Watch Casey Claiborne's interview of former KTBC news director and anchor Neal Spelce where he talks about the early days at KTBC, the Johnson family, Bill Moyers, Verne Lundquist, the Tower coverage, and more!
The interview aired Thanksgiving Day, 2022 where Neal shared his unique perspective on the 70th Anniversary of KTBC signing on the air.
FOX 7's news team breaks down the latest local, regional and national news, along with information on business, entertainment, sports, weather, and more on KTBC's series, Good Day Austin.
HOPE AND HARD TRUTH: A LIFE IN TEXAS POLITICSNOVEMBER 6, 2022
TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL
in the Texas Monthly TentColorado & 11th St.
Join Neal for this Session at the Texas Book Festival November 6 In-person in the Texas Monthly Tent
Note from Neal:
I'm thrilled to be moderating this 'in-person' session at this year's Texas Book Festival. Mary Beth Rogers and I have known each other, and go way back to the early Ann Richards era. I hope to see friends and new faces at this session--it's going to be fun!
About Mary Beth Rogers:
Mary Beth Rogers served as Ann Richards’s campaign manager and chief of staff, a television executive, college professor, and government official. She is the author of several books, including Barbara Jordan: American Hero and Turning Texas Blue: What It Will Take to Break the GOP Grip on America’s Reddest State.
FROM TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL & BookPeople:“Mary Beth Rogers has led an eventful life rooted in the weeds of Texas politics, occasionally savoring a few victories—particularly the 1990 governor’s race when, as campaign manager for Ann Richards, she did the impossible and put a Democratic woman in office. She also learned to absorb her losses—after all, she was a liberal feminist in America’s most aggressively conservative state.Rogers’s road to a political life was complex. Candidly and vulnerably, she shares both public and private memories of how she tried to maintain a rich family life with growing children and a husband with a debilitating illness. She goes on to provide an insider’s account of her experiences as Richards’s first chief of staff while weaving her way through the highs and lows of political intrigue and legislative maneuvering.Reflecting on her family heritage and nascent spiritual quest, Rogers discovers a reality at once sobering and invigorating: nothing is ever completely lost or completely won. It is a constant struggle to create humane public policies built on a foundation of fairness and justice—particularly in her beloved Texas."
No registration is required to attend. Events are FREE and open for all to enjoy! Book Ticket events grant ticket holders priority seating, signing, and book at event. This year’s Book Ticket events are Janet Evanovich, Nelson DeMille, and Jacques Pépin.
Book Sales and Signing
BookPeople is the Texas Book Festival’s official bookseller. BookPeople will be on-site selling books for all featured Festival authors in the Main Book Sales Tent and Children’s Book Sales/Signing Tent, both on Congress Avenue. You can also buy Festival books year-round at the BookPeople TBF online store.
Parking
Free parking is available in State Lot parking garages on San Jacinto and 15th Streets. Accessible parking is available at the Capitol Visitors Parking Garage at 1201 San Jacinto Blvd. If you require special accommodations, please contact the Texas Book Festival prior to your visit at 512-477-4055 or email: bookfest@texasbookfestival.org.
For More Information Please Visit: https://www.texasbookfestival.org/
As Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev prepared to put pen to paper in a worldwide
television event to sign the document that would officially end the USSR and issue
in a new era in global history – his Russian-made pen didn’t work. That’s when a former Austinite, Tom Johnson, pulled his personal pen from his
pocket and said “Here, Mr. Gorbachev, use mine.” Tom’s Montblanc pen dissolved a global power and instantly became a historical artifact.
Mikhail Gorbachev and Tom Johnson's Mont Blanc Photo: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo
So how did this footnote to history come to pass? I detailed how this incident
occurred on pages 181 and 182 of my recent memoir, With the Bark Off. It is
timely to recall now because Gorbachev died August 30, 2022, at age 91.
Following service as a White House aide to President Lyndon Johnson, Tom came
to Austin in 1971 and became Executive VP of KTBC-TV, Channel 7. From there,
he had a meteoric rise to the top ranks of journalism with publishing stints at the
Dallas Times Herald and the Los Angeles Times Mirror.
Tom Johnson, Former LBJ White House aide, former publisher of Los Angeles Times, former CEO, CNN
He caught the eye of Ted Turner who had started a 24-hour cable TV venture called CNN. Tom took over as CNN CEO the day before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. CNN’s stellar coverage of the Gulf War, under Tom’s leadership, won virtually every award in TV News.
Gorbachev was well aware of CNN’s worldwide influence and its splendid coverage of the Gulf War. This enabled Tom to meet with Gorbachev in Moscow and to out-negotiate ABC’s Ted Koppel for exclusive rights to cover the dissolution of the Soviet Union live.
Fast forward to signing day in Moscow. All the pomp and circumstance of this
rare event was unfolding as CNN cameras carried it worldwide. Tom was standing
just off to Gorbachev’s side when, damn!, his pen didn’t work. When Tom
handed his pen to Gorbachev, the once-powerful world leader glanced at it,
looked at Tom and with a wry smile asked “American?”
That was it. He scribbled his signature. And quick-thinking Tom took back his pen
– the pen that after almost 75 years signified the end of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics.
“How important was that one little pen in Gorbachev’s hand? It dissolved a global
power that had dominated a scattering of small Eastern European nations since
World War II, promulgating an ideology that had fueled a dangerous Cold War
that had divided the world for decades,” I wrote in With the Bark Off. Now for the rest of the story, as broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say.
Tom donated the pen to a museum. Then, many years after Tom had departed CNN,
Tom invited Gorbachev to speak in Austin at the LBJ Library. At the end of the
program, I watched as Tom said “Mr. Gorbachev, you may remember that I took
my pen back on that historic day in Moscow. So I want you to have a new pen
exactly like that one.”
He presented Gorbachev with a new black Montblanc fountain pen.
You can learn more about Tom Johnson in hard cover, ebook or audiobook in my memoir With the Bark Off please Join My List.
