looks at how underground newspapers influenced political movements in the 1960 s. in his book smoking typewriters pieces the fbi began monitoring in 1968 and tried to inhibit their publication. i like to welcome you all to city lights bookstore a literary landmark since 1953 here in the city of san francisco. we are very delighted to have john shearer with us tonight. jongh teaches history at the georgia state university in atlanta and also taught at harvard in the committee on degrees in history and literature and also the undergraduate writing program and is the founder, founding editor of the 60 s, the history politics and culture tonight the subject of his new book to smoking typewriters the 60 s underground press and the rise of the alternative media in america which is published by oxford university press. it examines the question of how the new left uprising in the 60 s emerged in i think what is a dramatic event that had been taking place in the middle east and in h
a few months ago, the daily beast absorbed newsweek or the other way around. and we have seen situations in which there s now some original content that occurs only online. i mentioned two sources. the fiscal times, and those who want to follow new york issues, web site called the city pragmatist. something exciting is happening, and one good thing is this web page of the new york times. a rocky start. a lot of good content. the title of tonight s discussion, the new york times good for democracy? a better question would have been, wouldn t have been as provocative, on balance, is the new york times good for democracy? and to that question we can give, yes, but, and no, but, answers, with a lot of variationness between. for that, let me introduce our two speakers. mike tomasky. editor of democracy. a quarterly general based in washington. deserves an applause. [applause] he is also the american editor at large for the british guardian, where he writes a blog,
coming up next on book tv, william mcgowan says the the new york times has adopted a liberal ideological agenda under the tenure of current publisher arthur sulzberger, jr.. he says the newspaper has tarnished its reputation as a trusted news source. william mcgowan presents his arguments in a debate with michael tomasky, american editor-at-large for the guardian. the exciting moment for journalism, people year or two ago were talking about journalism is dead. newspapers were in terrible shape, but we ve come to an extraordinary stretch. you probably saw this morning that aol acquired the huntington post. what i say, the huntington post? most people called the huffingtonpost.com. last thursday or friday rupert murdoch announced that the daily was going to appear on the ipad, the only daily newspaper. a few months ago the daily beast exhort newsweek word was the other way around. and we ve seen the situation in which there is now some of original content that occur
would have rolled over, you know, but when you have the enemy down, you know, prostrate when you got them down, that s when you impose terms and you move forward. and rumors people said, you know, he his actions emboldened them to be recalcitrant, to pass the black codes to be, you know, sort of tamp down the tamp down any move for transformation. so it would not have been the land of milk honey. the south would not have rolled over and accepted blacks as equal citizens. but it wouldn t have been as bad as it was. and, you know, that a lessening of the problem any lessening of the oppression, i think, would have made a big difference. .. and understood the importance of the you knowon. but because of his own personal character, the character issue, was unable to see through the transformation of the self. because to him, that was against everything that he believed. please join me in thanking annette gordon-reed. she s a history profession. she s the author of
typewriter. he was not a fan of high technology and he did not use a computer. he preferred to use the typewriter through his dying day. he liked to work in his home on an office chair and a coffee table. he would slump over his typewriter. he, vonnegut would go out into the world every day. he talks about how he learned you could buy postage stamps over the internet, and he just thought that was horrible because then, you know, if he chose that route, he would not have the every day experience of going to the post office, and those every day experiences and the people he encountered during his daily wawbs were the basis for some of his stories. he met a number of very interesting characters in new york city, and going out and meeting people, you know, was a way for him to capture new material for his works. vonnegut is timeless because these issues we still have the same issues. we are still suffering war, disease, you know, death, famine, environmental issues, you know, he