oklahoma will celebrate centennial in 2013. it is one of the oldest programs in the country. but the gaylord college is quite young, only 12 years old. it was endowed by the gaylord family, the family that owned the largest newspaper for more than 100 years in oklahoma. up until 2011 when they sold the property. ..

>> is our goal to sprinkle part of that teaching throughout what we do. generally, in journalism education around the u.s. it's pretty easy, because the ethical foundations of journalism of course are so strong. i know that the income is a shock to many viewers who see that certain areas of the mass media have lost their way. but there really is a strong underpinning of ethical practice that has undergirded this field

for many, many years, and it's much stronger in our area than it is in the general business community, for example, or many other fields. we certainly see the need for it today, because immediate environment is so multifaceted, and so undisciplined in the way it is grown compared to a very finite regimented control type media that we had during most of the 20th century. so students are going to go out in a variety of environments, many times on their own, and there aren't going to be organizations necessarily that will overlay a strong set of ethical principles. so it is a challenging today, because if students don't get it here, i'm not sure what

reinforcement they are always going to get in the real world. what we are trying to emphasize business for, because clearly the crisis that journalism has been in the past few years comes from its weakness on the business side, not its weakness on the journalism side, that the business model has been undermined in journalism, especially print, where classified advertising has collapsed, because of craigslist, where people are expected to get things on the internet free and not pay for it. so newspapers are having to reinvent themselves, and through subscription revenue rather than advertising, and advertising is going down. and that means everyone in a newspaper has to be more conscious of the business side of the house and how revenue comes in and know marketing plays a part in that newspaper.

and similarly for broadcasting as well. so there's a lot more to think about it and are used to be. and there are a lot more challenges. we were taught about ethics. clearly when you put business in the middle of that, well, that is a red flag right there, that if you, you've got to have some standards, editorial standards they can't just let making a profit run roughshod over those standards. >> there's going to be a shakeout. we spent the whole 20th century building up an infrastructure that serve the masses, where everyone took a daily newspaper and it was just pervasive. and those days are gone. it's going to be a smaller audience, or specialize. up applications are going to have to have good, strong, local content. that people are willing to pay for. if it's something in the

commodity news that you can get anywhere, then why should people pay for your product? and that's where soul-searching is being done at every newspaper in america now. asking himself, well, what do we have that is the quality and that people want? and the most important dimension today, whether they want to pay for, not what they're willing to read if you give it to them free, but what are they willing to plunk down a subscription and actually pay for the content. and they are learning fast and are getting stronger by the day once they do get the hang of what it is the content is worth. obviously, with any journalism there's a certain organizational bodies that is built into the way news is gathered, and analyzed and reported. but i think it's the middle. i think the stench of journalism

are still strong today. we've got many good journalism organizations that are doing a good job, are portraying what is happening. news has become a lot softer, something i'm not always glad to see, but there are also many strong substitute sources out there. we are becoming more of a niche marketplace. it's not one size fits all. you have in the magazine industry, for example, you have us in people going like gangbusters, and have the economist, one of the fastest growing magazines in the u.s. so it depends on what your interests are, that's where journalism is growing. and "the new york times" went behind a wall last year and they are flourishing in that situation. there's a group of people who

will pay for good journalism. they are several strong local papers that are being successful. they're finding, made a smaller audience but it's a high quality audience. there are people who care about what's going on, objective journalism done by professionals, and there is a market for that. that journalism is just working its way through this transition, both in terms of its business model and finding its audience. we are not a major media market here. we're not in new york and chicago or los angeles. we are out in the prairie in oklahoma, and we're in a great university, led by an incredible president, david boren, who is done phenomenal things. we couldn't be more pleased with the way things have done. but you don't have that stimulation that you would have if you're sitting right in the middle of manhattan, or you're

in the middle of l.a. and so you have to create a stimulation. here you always have to be vigilant and on your toes. i'm always an advocate for change and for trying to be on top of what's happening. and always trying to push the old better. what do we not know that we should be, that we should no? what should we, one of the complacent about that we shouldn't be complacent about? and so i artificially create that environment with a little more edge on it. because it doesn't quite come as naturally as it does when you're right in the heart beat of the media kingdom. and students today have to be much more entrepreneurial. this is not a business where you graduate and you are going to a

company and work for 30 or 40 years as an employee. you are much more likely to either be a freelancer, an independent contractor, an individual creator of content that you market to someone else. and students understand that and they really embrace it. they see that they've got to be much more multifaceted than they used to be. they have to make their own way. but we are trying to be as technologically friendly as we can here at gaylord hall by providing our students with incredible opportunity to express their creativity. apple computer is on the us in a couple of weeks as one of their aid programs of distinction of the united states. the only journalism program will be offered. we are very proud of that. but i think what that says is that we have just created a

backbone where students can do their work with the background is in the background, more seamless. that's one of our goals right now is just teach things up so they can have a great shot. students today are so creative. many of them have such a wonderful attitude, about the future, and they have, they seem to care about people, other people, strong public service orientation. me cases just have to turn them loose, give them opportunity to do what they do. >> james buss, author of "winning the west with words" describes how to use of narrative language shaped the historical memory of the

westward moving to oklahoma city was first settled on april 23, 1889, as part of the land run when about 10,000 homesteaders moved to the area. >> the premise of the book is essentially that historians have long looked at indian removal, the physical removal of native peoples from either the american southeast or the great lakes, and what i was interested in looking at beyond physical removal, how this individual were written out of the story of those plays. and particularly in the case of this book, the lower great lakes. that is present-day ohio, indiana and italy. and what i found was that the pageant, parades, books, paintings, essentially great lakes white settlers and the great lakes the race and its people from the landscape long before they attempted physical removal. and once that was complete, they did so through literary works and artistic works.

leading up to the 1830s indian removal act, there was pressure by the american government for native committees to remove from places east of the mississippi river to west of the mississippi river. and after the indian removal act in 1830 that pressure increase and many of those native committees were sort of fractured or divided up by pressure being placed on them by the american government. and the were physically removed left a little work has been done on what the competition of what happened in the aftermath of the for many communities, elements of the music and parts of this committees or entire native american communities state in those areas rather than being removed it and that's essentially the story that i was trying to get at, was than what stories get white settlers or white occupants of those lands tell themselves about the incumbent removal, and those people that were living amongst them are among them for the following decades or centuries.

in the ears come in the decades leading up to indian removal the type of rhetoric a white settlers developed to justify removal, that was indians could not assimilate to live next to whites, or that they were to start different committees. one white, when andy and i would never be able to live among one another. when the story became embedded in the history or the store that they told themselves about their lives in those places, when indian removal was not complete, instead of changing the story they simply adopted it in different ways. and that is by convincing themselves of the indians had been removed even as he looked among them. one thing i'm interested in our celebrations and commemorations in terms of come in the case of the lower great lakes, particular centennial celebration. so in the early 20th century, states like ohio, indiana and illinois celebrated state centennial. a centennial anyway is a way to

reflect and remember and look back, but for the white communities in illinois, it was much more about forgetting. so in indiana, for example, in 1916 the state hosted an enormous or patch and in riverside in indianapolis. they were 2000 actors that participate in this pageant that outlined the entire history of the state. from a pre-contact history through 1916, tens of thousands of people gathered in this park to watch this pageant, or performance, where they reenacted that history. and there's a moment where white settlers, and it was really white individuals playing william henry harrison and american soldiers fighting against again white actors playing on the shawnee prophet and native american warriors. they reenacted the battle of 1811. following that indians exited

stage left and never returned in the pageant. it marked a clear set of concise breaking point between an indigenous path landscape and one that was white state development and state driven. despite the fact that hoosiers in 1916 knew that committees like the communities in indiana still lived among the many of them probably attended the pageant itself. and rehousing paget's of their own in northern indiana that challenged the very near to. i think most of it is to justify or empathize state development and progress. and it is this narrative of progress moving away from a indigenous past one of modernism and development that hoosiers are still taking part today, and still telling themselves. and i think the landscape for century and have not gone on to

centuries was part of that story of progress. pestilence have been aware of it. i think the problem has been documenting it and searching for those examples and working with native communities and trying to better understand that complex history that's something that fester and perfectionism began to get less maybe 20, 30 years, and so it's kind of a group of young historians who are starting to look at this in critical ways, trying to understand how culture plays a role in dispossessing people from the land. i grew up in the great lakes. and essentially spent most of my life being taught that story. one for native americans essentially vanished somewhere around the time of the war of 1812. and in college and graduate school, being confronted with an alternative store to that in meeting native peoples to live

in the states was a stark reminder that there was something wrong with that story. so the more i investigated it and the ironies that i found, almost delirious ironies, individuals, there's one story in the 1840s of an individual, john brown dylan in indiana who stood before a crowd and gave a speech called the decline to miami. essential to what he was arguing was, you know, that it was really sad. what was interesting to me was there's documentation that miami community members were standing there in the crowd listening to this guy limit the fact that they were no longer there. and so it's the irony that i found i kept finding over and over again that maybe want to investigate it further. >> oklahoma city is the of the 1995 attack of the murrah building by timothy mcveigh. booktv visits the city to share the local literary culture of the area.

>> hi. my name is joe entered and the acting curator of the john and mary nichols rare books and special collections at the university of oklahoma. this is a wonderful collection that was named in honor of john and mr. nichols the on the other longtime service to the university and to libraries. with the generous support we have established this collection on the campus of university of a global. what i've done is our products and books he appealed the collection. the collection self highlights and has important work in british american literature from the 15th century to the present. what i've shown here are some of the most beloved authors of the english language. britain and english and american authors. one of the core parts of the collection is the dickens collection which is really remarkable.

we are first editions of dickens print work, but also installments of his works. for many of these authors you see today like charles dickens, jane austen, and other authors that i will show, most of us see dozen paperback edition. but is really remarkable to see how contemporary reader would have experienced reading a tale of two cities for the first time, for example, in these weekly installment. or even from 1843, a christmas go. this is one of my favorites with these wonderful illustrations. and these are some of the other additions of dickens that we have the came out in these installments. and one reason for doing this is that they were cheaper for the buying public, and also a kind of wedded the appetite for the reduce it would happen next with the church. and dickens was a master acri these wonderful characters.

you will see some depictions year and a collection that we have from joseph clark, also known as kit you have these wonderful watercolors in the late 19th century of some of dickens characters. we have taken and also mr. bumble from the poorhouse. this is a copy of oliver twist. it's one of the works they came out in book form first before the installment. you see a wonderful image of oliver's reception by fagan and the boys. and again, many of these books we expense them in media first, orville but it's rich to be able to see them as a contemporary reader did. there's a geewhiz, exciting emotional aspect using the books but there's also a scholarly recent. it tells us something about how the publishing business was, how authors work. and also how people read books but these are the kind of things

that people on this campus are may be interested in doing research on the history of the book, on english literature. and so we are having to open this collection to scholars, to students, and, in fact, on this campus we really want to promote the use of collections for undergrads, and graduates to the. another one of my favorites, which again many of you may have encountered in a paperback, here is pride and prejudice. and it's in this small three volume set with what probably one of the most famous lines there is in literature, it is a true universally acknowledged that a single man possession of a good fortune must be in want of a life. with all of her decision, jane austen, one of my particular favorite authors. so in addition win a few more that i will show you. arthur conan doyle, many of the sherlock homes addition to this particular edition is one in

which he uses the idea of a fingerprint to solve a crime for the first time. it's 1905. and also a copy of h.g. wells invisible man. so moving over here, the collection is also represented by american literature and authors. 's mark twain. whether very interesting collection of works by mark twain. here is tom sawyer, first edition. herman melville, the welcome which is actually 5 millionth volume from university of oklahoma. added to the library. and a collection of of may our thoughts version of little women. when they want to point out is special collections and it's wonderful to look and see these original first editions. they have unique but do. something that would only be, exist in that particular book, and not everything is on the internet as a sometimes a book will have something very unique that would be helpful in

research for a topic or person. or tells you something about the origin of the boat. we have this book by the poet robert frost that action has a hand written copy of one of his poems on the book. is a presentation copy. so most of the books in our collection, most of materials in this collection are printed but we do have materials like this and we also manuscript mckenna. sometimes we use that that might tell us something about the book. i talk a little bit about the literary classics that we have, but the collection is also strong in general in rare books. rare books dating from 15 century. that could be something like the famous william shakespeare. this is a really beautiful copy. it's part of the collection that we have a stagecraft, books on place, on the history of the stage that is really valuable to scholars who are doing history

of the stage, from the 1600. and over your i have a few examples of some of the different plays that we have. these are actually -- we have a valentine's exit which highlighted some of these a few months back. so these date from 1694, from 1728, and from 1735. so this is something that people are doing research in that area can look at. and again, a special collection is important because it may have unique mentor. this is something i discovered on the shelf recently that is basically someone had put together a collection from the early 1800s some productions, playbills. so this may be something also that someone interest and look at the history of theater would like to use or utilize.

so in addition to the history of the stage we have work that can be considered them a political theory, essays, travel blogs, law, and political task of religious tracts. and also biblical much of the this is what i want to take out again and because it's something that is very recognizable. you may be some way with gulliver's travels. maybe as a children's her, but as of them. here's an original edition from 1776 which is really not a children's story and has a lot and it's a satire on the culture of the period. it's relevant and a lot of areas. in fact, if you look at the table of content here, he's critiquing some of the academy at the time. so there's some interesting connections with the history of science and with literary life of the time that he was interested in critiquing. again, in the collection we have not only poets, and dramatist

and literary work on the web political theorists, works on history, collected works like king james, things like that. is a well-known political treatise. this has a beautiful well known picture over here. and again, some of you may have encountered this in a paperback edition. in addition to this kind of book, which is kind of a treaty to we have a lot of pamphlets which are religious, political, where authors argue with contemporary issues, and one thing i brought out, the topic is, the idea of having a standing army and is the consistent with the principles of the free government. so the first pamphlet is the initial publication in 1697, and the second one josie is every plight to the.

and i brought these out to emphasize the idea think about a special collection and the works in as a kind of conversation. so people, authors and individuals in a particular time are talking to each other, but there's also continuing conversation about ideas, values that really comes up to the present. and that's one reason that we are still looking at these works. looking on i have some of the last works that i want to show that are some of the older books come in the materials that we have. two of these are printed in the 1400s just right after the beginning of printing. because of that, they look very much like a manuscript. which i should have a copy of your of a 13th century bible, a leaf from a bible. so when printing as a technolo technology, began in the mid-1400s, they mimic the tradition that a new, the

manuscript. and think about that transition is very important. for today, special collections are important because they highlight the value of books and history of books, but also because they help us think about the transition that we're going to rebound in our digital age. i find it very bible to talk to students about thinking about these books in understanding how we went from manuscript to print and that in the 19th century, the mass publication of books, what kind of changes that impacted on our culture and different cultures, and then think about how they are relevant today in our digital world. thinking about how we write, how we talk to each other, how to influence the way we think of something special collections are important in that way. and so in the beginning of printing, this is a book, the earliest book, 1483, it does also resembled a medieval text.

it's actually like many printed books in the 1400s and 1500s, a printed edition of an early work, that is from 12th century and it is a book on cannot law. the last book -- on canon law. the last book is by well-known publisher, goldberger, and is basically a biblical and world history. so kind of the history of the world as seen through the scriptures, depicted but also history the cities, history of culture. and this book published in 1493 is also quite significant because the degree to which illustrations are incorporated into the text. and, in fact, very much like printed books at the time, sometimes the illustrations are actually repeated. but this is in nuremberg and this is a city where the book was published. this is a fine example of a book again from 1493 that can be used

for research in a number of areas. like many aspects of our collection for religion, politics, history, and that submission to the particular collection to be able to promote the use of these books for research, teachings, all levels or scholar, for graduate students and undergraduates. we would like to see that continue. spent in his book, "moroccan monarchy and the islamist challenge," mohamed daadaoui describes the impact of iraq and monarchy has had a muslim society and the politics in the country. we talked to mr. daadaoui from oklahoma city, oklahoma. >> my book on morocco is a micro dynamics. it is a book that studies the sources of the moroccan monarchy and the reason for its survival for centuries. iraq and monarchy has witnessed

a long, a remarkable longevity because the dynasty, not to be confused by the al dynasty or ruling family in syria, two different families. but in this current dynasty has been known since 1641, the 17th century. so my book looks at the causes, survival, especially post-independence air from 1956, under french colonial rule from 1956 again come my book looks at how the monarchy managed to create a new form of religious the base on its traditional and religious power. used in codifying what i call in my book ritual power. for example, the monarch is ask them to be the commander the faithful, it will have certain

endowed blessed moroccan. the monarchy every year, you know, throws grandiose spectacle of allegiance. so i look at these rituals and symbols of power, how it's a stage in morocco, manufactured and produced them and reproduce them in order to actually create a legitimacy that appeals to the moroccan society. and what's important about the symbolic power itself is that it hinders the opposition forces, especially the islamist groups and party from launching a credible in this sense challenges or threats to the regime in morocco. so the monarchy, even in the context of the air spring today, this symbolic power has managed to keep the monarchy in a sense clear of all of these tidal wave

of the arabs. morocco is a north african country which has multiple identities of force but it's an arab muslim country, african government, with diverse population. the majority i would say is about 54% is arab and 40, 45, 46% is over. these -- berber. this is the population that preexisted the arab invasion. but our long period of time morocco enjoyed a great deal of stability it is always looked at a model of progress and stability in the east and north africa. but morocco is a system in which the monarch not only rains but also bolstered he wields a lot of power, discretionary power constitutional power. and as i said before is also, he

also has a tremendous religious power, so it's not only, is he a 10-point program but also spiritual as well as -- country holds about 33 million people, largely agricultural, economic system. tremendous i would say socioeconomic gaps. i think that was one of the underlying reasons that barack would share it the rest of the community and north africa in light of the arab uprising that we've been witnessing the last year. unit, high unemployment rate, about 20, 21% depending on source unemployment rate. what is called of course a usable to the majority of the population is under the age of 25 years old. so again, these are, these kind of toxic mix that made the

region unstable, you know, recent year. but morocco was also enjoyed a great deal of success as the regime and the since dealing or offsetting the tide of the arab uprising but and i think large part because of the role of the monarchy in a political system. and, of course, because of the legitimization, the favorite 20th movement just that's when they launched it. 2011. in morocco, i would say there are variables by the regime and the state have largely innocent managed whether the arab rising. one of the forces of sick and goes back to my argument and my book is tremendous religious, and the rituals asian of the public discourse at the moroccan monkey has undergone for years. for decades.

not just in the last year or so. the second, which i think a lot of fun things call popularity. and i think that's a bit of a facile argument because popularity, it's at the same thing as legitimacy in the sense that i talk about it in my book. another reason why morocco has managed to weather this storm so far i would say, because of come there were some good, largely meaningless reforms that were performed by the monarchy, but they played a role in this. they pacify the population. they managed to take away the angst and anger, anxiety. and repackage what are largely constitutional changes in june and july of last year, you know, into this massive movement, progress force democracy.

a this is myopic and i don't think it's meaningful change. nothing has changed. despite the fact that the monarchy launched constitutional changes which was ratified prove and referendum, overwhelmingly. but if we look at the constitution changes, they don't change the regime versus society or state society relations. the monarch still has those tremendous powers over the religious run. he has control over foreign policy, over the military, also discretionary power, powers of decree. so again, yes, the prime minister has the powers right now in order, in terms of policy making, but all of that, of course, is under, could be subjected to pay veto. so again not a lot of things have changed. and i think the third reason why

i think the monarchy has managed to offset this challenge of the arab uprising in morocco is because of the nature of the movement in morocco, the favorite 20th movement, ragtag movement, by division, but arguments within, between its own leaders. has always been i would say discredited by the regime as a movement that seeks to topple the regime or change the rock and configuration of states. i don't think i was active but he can't as part of the state propaganda to de- legitimate ties and they were successful partial do so because not a flick of the movement, it's largely been reduced to many riots here and there every week, but it's not a sizable in a way that can actually create any meaningful challenge to the regime. i was in morocco in june, last year, and i went to one such

demonstration, and there's not a lot of people, about 200 or 300 people. they were walking and the police were facilitating a passage to the main city streets and i was in a sense interest in seeing that a lot of people on the summer watching this. they were stating well, the monarch has called for reform, going to change the constitution. at the time of course before the referendum. so that should be enough, that should be satisfactory that time. so again, they are facing a lot of problems, of course mobilizing the moroccans in massive ways, like tunisia especially in egypt and were to us to bring about. before this movement started, larger than what is, it was a reverse i would say example of

the egyptian, tunisian? the first process in february 20, 2011, and, of course, every week after that there were larger to thousands of people, and sometimes they were 10, 15, 20,000 people, depending on the cities. casablanca. but again, the monarchy was almost machiavellian in how they dealt with it. from the very beginning one of the first regimes to respond quote unquote respond roughly to the movement were the moroccan monkey. the first thing he did, the monarch when indeed a speech on march 9. so anything after that, april 9, 2011, in which the monarchy pledged massive reforms, what they call democratic reforms. which the king talks about accepting a citizen king. not sure what that means but again it was new for the moroccans for the first time

that a team is talking in a language of democratic, any sense reform, involving the monarchy so. because in the past to talk about reforms but talking about the other political party, the political system and the monarchy, or the civil society, but not about the monarchy as a part of the reform it so. so again, what they did to the movement, it drove the momentum, and in a sense they the population, the moroccan society rally behind the monarchy because they saw that this monarchy did not insist to retaliate respond the same way of the tunisians of ben ali or the mubarak regime. in utter violence and repression. so again, there was a little bit of violence here and there but it was not to the scale of the tunisian, egyptian, libyan or syrian case today. so again, in that sense the

movement lost its movement early on. in essence, since then they never have not been able to regain that momentum, especially after the passage of the constitutional changes. despite the fact that morocco still rails from the same socioeconomic as all the other movies and northern african states to massive socioeconomic gaps, high others to rates, about 52% illiterate in morocco. we are talking about lack of hope and the future and especially for the young population. and again, the prevalence of crony capitalism, economic factors in morocco are controlled by the palace or families, holding is related to the palace itself. so again, it's remarkable in a

sense, the machiavellian sense how the monarchy managed to in a sense off the air of spring in morocco of these, at least for now. social science is really difficult for us to predict the future. we always can be wrong we do that. so i don't know. i mean, i would, i would say that the monarchy so far, at some point they will have to deal with consequences of not offering meaningful reforms. now a seems to carry, especially because of the status the i.t. coming back to this. because of the status of the monarchy. i think it's parallel to an acoustic unique because i think more needs to be done in order to study the system in the middle east. in the middle is, if you look at something right now, the interesting thing is, monarchy still seem perturbed by the arid climate as much as the republican states in the arab

world. and i think that merits a bit of investigation and examination. maybe we should look at what makes them as survived and compared it to moroccan? the moroccan? no, is remarkable because we had these unique and religious traditional idiosyncrasies that i was a cannot be parallel elsewhere. i'm sure maybe the monarch's in the gulf region or jordan have certain traditional or tribal legitimate sources. but i think those need -- go back to the prediction but i think barack go so far, i would probably if it was a gambling man so yes, i mean i would probably place my bet on the monarchy at this point. and why wouldn't anybody? it was sustained by the argument that this is a monarchy that stood the test of time for three, four centuries right now, stood the test of the

modernization of the 1950s and '60s that wrote the obituary of the monarchy many time. the monarchs were facing this dilemma, that because modern nation it would have and a sense to change their traditional ways, otherwise they will face extinction. but again they have been. so i would say yes, i would say for now they are sick. but at some point they will have to deal with meaningful changes and reforms. otherwise i think they, there will be potential for a people. it only took once more, one vegetable seller in tunisia to spark what we were witnessing today. >> for more information on this and other cities on local content vehicle tours, go to c-span.org/localcontent. >> from a full circle bookstore in oklahoma city, investigative

journalists andrew gumbel reports on the bombing of the alfred p. murrah federal building in oklahoma city on april 19, 1995. that attack execute by timothy mcveigh and terry nichols killed 168 people. mr. gumbel's research with the assistance of his co-author, roger charles, includes views of government documents, the correspondent with terry nichols, and over 150 interviews with individuals ranging from the prosecution and defense team to members of the radical right and law enforcement officials. >> thank you for coming to full circle bookstore this season. we do appreciate the fact that we have such great support. where the oldest a large independent bookstore in oklahoma city but admits a great deal for us to be able to present author andrew gumbel. >> thank you so much a plot but. >> thank you all for coming tonight. this is a very tough subject to

normal when you do to book tours you go to different cities can you talk about connections the place as with whatever you britain about the this is a rather special place in this context and uncertain not here to tell you your own story of what happened in this city 17 years ago, because i'm sure you know it much better than i ever will. and one of things that's always knew to be when i come your is, first off how warmly i've been welcomed by everybody, but also how profoundly the bombing touched everybody here it is a relatively small place but avnet -- i've never met anybody from oklahoma city who was intelligence a personal way by the tragedy. the first time i came i spoke to a number of the relatives of the victims, especially the children who died in a day care center, and i thought, you know, i met british foreign correspondent. i've been to a lot of not pleasant places around will. this is just another assignment.

and then having spoken to him, i went down to the memorial and saw the fence with all the pictures of the dead children and the teddy bears and everything else, and it just got to me in a way that still is with me now. i went to the memorial this afternoon thinking. it had the same affect. and years later in the course of researching this book, i talk to people who were hardened veterans of vietnam and other complex, and they said themselves, major brown hair, who was with the sheriff's department bomb squad come he was one of the people who said this, he had never seen anything like this. i think that's something unique about the spectacular violence that took place, and the colossus was unexpected, undeserved aspect of the fact that it happened here in oklahoma city. so i want to say right from the outset that a country the subject with such humility, especially in the city, and i'm certainly not here to tell you anything you don't already know. but i do think that there is an aspect to what happened and what

it's been told and retold over the years that has got lost. and that is really fundamentally the reason why this book are written in the first place, and it's what i want to talk to you about today because i feel the city was let down fundamentally in a number of ways, both before the bomb and then afterwards as well. the dark contrast exposes 9/11 we had an extremely active and will listen to they can community to manage press, congressional race, the huge amount of political activity around the calamity that happened in. you had the 9/11 report. u.s. and the press given to the center. the oklahoma city bombing was rather different to i think people don't large extent agreed inside i don't think congress necessary with paint the kind of attention it should have done. an attempt to start things that didn't occur. and which had a century was the trial, and the trial is always the flawed exercise in finding

out the truth. it's about innocence of the defendant or defend but it's not about getting to the bottom if everything. i'm very fortunate as a researcher that some of the trial materials didn't come out publicly at the time, and now are available. in writing the book getting the full archive of all material the government handed over to the defense teams in all three tiles can make fails federal trough, terry nichols to draw in the state are here in oklahoma a few years later. and so what the possibility that arose was instead of having guesses and questions and defense something was not quite right, there was a uniquely opportunity to look precisely what was this government knew based on its investigation, what to do with that information, what lead to default on them what they did not follow and what questions could one ask as result of that. the other aspect of the project which was a blessing for me as a

researcher and a writer was having got hold of all of this information, i thought this is an opportunity to go around, talked to everyone i possibly can, people who were in mcveigh circle, the investigators who looked at the crime right from the very beginning, local, state and federal on the street ages, their managers, their bosses in washington, the prosecutors, defense lawyers, and to some my -- and to my surprise, almost everyone was going to talk, on the record and load them were very frustrated and in some cases pretty angry about the things that got left out, the roads that were not taken and then the missed opportunities starting for the bombing and going all the way through to mcveigh's execution several years later. what you and me when i say oklahoma city was let down? starting before the bombing, there were a number of things that occurred that i think in retrospect seem very troubling some of them are very basic and

concrete are the way the building was not constructed, it was built in the '70s. there was a decision made to skimp essentially on the way that the concrete pillars were reinforced. there were several pieces of rebar. the number of things you could do to make buildings much stronger, like having coils of rebar. there are other things you can do. there was a theme a study done after the bombing that showed that if the people built the building had spent 18 of 1% action on the budget they could've raised going to a level that would've met california standard and probably when the bomb went off you would not have had the pancake effect of having the floors collapsing on each other and about three course of the guide might have had their lives spared. so that's one factor i think it did come to life at the time. another failure is in the course of my research i found out that the man in charge of protecting the building, the head of the federal protective service, and

at least one of the federal judges in the court house next door were very concerned about a lack of security, and they were conservative number of reasons, because it was their job to worry about this kind of thing. they were specifically concerned after 92, after waco, when antigovernment movement declared war essentially on the atf come on the fbi. they made it very clear that they saw it anyone who works for the federal government was a target. and in response to that, they said that i talked about having your to 24 hour security guard coverage, which didn't exist at the building. they needed to worry about the accessibility the outside of the building to vehicles. they also were very concerned that video cameras that were erected on the north side of the building were not functioning and hadn't been for years, and they wanted to rectify that. they went to the general services administration who ran the murrah building to the asked for the money to make these

changes, and the answer was no. the gsa was time to save money. oklahoma city was not considered a place that was eloquent of anything happen. and that was that. another let down i think. and then the bigger ones that think affect the country as a whole and really gets to the core of what i'm writing about in the book is that after waco, after ruby ridge there was an awareness among federal agency follow these things were living that there was a very serious threat of some kind of major attack. this is not a mystery to the people who track, the groups like the -- in the 1980s who committed assassinations, bombings. they were a lot of all farming things. they were very concerned about radical antigovernment move. they're very concerned in particular about a community in oklahoma city which we'll talk more in low bit, which some of the what been active in the

1980s were gravitating back to that place. information will start to come out the other dangerous criminals who were later posted for other crimes are either living there or passing through. much has happened after the run up to 9/11, people have shouted the loudest and issuing a warning saying you have to do something about this were ever. not only were they ignore for the different agencies and partake in this case the fbi and atf to have little piece of information were not put the information. they were not sharing it when they get evidence, something alarming going on, instead of going to each other and sort of going to the u.s. attorneys offices and saying we really think something needs to be done here. they took the opposite task. why did they do that? the fbi was afraid from years of being a fitting to proactive proactive of going after things that were not necessary to roughly way to crimes in about but were more intelligence gathering operation to see it as a possible future crimes but the

fbi at that time was under attorney general guidelines not to do that. they would have gotten into trouble and number of times especially in the 1980s, for going off to groups against and it did have concrete evidence of criminal activity. congress would rake them over the coals but they would also in the wake of a lot of activity from the radical far right of the 1980s put together an initial trial. only the third time in was put on trial. they ran up 14 members of the neo-nazi white supremacist movement. things went very wrong. the judge decided he was going to suspend with the usual jury selection process but he picked a jury consultant they were all white, notably all uneducated he made sure none of them had read nothing, new nothing about the crimes and the people on the trial. and two of the most of the jury fell in love with the defense been one of them got married to one of the defendants. the star witness for the prosecution was a criminal from

the 1980s who have no credibility whatsoever. everyone suspected rightly he was only in it to save his own hide and reduces jail since. up shot of this was everyone was acquitted. the fbi promise itself after that than anything ever happened again from the radical far right they would prosecute the crime and and you're not going to look for any links to the broader radical movement and that's exactly what happened when the bomb went off in oklahoma city. the atf, meanwhile, did not operate under the same restriction but it didn't have, had no attorney general guidelines. it had problems of its own. there was a sense that the atf was primarily responsible for the disaster at ruby ridge in idaho in 1980 when there was one botched seized with people died needless. and then primarily responsible for initiating the siege of wake of the after which also ended in terrible tragedy and the deaths of dozens of people. so they were running scared of another screw up essentially. it was a new republican majority

in congress led by newt gingrich that was unabashedly out for the atf i. they were basically waiting for something to happen to get into an excuse to say we are abolishing the agency completed. so they were very scared. as it so happened, they were looking at a man in tulsa by the name of dennis he was in the ku klux klan track onto journey, had participate in cross burnings, had not the connections around the world. they felt, this is didn't getting involved in a lot of criminal act david. so that undercover informant on him, an attractive young woman who was a tulsa divvied up had gone off the rails rather spectacularly, had a swastika tattoo on her left shoulder. he then took her to oklahoma city and she spent a long time there in the fall of 94, he started hearing people talking openly about plotting to blow on federal building. what was the atf's resp