11.5.25 | 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Join us for a conversation with former CEO of the Los Angeles Times and CNN Tom Johnson and local journalist and columnist for The Macon Melody Ed Grisamore, as they discuss Johnson’s new book Driven: A Life in Public Service and Journalism from LBJ to CNN. The evening will begin with a 5:30 p.m. reception, followed by a 6 p.m. talk and book signing. A limited number of books will be available for purchase at the event.
This event is co-sponsored by the Historic Macon Foundation, Peyton Anderson Foundation, Knight Foundation, and Mercer University. Registration is encouraged but not required to attend.
In his long-awaited memoir, Johnson, an award-winning journalist who helped shape 24-hour news, offers a seasoned and deeply personal perspective on government, media, and the future of truth. His journalism career began at the Macon Telegraph and led to service in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, where he witnessed painful Vietnam negotiations and informed the president of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. He later held executive leadership roles at the Los Angeles Times and Ted Turner’s upstart CNN in Atlanta.
Writing from his perspective “inside the room,” Johnson provides eyewitness accounts of LBJ’s triumphs and failings as well as an on-the-ground view of the magnificent achievements and significant shortfalls of late twentieth-century American journalism. He is candid about his lifelong struggle with depression and, in retirement, has been a leader in mental health, cancer research, Alzheimer’s, and addiction treatment and recovery. With more than eight decades behind him, Driven is not just Johnson’s look at the past but also a guide to finding balance in an uncertain future.