with and roosevelt. so i have been given the signal that time is just about out. we're going to wrap it up so we don't pick caught in the middle of an answer. i wish to thank you all for coming today. you have been a great audience. thank you very much. [applause] ..

purchase a book, leave it at the information counter with the instructions of how you would like it signed and than you can pick it up anytime after tomorrow morning, we will get assigned for you. i am barbara meade, one of the founders of politics and prose and this evening i want to welcome sally bedell smith. i have introduced our several times before and this evening she is here to talk about our new biography, of elizabeth who was in our 60th year as queen. our diamond anniversary it is. in chronicling the lives of

william paley, pamela harriman, diana, both the kennedys and the clintons, i think that sally has well established herself as a prominent for, prominent and is selling biographer i should say. for the past 15 years she has also been a contributing editor to vogue and before that she wrote for time and wrote the cultural reporter for "the new york times." during the time, this is a personal aside, that she was researching this biography, well, she was interviewing over 200 people and spending six months in residence in london. our daughter was married. this was a true anglo-american event. our daughter married an english army officer at the guards chapel, which is what she said

was a stones throw from buckingham palace. the part as i was just telling sally, the part of elizabeth's life that i was so impressed with was our complete dedication to being a well-informed moderate. she was regularly briefed by the prime minister and she assiduously went to our diplomatic -- that came to our every day that had intelligence reports, budget reports, minutes of various sessions of parliament. she was very studious in doing that. well, there is no recognized profession or school that you can go to to become a queen, so she came at it really with no experience at all, but she really successfully created a position in which she was both

monarch, wife and mother. but most of all i think in a royal family that had been so rocked a scandal -- actually it was one scandal that was the one that put our onto the throne and that was the marriage of edward the eighth to the twice divorced wallace simpson so he abdicated in order to do that and that placed our directly in line to succeed to the throne. and then on top of that, she had three divorces and our family. three of our children now have been divorced. the lives of who -- heard two daughters-in-law diana and camilla have both been in the gossip columns over and over again and it has been something

that she so successfully created our own distance from and she has by all reports, and i think you will certainly feel this when you finish the book, is a well well-respected claim. but as sally will tell us about, she has also been able to preserve a very good sense of humor and have a great what sally describes as -- so here is sally to tell us all that. [applause] >> thank you very much barbara. i am so tickled to see you here tonight because i so enjoyed you before. you are always so thoughtful in your introductions and thank you very very much. several years ago when the queen was at one of our yearly garden parties at looking and palace

making our way through a crowd of nearly 9000 people and reading a selection of guests, she was asking such standard questions as, have you come far? when one woman looked at our and said, what do you do? [laughter] several days later at a friends birthday friend's birthday party the queen described the exchange and confess, i had no idea what to say. it was the first time and all the years of meeting people than anybody had ever asked our that question. my job in writing "elizabeth the queen" was not only to explain what she does but to tell what she is really like and to take the reader as close as possible to elizabeth as a human being, the wife, the mother and the friend as well as the highly respected leader. to them to talk first about what it was like to write about queen

elizabeth in second i would like to share with you some of the many surprises and discoveries i made about the queen because she is the best-known woman in the world. people feel as if they know our but the real woman is very different from the woman in velvet. this is my sixth biography. all of them about larger-than-life characters as barbara mentioned, but there is no one like the queen and she lives in our very own remarkable world. while other heads of state have come and gone, elizabeth is the longest-serving leader in the world spanning the 20th and 21st centuries. >> she is the 40th monarch of the 1000 year history of the british monarchy raining over the united kingdom of england, wales, scotland and northern ireland along with 15 realms and 14 overseas territories.

she is the second monarch to celebrate a diamond jubilee marking 60 years on the throne which is a milestone that she will reach on february 6. the only other great great grandmother, queen victoria, who celebration was 115 years ago in 1897 when she was 78 years old. if elizabeth, who will soon turn 86, is still on the throne in september 2015, she will surpass victoria's reign of nearly 64 years. between the two of them, victoria and elizabeth have been on the throne for 124 of the last 174 years, and have symbolized britain far longer than the four men who were king between their reigns. elizabeth is always surrounded by people, but being queen makes

our a solitary and singular figure. it is crucial for our to keep a delicate balance at all times. if she seems to mysterious and distant she loses our bond with our subjects but if she seems too much like everyone else, she loses our mystique. she doesn't carry a passport. she doesn't have a driver's license, although one of our cousins told me that she drives like a bat out of hell on the road of our country estates. she can't vote. she can't appear as a witness in court and she can't change our face from anglican to roman catholic. because of our hereditary position everyone around our, including our closest friends and our family, bows and curtsies when they greet our and when they say goodbye to our. although she was trained by strict nannies who prevented our from being spoiled, she was also

trained from childhood to expect deference. a friend of mine told me about the time when then princess elizabeth came to visit the family castle in scotland and he playfully threw our onto a sofa. his father, taken by the arm, punched him in the stomach and said, don't you ever do that to world to. the princess didn't mind my friend told me, but that was the structure in which she was brought up. so how is a biographer, particularly an american, penetrate the royal bubble especially when the queen has had a policy for the past 60 years of not granting interviews? actually it really wasn't too different from the way i have approached my other books, which was to turn to those who knew our best, our insights and information. i am a long time -- and i have

visited britain frequently over the past two decades and it made a lot of friends, some of whom helped me when i was writing my book on princess diana in the late 1990s. when i started researching the queen's life, i went back to a group of key sources who agreed to help me again and to introduce me to more people who knew the royal family. they also served as my advocates and getting cooperation from buckingham palace. my book on diana has been fair to the royal family and particularly to charles so the senior staff at the palace gave me the green light. as a result, i have access to our inner circle of close friends and advisers. while the queen has this lent herself to keep our views and emotions under wraps in public, those close to our share with me some of our fascinating opinions

and feelings. what worried our most about prince charles when his marriage to diana was falling apart for example. what would happen if she became physically or mentally incapacitated, and even the politically sensitive opinions including one hot-button issue that she discussed with an american ambassador. our friends explained the secrets of our serenity and our courage and they sized our up, sometimes an unusually receptive ways. monty roberts, a california horse whisperer was one of our most unlikely friends. he told me when the queen gave him good advice she showed an incredible ability to read and tension just like a horse does. with the assistance of the palace, i was also able to watch the queen in many different

settings, as the garter parade at windsor castle while presenting honors at buckingham palace and fest ushers and at one of our annual garden parties at the palace. for that i would receive a personalized invitation on white board embossed in gold with the queen's crown announcing that the lord chamberlain had been commanded by our majesty to invite me. everybody got that. watching the queen at the garden party making my way through the long line of people i was struck or measured pace. lord chamberlain who is the senior official at buckingham palace later told me that she moved slowly to absorb everything that's going on and to take as much in as she can. i've also marveled at our mastery of brief but focused conversation and our sturdy stance, a technique that she

once explained to the wife of one of our foreign secretaries by lifting our evening gown above our ankle and saying, one plans one's feet apart like this, always keeps them parallel, make sure the weight is evenly distributed and that is all there is to it. as i observe the queen over the course of the year, i accumulated in prescience that helps me understand how she carries out our role and how earnestly she does our job with great discipline and concentration in every situation. she is not just a figurehead. and she has an impressive range of duties. every day except christmas and easter, she spent several hours reading the government boxes the barber just describe. they are delivered. they are red leather boxes that can only be opened by four keys.

she reads them in the morning and at night and even on weekends. one of our close friends told me about the time during one of the queen's visits when she was deskbound all morning. the queen replied, if i miss once i might never catch up again. the youngest daughter of the queen's first prime minister winston churchill, told me that when elizabeth was a young 25-year-old queen, our father had been impressed by our attentiveness, that she always paid attention to whatever she was doing. it is hard to imagine the amount of information that the queen has accumulated over six decades and she has used it in exercising our right to be consulted, to encourage and to warn when she meets with government officials as well as senior military officers urging

them diplomats and judges who come to our for confidential private audiences. as she once said, the fact that there is nobody else there gives our the feeling that they can say what they like. the most important encounters, these encounters, then they weekly audios with our 12 prime minister's. consider the trajectory. from churchill who was born in the 19th century and served in the army of our great-great-grandmother, queen victoria, to david cameron, our current prime minister who was born three years after our youngest child, prince edward. she actually for the first time our future 12 prime minister when he appeared at age eight and a school production of toad hall with edward. probably our most fascinating relationship was with margaret

thatcher and in the course of my reporting i gained some great insights into how that relationship worked and some of which contradicted the common view. the queen does not have executive power, but she does have unique influence. in our role as head of state she represents the government officially at home and abroad but she also serves as head of nation, which means that she connects with people to reward achievements and remained in touch with our concerns. two decades past our normal retirement age and she still does something like 400 engagements a year. traveling around the united kingdom to two cities as well as tiny hamlets. charles pull who served as private secretary to both john major and margaret thatcher, told me that the queen knows every inch of this country in a way no one else does.

she spends so much time meeting people that she has an understanding of what other people's lives are like. she understands what the normal human condition is. she has also spent an extraordinary amount of time honoring the citizens and members of the military exemplary service. in 60 years she has conferred more than 400,000 honors and awards and given them in person over 600 times. people need pats on the back sometimes she has said. it's a very dingy world otherwise. traveling with the queen was particularly valuable, especially the overseas royal to our i took to bermuda and trinidad. she was 83 years old at the time and our program called for long days of meeting and greeting. our stamina was impressive matched only by 80 the 88-year-old prince philip. whenever they go off on a trip

together like that, the lord chamberlain always accompanies them to the airport and philip always turns around and wave to him and says, mind the shop. i got a real sense of how much in sync philip and elizabeth are within expert choreography, sort of like fred astaire and ginger rogers. i also saw aspects of him that contradicts his caricature of rashness and insensitivity. he always watches the queen intently to see whether she needs any assistance. i once saw him bring a little child over to greet our. he often spot people in the crowd who can't see very well and he will walk them out to give them a better vantage point. when the queen needs a boost he is also there with his humorous asides such as, don't be so sad, sausage. [laughter] on the last night and trinidad i also wanted to close range from

what i had heard about from several people that the queen does not perspire even in the hottest temperatures. the british high commissioner was hosting a garden party in his hilltop home on such a steamy evening that everyone, including me, was dripping from the heat but after an hour of lively conversations with some 65 guests, the queen walked past me very close by and there was absolutely no moisture on our face. [laughter] one of our cousins, traveled in the tropics with our, explain to me and are owned inimitable way that the queen skin does not run water and that while it may look good, it does make our uncomfortable. i saw further evidence of this a year later on a july day at ground zero in manhattan when the temperature hit 103 degrees and one of the women the queen spoke to said to me afterwards, we were all pouring sweat but

she did not have a bead on our. that must be what it's like to be a royal. during these trips, i was able to see the buckingham palace machinery on the road. to get to know the senior officials and to get a feel for the atmosphere around the queen and the way our household is changed from the early days when it was run entirely by aristocratic men. as they stood in the lobby of our hotel in trinidad, the master of the household pointed toward a half-dozen -- one of whom was a woman oldest in a few places. sees them over there he said, he has a master's degree in paleontology. it was a far cry from the stereotype of dalton abby. getting to know all all the places important to the queen further deepen my understanding that our stables in berkshire, one of our horse trainers took

the meowed on a gallop which were the rolling hills where she loved to spend hours in the early morning mist wearing our headscarf, our tweed jacket and our wellington boots as she watched our racehorses workout. our castle in edinburgh, a senior palace official gave me a private tour. i spent the night in the tower of the castle which is the queen mother's house in northern scotland where the queen used to visit every year. i hiked the hills and walked along the river in the queens estate queen's estate in the scottish highlands. hearse estate in norfolk where she were at treats for nearly six weeks every winter. i spend a day getting a tour of the stud farm with our manager and our head stallion groomer. i also spent a day inspecting the royal yacht dania which is

now any museum near edinburgh and i was lucky enough to attend several dinners in the ballroom in the picture gallery at buckingham palace. i was not, alas, guest of the queen but my was invited by prince charles who was hosting his annual gathering of the prince of wales foundation. sitting at a table decorated with george iii silver gilt candelabra and sculpted centerpieces, could immerse myself in the experience of being served by footman in royal livery where the queen entertains heads of state that my favorite moments were at windsor which the queen considers our real home. i spent time with two of the queen's elderly first cousins who have known our longer than anybody else. both lived near the castle in modest homes that the queen gave to them and every sunday after

church the queen drives our jaguar to visit one of the cousins, margaret rose, who greets our with a curtsy and hands our a gin jan anja binet and they sit down and they chat about friends and family. as i sat on margaret sagging sofa in our living room where our dog toys were scattered all around on the floor, i could imagine the queen sitting in the very same spot with our hat on our head, but completely relaxed. at public events i watch the queen at a distance, always the smiling icon moving to the crowd, careful not to engage too much. so it was especially helpful to have three social encounters of private gatherings and each time i cut the animated gestures, the sparkling blue eyes and a flashing smile familiar to our friends are rare in public. on my first meeting during a

garden party at the british ambassador's residence here in washington, i watch the queen in a spirited conversation with my husband about the kentucky derby and i remembered what the british artist howard morgan had told me after painting our portrait. our private side took me completely by surprise he said. she talks like an italian. she waves our hands about. two years later after i have been working on the queen's biography for a year, and that our again at a reception at the palace. this time in honor of the pilgrims which is the group that promotes anglo-american fellowship. when i mentioned to our that my daughter was getting married in london she asked, when is the wedding? the fourth of july i replied. oh she said, that is a little dangerous. [laughter] once again, i saw the smile and

a twinkle. the third time was a month before the wedding of prince william and kate middleton. again we met at st. james palace at a party given by one of the queens cousins. i knew that the queen would be there but i didn't expect our to stay in 90 minutes, and she was in high spirits. the atmosphere was much more informal than the pilgrims perception, probably because so many of our friends and family members were there. and she was making our away happily on our own, without any attendance running interference for our. what really struck me was that here she was in our own palace, but she was merely another guest, which was a measure to me of our surprising humility. when i greeted our, told our that i'd recently been to the home of one of our american friends in florida. i have never been to that house she said, so i told our about it

and particularly how much it has been designed for the grandchildren. yes she said and they have so many, don't they? clearly she did not miss a trick. the first question that people asked me about the queen is what was most surprising, what was the most surprising thing i had learned about our which is very difficult to answer because so much was unexpected. one surprise was that humility that i just mentioned. part of our side that is seldom seen. behind our regal and dignified image, the queen is also smart, shrewd, tolerant, sensitive, lively, funny, passionate, spontaneous, keenly observant and even earthy. so i will give you a few of the many examples of these traits that i found. how about cozy. in the american artist was that

windsor castle, the queen invited him to lunch in our private dining room. to his amazement there were no butlers around to serve the meal. not only did the queen insist on serving him from the buffet, she also insisted on clearing the table. she stat the plates he said, which is what we were taught never to do when we were growing up. another time, she was entertaining a larger group at a luncheon and she told the man next to our, i need to explain about the napkins, as she looked down the table. she said, they are doing it all wrong. they have the starched side down and the napkins will slide off their knees. do it like this with the onstar decide on your lap and then you tuck it under your bottom. [laughter]

what about spontaneous? while driving a scottish cleric on a tour of our estate, she suddenly shouted, hooray as they pass one of our gamekeepers working on the hills with a young woman. the queen explained that his wife had left him and she was absolutely delighted that he was out with a new girlfriend. [laughter] sensitive. when margaret thatcher at had our 80th birthday party in 2005, she had become frail and our mind had been impaired by strokes. as the queen approached, the former prime minister extended our hand and the queen held at as margaret thatcher curtsied to our. but what was surprising is that the queen continue to continued to hold our hand and then tenderly guided our through the crowd of 650 guests which was a remarkable site for the british, who are unaccustomed to seeing the queen so physically demonstrative.

compassionate. gwen i.r.a. terrorists killed the queen's cousin and philips favorite uncle, along with several other members of his family, the queen's 14-year-old grandson who had been severely injured in the attack. when he arrived at belmar old with his sister the queen was there to greet them and she served them soup and sandwiches, took them to their rooms and even started to unpack them until she was prevailed upon to go to bed. timothy later talked about our unstoppable mothering. he told me that the queen had been caring and sensitive and intuitive and when she had managed to get him talking about his dramatic experience in a way that nobody else had been has been able to do. funny. british actress prunella scale got rave reviews for play playing play in the queen and allen bennett's play, the

question of attribution and when she was introduced to the queen, she bowed and the queen said, i expect you think i should be doing that to you. earth day. probably the least expected trade when you think of the prim and proper queen. imagine our stocking -- and herr and charged -- mcintosh trousers crawling on our stomach through the undergrowth with our nose up against the boots of the person in front of our or visiting our yearlings in the stable to see that they seem to have been suffering from respiratory problems. our nose and showed our trainer what was in a handkerchief and said it's too dusty in here. there is no a or. needless to say he promptly installed a better ventilation system. finally something surprising because i just think the image says so sweet. in the queen and prince philip

were with nancy reagan on a trip to california in 1983, reagan's deputy chief of staff asked the queen's private secretary why she was taking so long to prepare for the evening. the queen needs our tiara time he said. the private secretary explained that she has a little kid with tools that she uses to decorate certain diamond tiaras like hooking pearls or emeralds or are sapphires or rubies on them depending on what she is wearing. our former crown jeweler david thomas confirmed to me that this pastime is something she enjoys a great deal. while such private things may surprise many people elizabeth behavior as queen has always been reassuring, consistent and predictable. her wise conduct and her role as a unifying force are more value today than ever.

long admired and respected she is now beloved. when she celebrated her golden jubilee 10 years ago, people realized she was about stability, continuity, calm through adversity and humor when things are going wrong. this former senior adviser charles manson told me. suddenly got the point of the queen would been doing her job for 50 years. now that she has reached her 60 year milestone, she is bigger than politics or celebrities are fashioned. yet she has learned to move with the times, making sure the monarchy is responsive without being trendy. her ability to adapt to a changing world is all the more impressive when you consider that she grew up in an edwardian atmosphere. she is the anchor in the middle for people to hang onto them in times of turbulence. her lifelong friend and former

top adviser david aarons told me. she lives by the values we all wish to have which is made her life story inspiring for me to write about and i hope that readers are equally inspired. thank you. [applause] >> we have a mic right here in the middle. can you come to the mic? sits right behind you. no, no they can't hear you.

>> what was her relationship with diane and a divorce from charles and the situation, the situation with diana and charles? >> that was one of the difficult periods of her reign i would say. she was hoping that her son charles would marry happily and i think it's the beginning they all thought diana was ideal. they seem to be in love, at least they talked themselves into thinking they were loved -- in love but they were in fact badly mismatch. she was very welcoming to diana in the beginning. i think everybody underestimated how sensitive and how kind of emotionally turbulent she was and how difficult it would be for her to adapt to royal life, but one of her, one f. princess diana's said that the queen always kept an open door for her. the problem was that you know, the queen can be a bit

formidable and diana was very young and she was someone who intimidated by her. so she didn't take that opportunity to go spend time with her and get to know her better. the queen was very busy and she just assumed other people would take care of her and bring her along which didn't really happen. but a lot of the problems that happened between charles and diana were quite invisible to both the queen and prince philip and it really wasn't until the book written by andrew morton that diana had secretly collaborated with was published in 1992 which was 11 years after they were married, and it was highly critical of charles. it was very damaging to charles and very tough on the rest of the royal family. so, the queen you know,

completely understandably viewed this as an act of betrayal and disloyalty and it was compounded by the fact that when she was asked about it, diana did not tell the truth. so at that point it became clear that it was going to be difficult for them to continue with their marriage so they separated not long after that and then you know -- >> the reason that she chose her grandson and not her son to succeed? >> she hasn't done that. charles is definitely in line to precede her. that is the way it works. there have been public opinion polls that have indicated a lot of people would prefer to see the beautiful young couple succeed her, but charles is the one, yeah. i think somebody is at the mic.

>> i will read about it in the book but i wonder if the queen has ever commented to her circle of friends are publicly about the affliction of her father? has she talked about it? >> well, to this extent, i think she was, she so admired him for his duty and his absolute determination to overcome it, i think it must have been very difficult for her to see. she once said that the quality that affected her most about him was his steadfastness and she learned a lot from watching him and from seeing him overcome what was an almost crippling disability and yet go on and be an incredibly admirable king particularly during world war ii. i think that is when she saw her parents in a new light because

they were very brave. they could have gone elsewhere but they came into london every day and the girls were living at windsor castle which was very well fortified and the king and then queen elizabeth came and spent many nights there but they put their lives on the line by going into london. buckingham palace was hit nine times by bombs one of which almost killed the two of them, so she developed great admiration for both of them in their duty and in their courage. >> it was sort of a lesson in empathy that most of the royals don't get. >> one>> yes the one offer per - first private secretaries actually noted that after they had taken the whole family when she was still princess elizabeth and they had taken a trip to south africa. he said something to that effect, that he noticed an ability to connect with people and the kind of empathy and

compassion that he said is rare in the royal family. she has seen "the king's speech" by the way. she did see it. initially she was reluctant to see it i think because she was a little nervous about seeing her parents portrayed better cousin -- my cousin margaret rose with whom she has genworth every sunday said she did see it and after she had won the award, think people told her the reaction which was common there and here at the end. she liked it. she thought it was fine but she did not see the queen. she made a pact with tony blair as far as i can tell and she has held up her end of it anyway. [inaudible] >> no, no but she was told about it. >> i think one of the things that people talk about being criticized the bit about lacking

in compassion is one of the things that the continuing gravitation between her and the royal family as the duke and dutchess of windsor. i think that has a lot of times, they should be invited to family but they were always excluded. there was a comment of that time. >> yeah, well is a very germanic moment when edward the eighth abdicated and her father became king. he had not been prepared for it and he wept to his mother. he did learn to be in admirable king and i think they were tough on them. one of the difficulties was the possibility that the duke and dutchess of dutchess of windsor could have lent in england and that would have set up a parallel corporate i think

figure would have been extremely difficult to have an ex-king and the current king so for that reason they wanted them to live in, someplace else during the boer. they lived in the bahamas and afterwards in paris. but i was struck that the queen did reach out to him. he had to calm to london for some eye surgery and she went and visited him in the hospital. there was the commemoration for his mother, queen mary and he was included in that. when she was making his state visit to paris in 1972, he had already been diagnosed with cancer and you know, the queen knew that he did not have long to live so she went and visited him. it was apparently a very tender visit that they had together and

his doctor said she had tears in her eyes. only weeks later he died, and she was very kind to the dutchess of windsor. she was heavily sedated and kind of out of it during that period map of time. but, clarissa eden, the widow of anthony eden said that she looked over at one point and saw the queen with her hand on the dutchess dutchess of windsor's arm and she said she was treating her with nanny like tenderness. so i think one of her qualities is a tolerance and a capacity for forgiveness and i think she exercise that. there were other members of the family who weren't quite that way. >> thank you. >> here comes somebody. >> i was a passerby but i wanted

to inquire, could you elaborate just a little bit on the blowup over the first lady's. >> i have that book. i have an absolute eyewitness account from the queens bibliographer who was recording the whole thing and told me what happened. it was not as big a deal as was it was made out to be. what happened was as you can imagine there is quite a disparity in height between the queen and michelle obama and they were standing at this reception for all the g20 leaders and first of all they were sort of comparing their shoes and then they turned to two ladies in waiting who were standing and they started to sort of demonstrate how tall she was and how short she was, and quite naturally as they were showing, demonstrating, they put their arms around each other.

you know it has long been said that you shouldn't touch the queen although there have been many people who have over the years and she has become much more relaxed about it. michelle sort of lingered abed enrapture on the shoulder. nobody took offense, except the british tabloid press. they decided to make a big deal out of it, but i talked talk to people of buckingham palace and they said everybody was in a very good mood that day and it was kind of in the spirit of how everybody felt. nobody took offense much less the queen. >> okay. >> anybody else? thank you very much for coming. [applause] >> for more information visit the author's web site, sally bedell smith.com.

coming up next on booktv, greg palast presents his investigation of the bp oil spill to talk about the corruption he says per meet the oil and street, the financial sector and government. this is about an hour and 15 minutes. >> hey guys, hello again. thank you, thank you. we are going to get underway here. i am with wp fw 93.5 fm pacifica am proud to be part of wp fw and equally excited about this evening tonight. we are going to begin with a little bit of introduction. you know me, hope you know me and if you don't, start listening to wp fw 9.3 pacifica.

i cohost with raucous baucus on tuesday night. you have to come down in c. and you get a free trip. you don't get a free crabcake but you can get a free crabcake and then he can watch her show and join in on the show. we do that every second, fourth and fifth tuesday just to confuse you but we are there with my cohost garland nixon and mark levine. and then also i help out also as a regular host on what's it stake a wp fw as well which allows me to lead men to do my introduction of the loveliest mentor i've ever had. and of course i'm talking about the original host, the host, the producer of what is at stake on w. vfw and that is broadcast on wednesday mornings at -- and you want to catch that for sure. both of us have interviewed greg palast many times. , map. [applause]

>> good evening everyone. >> we are going to share this mic and yell a little bit at you. just so you know in case you didn't know ferne has got a 23 year history with pacifica radio and she has been just about everything from a volunteer to the capitol reporter, an anchor on the national news and a lady of integrity when pacifica got a little weird in the year 2000. she decided to separate herself until they straighten things out and returned to that progressive agenda that we all value. came back in 2001 and she was the deputy executive director of pacifica. if you're going to leave and come back to an organization that is the way to do it, come back and take over. and then she was in california for a little bit but she belongs to washington and lived her whole life here. so she came back and became the washington bureau chief.

we came up about eight years ago, 10 years ago? a long time ago when we began on what's at stake and she also has now putting in a plug for a family business called the ultimate gaming zone and laurel maryland and is says there's something about taking over the capitalist world soon. ohoh no, i misread that. i'm sorry. to start a business and it's really going well. we are really really privileged to be here and thank you for coming out on this wpfw special occasion. burn and i wanted to chat with you a little bit about wpfw. i think you know about it but they might tell you a few things that you're not generally where. >> terry thank you for that generous introduction and i knew i should've brought my son. they need to hear that. they think of me have is a person who is nagging them constantly about hurry up, get a job, move up.

[laughter] but aside from my family, my lovely husband is here. >> hey robbie. my lovely wife is with the. >> aside from my family i think working for pacific and wpfw is a mocha filling work that i have ever done and i have done work in commercial radio as well as noncommercial radio. the antiwar coverage that wpfw did and pacifica was second to none. we were out there in the frigid cold attending those rallies but the peace movement was in full force. pacifica would be there, but we would look around and we would watch the 6:00 news and there was absolutely no coverage. we would be out there. there were celebrities there, harry belafonte was there, susan sarandon, desmond tutu, aussie davis. these were significant antiwar

rallies but the media just fail to cover it. i attended a discussion group with my alma mater american university and a number of my colleagues are members of the mainstream media. i said you know, you guys were awol at the peace movement. and i asked them why. they said well, basically we understood that the bush administration was hell-bent on going to war so it seems futile. >> is that any way to approach our politics? i mean can we get in the streets occasionally, please? >> the thing about it, that kind of struck me because they see their role is fundamentally different from a way that we at pacifica see our role. they see their role as to showing up and reporting what happens. i think at pacifica at wpfw our role was seen as trying to somehow shape what is going to happen next. so for example, we produced a show called peace watch.

i don't no, some of you may have seen it or heard it rather. it was a daily news program, national, and we can't simply worked against drumbeat for war, pushing back, keeping the focus on peace as opposed is supposed to war only. right now, amy goodman is in south africa and durbin covering the conference bear and the u.n. economic conference, climate change conference. i can guarantee you if their other media there they are not going to be talking to the same individuals that amy goodman will speak to. >> is kind of a race between the amy goodman and greg palast on who is going to get their first first nl. >> that's right and were fortunate to have both of them. and the convention coverage. terry you and i covered. >> went to boston to meet all the policeman, and there are two things that stuck out from an covering the convention. the first in boston was the

police coverage and it began to be, it was frightening. was really scary. they didn't show this on mainstream media again. you probably heard about the free speech zone. this little tiny zone with one entrance with art wire fence around a brit could go 1/2 quote free speech. yeah and that was the only place he could go. up above you, all around you were the sharpshooters, both secret service, army, boston police, you name it. with guns in their hands at the free speech zone. i began to think, this country is beginning to worry me. it only got worse. there was an incident once on the street right beside the free speech zone and one young man called -- cause trouble. i don't know what he did, and maybe mooned a cop, have no idea. but anyway and simply -- calyx,

phallic anyway this wall of the lease and black armor came marching down the street across the sidewalks onto the street from building to building and just swept us into a nice little trapped space. that was democracy in boston during the convention. >> i just got a notice today that the senate has actually passed a bill that will allow the military -- [inaudible] the police day part of this country is really starting to make me angry. >> me to matt. [. the bill they are trying to pass, not only can they arrest american citizens, they can keep you for as long as they like. [. hello? >> thank god for pacifica. i hadn't heard anything much about that. some of the occupiers earlier

today, that is what i got that information from. in the book, greg palast's book which will have the pleasure of introducing greg momentarily come he talks about katrina and i was shocked to learn about the real guilty party that he talks about an applicant is not hurricane katrina. the mississippi river of outlet, pallas writes quote had it not been for him katrina would have been a storm of no note so we will hear more about that in his remarks. according to greg louisiana shut down its hurricane center after katrina and i'm wondering if they have rebuilt it yet. >> probably not. no funding. >> in his book which we will get to momentarily. i am so excited. greg palast is all over the map. he is everywhere. you practically need a passport

just to see him. he creates -- it's a little squeamish at some point. it's got everything. i was really surprised at that, greg. [laughter] he creates his own sex scandal. he's not afraid to name names in this book. i know you all have copies and i'm sure you have read it. there is jamaica. there is sweet and. >> we are going to do that. >> he writes all over the world. i've heard people scream but no one was listening. americans just turn up their tvs. that is a little scary and i hope he addresses that as well. >> couple more things just so you know i am sure you have all heard of greg palast the fournier had "the new york times" bestseller book, the best democracy money can buy.

you remember when it was purchased back a few years ago and it's not for sale by the way. they're holding onto. he also wrote our madhouse and some of the quotes from some of his contemporaries are just astounding. this one from a baltimore prodigal, no one investigated the bush doctrine like greg palast and lived to write about it. >> well, another quote from naomi prins, an eye-opening heart pumping mind-blowing experience that should not, must not process. he will be signing books by the way. pulp fiction, from my favorite investigative reporter, nonfiction from my favorite investigative reporter. that is robert f. kennedy jr.'s quote. a quote from ron paul in the op ed news, what greg palast does

to investigate is unbelievable and the results of the stories are muckraking and exposés that will knock your socks off. katherine harris. >> remember her down in florida was in that? good old katherine. >> she calls him twisted and maniacal. >> which is a come poe. >> the "chicago tribune" says greg palast is what a reporter should be, tenacious, adopted by power, his stories are so relevant they threaten to alter history. greg palast is the author of two "new york times" bestsellers as terry just mentioned, madhouse and best democracy money can buy. and brittany is called a top investigative reporter of our time. greg palast is best known in the u.s. for discovering how the 2000 election katherine harris and jeb loesh remove tens of

thousands of african-american citizens from voter rolls calling them felons and thereby stealing the election for george bush. but in britain the economist is best known for financial investigations of enron. pat robertson and others. before he was an investigative reporter he was one of the top investigators of fraud and racketeering. the baltimore chronicle wrote, as terry said, no one has investigated the bush family like greg palast and lived to tell about it. spam look to tell about. that is a book and you are getting your book tonight. we are so thankful you're your joining us tonight with vfp fw. when you start reading this you will dog-ear every single page. you underline, highlight and try to fix these things your memory but one thing i would ask you to do on this great evening you will have a greg palast is just listening connect the