Despite the hiccups a lot of old order news organizations cheering for its fault. They had to fill time for the crew is follow weighing, can you talk about that, why it was such a big deal for cnn . It was an amazing day a year after cnn went on the air. It was only in several million homes that could receive it, cable was not, the animosity of the networks and jealousy and disbelief on the part of the networks than anybody would care about news 24 7 combined to make a perfect storm march 30th, 1981, when the president was shot, there was a crew, there is always a crew, the White House Pool crew was always with the president in case something happened to him but cnn was not allowed to be part of the pool. They happened to be inside, was a time filler for cnn, cnn need a lot of at that point. It is a long story, i detail in the book but it was a day that put cnn on the map in the minds of the press corps and that helps make them aware there was not just is just for the news but in 24 hour news, because of the immediacy of news that we had not really seen in measurable form since president kennedy had been shot. I invite anyone who is a student of media history which i am in a major way, go on youtube and watch Walter Cronkite or any of the other anchors who talk about shooting and subsequent death of president kennedy and you get a flavor for why 24 hour news is a very dangerous as well as riveting and convening force and that david president reagan was shot in 1981 really was peoples worst fears about news being reported like a sporting event as it was unfolding and all the attendant issues and inaccuracies that could happen as a result, and the cascading effect of bad news being delivered instantly. We live in all every day now with instantaneously constantly to our pay our parallel detriment but that was one of the first times we saw that. You cant fact check in real time. The whole idea the news that reporting and its aftermath anymore but while it is unfolding is one of the things he wanted to do and this is the big question readers are left with especially in the first decades of cnn whether it was creating significance by covering them, creating a torrent of breaking news breaking all the time, the origin of 24 7 new something we should celebrate . I can tell you personally what i think. I avoided it in the book because i felt it was really important to write this book now. I didnt know when it was in process but we would be in the situation we are in right now of course but it is superimportant for people to have the dialogue and we dont have dialogue anymore, we shout at each other which is why i welcome the conversation with you. News has deteriorated and debilitated our society. Im sad about it. I am a beyond minor player in the media but im grateful not to be working in daytoday media right now and i struggle with its impact enormously which is why i enjoyed writing the history of it. It is only if we study the history of it, shut down the polarization or trace back the polarization we have in our Society Today to the News Business precnn, president nixon rails against the press as much as the president today does in a different way but we have been seeing a societal breakdown because of television since televisions inception and before that because of radios inception. The woman who took that money and gave it all away, same thing back then. I cant solve why we became enamored of eating food out of packages as we ran around but i can explain how it happened and understand it makes me a smarter and more thoughtful hopefully human and consumer and i say the same thing about news. If you think about its impact and how it broke down and take it from even just the beginning of the book, that i have drawn out here, was up all night because for those who havent read it it does begin in the late 40s with another incident that sets the tone for television and news. If you look at that arc of the last 40, 50, 60 years you get a hardcore sense of how society and media have broken down. Thats a longwinded way of saying and also unite. Thats part of what happened in the story you write about, a terrific way to frame the book, what was going on in the 40s when people couldnt keep their eyes off of the story about Human Interest and now cant keep their eye off of the latest sort of political spats being chewed over and over and over. A couple questions from the audience here in that whether or not ted watched this channel. He was a pretty hyperactive guy but also one of the surprises in the book is learning turned was essentially a conservative and how over time it morphed into this institution reviled by political conservatives like ted turner in the 70s and 80s. It is so interesting because it takes somebody of a certain age which i happen to be to remember politics did not use to enter into a television channel. He would never have produced the news president nixon felt the news was too liberal back in the late 60s and early 70s. However, it was not the world we live in today and it was not teds intend, he was a conservative at the time he started cnn. I want people to see that it was not about politics. He didnt start this with some mission that he needed to have a political agenda put forth. He was afraid when he joined that there was some undercurrent of that and quickly realized that wasnt the case. What has become today as i frequently say, in 1996 when fox started that is when cnn had to shuffle and respond to competition. Until it had competition the issues that were raised were those of accuracy and what is news, raised the question what is news. Is a little girl in a well news . Is a shuttle exploding in the aftermath news . What is news . Once fox came along and had its very decided point of view that forced cnn to scramble and that is a whole other book that i am sure has been written. Im not going to read it but we lived it. That is what caused this polarization and Political Force that these channels have become. Ted turner was used to wandering around the studio in his bathroom hitting on women, saying outrageous and often racist things. He would so be canceled today. This book is very much a time capsule and a time when things were quite different for many many reasons but also wondering about people you spoke to, what they think, what ted turner thinks of what happened to cnn, what people who were there in the early days, how they feel about what happened to the very idealistic project . I cant speak for all the people, they were 300 people there at the beginning but i will say i have noticed in various places on social media and in talking to people there is a sense of distress about what news and what cable news has become. That was just an thinkable concept back then, that you would introduce, you might have a commentator on but you would never have what we have today which is a decided point of view from cnn or fox or msnbc, people are sad and disillusioned about what has become of it. I know i am. I find it unwatchable. I think everybody is proud to have contributed, not to speak to everyone but people are proud they were there at the creation. It was an exciting time, like henry ford and the car. Henry ford turned out to be polarizing person as well but any invention, any creation, i used to cover the internet. I covered the internet in the very beginning of the web and that was an exciting and thrilling time when we were always asking the questions of its impact and societal changes that were brought forth because of it. I dont mean to sound so man be pam be but it is important to talk about how the cell phone changed our lives, the computer changed our lives, made them better and richer and also distracted us. I dont know if im answering your question. What you said, a discussion, there is no pat answer for Something Like that. The toothpaste is out of the tube and it has evolved in the way that it has evolved so lets go out on a sort of bright and triumphant note and talk because we had a comment i never addressed here, ted turner the sailor, the yachtsman, the winner of the americas cup. That was part of the revolution for you, seeing who he was in that part of his life, somebody who really could run things in a really determined way. Reporter every single day i was writing this book and even now when you just said that i get chills thinking about it. Yes, he would have been run out of town today as many men would have been from that era. That era was a completely different one but when you think about the way ted turner lived his life he lived it so large, we should all have a fraction of the gumption and excitement and thrill he had in his life and to watch those old sailing films, if you can see any of them they are complete and total thrill to see him young and handsome without his shirt on and all these other handsome men, fabulous engineering creation in the water working so hard to gather. So exciting to see and then to see him at the baseball game a few days later screaming his lungs out chewing tobacco running bases around the field, he lived life to the absolute fullest and that was way before jane fonda came along. Was not a gleam in his eye. That man seized the moment. He was born into means and took the means and grew it but was such a privilege to read and understand him. A very complex character but as i get older myself i look for people i want to look at and say who i hope in his fractured state right now that he knows that he lived his life in such a koran he lived it. That is what we can all hope. Did you speak with him for the book . He has dementia that has progressed. I didnt even try. There is so much he said, that he wrote that was written about him, speeches that he gave and knowing hes in the state hes in, it just seemed almost pointless and cruel and in biography what youre doing is trying to go back to a moment in time and yeah, so now. I did not. I wish i could have known him when he was younger. We are couple minutes over so i have to ask. I know theres a movie deal in the works, that kind of thing can go on forever. Its not in your control but any inkling who would play ted . Im such a popculture dunce that i havent got a clue. People have mentioned it was too that George Clooney wasnt a little younger because he would have been a perfect perfect ted turner but i am so bad, i welcome everyones suggestions not that i have anything to do with it but it would be so much fun. Who would play ted cavanagh and bill to us . That is as important to me. I hope it gets done and i want to say what i didnt say the beginning. I got signed bookplates for archipelago if anybody wants a signed book i am happy to get one to them. So yes. Such a great book which i had so much fun reading it. What a pleasure speaking with you. Really appreciate it. Thank you for being here. Unbelievable stories we did not get to. You can buy the book from a cappella books, theres a link to the right of your screen. It is one for the ages. On Second Thought will be broadcasting excerpts from this interview this coming friday 11 am. You can stream it in the gbp apps. Another packed week for the virtual author talk. On wednesday Jessica Heather will interview heather lenz. On thursday site jones and lehman in conversation, i will be back tuesday july 21st to talk about life is in the transition, a collection of stories who have been to wrenching life changes. A timely book in its own way. A full schedule, atlantahistory. Com. I tried to get in his mini questions that i could. Thank you. You are watching booktv on cspan2 every weekend with the latest nonfiction books and authors. Cspan2 created by americas Cable Television company of a Public Service has brought to you today by your television provider. Booktv on cspan2 has top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Today at 1 00 eastern from the Literary Festival, Tracy K Smith and mahogany brown on the life and work of the late author and activist. It to 05, arthur and Princeton University professors book begin again. At 11 00 pm eastern in the essential scalia jeffrey sutton, us court of appeals judge for the sixth circuit and former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia talks about the Late Supreme Court justices writings. Sunday at 1 00 pm eastern more from the Schomburg Center Literary Festival with wanda lloyd and her book coming pool circle from jim crow to journalism which recalls her journalism career. At 2 00 pm eastern black wires matter cofounder, when they call you a terrorist on her life, activism and the beginnings of the black lives matter movement. At 9 00 pm eastern on afterwords the Washington Post Pulitzer Prize winning book critic carlos lizotte offers books about donald trump and his presidency in what were we thinking, a brief intellectual history of the trump era. Interviewed by New York Times book review editor. Watch booktv this weekend on cspan2. Every year booktv asks members of congress about the books they are reading. Joining us on booktv is congressman gerald connolly, democrat from virginia. What is on your reading list . As you know i read at least a book a week
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