and editing for magazines such as The New Republic, Redbook, Newsweek, and Harper's. In 1960, Goodman moved his family to Chicago to become the first full-time articles editor for Playboy, which was making a strong push to publish serious nonfiction articles. "Goodman knew the critics and the politico-literary establishment, and where and how their work could be bought," wrote Thomas Weyr in his book Reaching for Paradise: The Playboy Vision of America. "As articles editor, Goodman would have the greatest immediate impact on a changing content." Goodman returned to New York after a year, but remained Playboys Books Editor for several years. He then took positions at The New York Times, Newsweek and WNET television. He finished his career at The New York Times as a critic, increasingly specializing on television, with a focus on news and documentary programs. In 1972, Goodman received a Christopher Award for the book The Rights of the People. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978 in the General Nonfiction category. Goodman was a frequent television interviewee, with three interviews by Richard Heffner on The Open Mind on WNET, New York. The three half-hour interviews can be seen on the archive Web site of The Open Mind. 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.
Works
Goodman wrote nine books, several children's books, and many magazine articles. His book The Committee, a critical history of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, appeared in print in 1968. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. criticized the book for lack of sympathy for damage done to some witnesses. Overall, he called the book "a glorious piece of Americana."
