Read My Clips: Media Person Cuts Up

Review Person doesn't like to give bad reviews. Review Person tries to be a generous critic. But Review Person has to be honest — he didn't like Read My Clips: Media Person Cuts Up. When Lewis Grossberger (a.k.a. Media Person) first published most of these 50 columns in 7 Days magazine, the slick New York weekly that folded in 1990, they seemed witty and clever and timely. Now they seem moldy and boring and annoying. Topics range from the Salman Rushdie controversy (''Ayatollah You So'') to Oprah Winfrey (''The Phantom of Oprah'') to Wheel of Fortune (''Triumph of the Wheel''), and each essay shares the same gimmick — Grossberger's habit of referring to himself in the third person (as in ''Media Person liked The McLaughlin Group better when Robert Novak was a member''). Fifteen minutes into the book, Review Person was so irritated he wanted to introduce Media Person's face to Mister Two-by-Four. C-