perspective and what is it like to collect about and challenge. so i pitched the story to the new yorker just kind of bare-bones saying what you think about this and affected get someone to talk to me they said great. 5,000 words when can you give me a copy. >> that is a look at some of the top books for 2014. for a link to the philistines to see other publications elections, visit the booktv website, booktv.org. >> co- creators of citizen radio are next on booktv. they talk about the mainstream media failure to properly report on important issues of the day including climate change, rights and terms. this is about 50 minutes. >> thank you for coming to the book launch event.

we are just going to talk a little bit about the book and then we will take some questions from you which words the end. i think first you wanted to read a little bit from the book, right? >> how many people have already started reading wax debate could >> is my microphone on? >> yes. so, it opens with a quote from wolf blitzer so this is the preface of the book and then we will talk to you guys and then = >> the interview ralph nader in the bathtub. there were many points that security code and in retrospect should have stopped us from entering msnbc. we were both covered in tattoos. neither as sophisticated in the

case. she had an accidental death stare into mistakes creepy for charming. we may have had the sweaty demeanor of the liberated pod casters recently escaped from the internet radio network that had taken on the fake business sponsors. something that we have sworn off. >> they had aspirations of being pristine independent media untouched by the corporate cash. we would be the people's media. that was the name he hides the show citizen radio. there was also the sponsor in their mind with a touch or show that it's the first way that they just feel better about ourselves. >> that concept of being sponsor free flowing with the people we were supposed to be making money for say our former boss. the career until that point essentially been manager's come agents and others saying we love you because you are political. then when they saw that the

nightmare actually entails they said did you not see political or edgy but everything else we loved. >> the case in point during the time that we were covering the controversy in 2007 from our former boss asked us to take on at&t as a sponsor. mind you that the time they were being sued over allegations providing in the nsa with its customers and internet communications as a part of the data mining operation. so, to us it seemed a little bit like a conflict of interest. this is citizen radio saying if you were going to be spied on, be spied on by the best. at&t, they are always listening. so, new sale is the book that you wrote. it is a fantastic work of fiction, but none of this could ever actually happen, right? so tony what was the process of writing this book for you?

dave joked a little bit. what was the process like for you? spinnaker lead down army down to one microphone clicks isn't working? >> i would be like and this is why nothing in washington gets a gun and done and then i would hi-fi if everybody. >> do you mean the actual writing process? >> we would determine the theme as we wanted to write about and then make a bullet point checklist to hit abcd. >> like a chalkboard. >> then i would make the first pass and then jamie would go through and fill it out a little bit more. then we would run back through together. write stories, personal anecdotes, stuff like that, maybe add more jokes together in my come up with stuff on the fly. >> and then editing was all

allison because anybody that has received a text message or e-mail from me knows i can barely spell so she did get stuck. so it wasn't that far off. but it was really easy. we just talked about -- >> we did an interview the other day where we thought someone was in the writing. [applause] [inaudible] >> you should because we went

into every meeting before this because we were desperate. we were really poor and no one had offered us anything. the only one with conan and i hadn't been invited back so this is the thing that will save us but before they were just really dumb middle-of-the-road. >> they wanted us to write a take back of glenn beck. >> that's all you have to do. >> it was out of being relevant. we don't want to do that so we would walk away. >> should we have done it. and sarah who was the biggest publisher was the only meeting that we totally fell and then when we walked in i had a suitcase because i was going to north carolina to help my brother are trained for a fight. allison was in/. we realized what we had to have

been as these suits had to get out of our way. sarah was like that's a great idea. why don't you write about the suits and the media. >> not only that, but the controversial topics we covered from palestine, feminism not just being about pro-choice and we just, i don't know we just went in and we were like we want to write about all of this and we are going to critique the media that are the only people who would have us on their show to promote this book and we are just going to take a all over them. so at c-span, cool. she said sure. we did it and we didn't censor ourselves while writing. i think that's why we didn't fight. >> the reason we had an amazing experiences we had an all-female team so they are all amazing and super supportive. >> or was no one like i like the

chapter on factory farms. that's probably the first time that was set on c-span. i'm going to go with yes. >> do you see them scrambling, shut it down. [laughter] >> so yes we never did. even when we were living out of our car giving gigs, we were just doing what he loved and we were so much happier than we were when we were like working day jobs and being too tired to perform a were right. so even when we were feeling because we were writing the stuff we wanted to write and we

were doing the comedy journalism that we wanted to do, there was no point that we were like miserable. when we try to pander to people it was miserable because we were still failing and we were pandering. >> i feel like this was the best experience because we were writing for us. >> which is great because it is the only book that we will ever be allowed again. one thing you mentioned that i think is so great about the book is that there is a nice mixture of public expenditure mullahs and personal memoir that you talk about in your story of creating citizen radio alongside the stuff that you talk about on citizen radio. is that something you went into citing this is something that we want to duplex >> they are sort of from the invasion of iraq and the rise of alternative media. and when we met at borders

bookstore, went on the road, so those resorted followed the book. >> and the stories i think that they are funny. some of them are political about the field meetings that we had at mtv or cnn or before i get my ray and on conan and i had the clothes in my pocket and i thought that it was claimed to be like the big moments that i'm discovered and instead i just got a lot of hate mail. we talk about this stuff which is political but also i think what makes the show different is we try to be humble and self-aware and because of that we seen and we are more accessible. when you watch tv, you eventually see the same people that are wrong about everything. confidently wrong about more stuff and -- >> journalists and canadians comedians have had where they cannot admit that they are wrong

because it's interpreted as weakness and then you lose your authority. so everyone is in this game to win and you never admit that you are wrong. >> do you think that's why the news gets it wrong so much? label these news outlets get it wrong so much? >> everybody is in a rush to maintain that inside access and how you do that is to not rock the boat. so, to not save any controversial ideas. and to sort of reinforce the same tie platitudes that are brought out every single time that we discuss a major story. i think that is is perfect reason that we are still discussing the third rail issues like treating same-sex marriage as though it is controversial in any sort of way even though every poll that has come out has shown that young people including young republicans support it so we are still debating it. in the media, claiming, claim it's changed my thinking. we are still debating it for some reason. >> but they want to seem fair

and balanced. so, something that we have said before is that you watch a debate on climate change and you will have conservatives be like x. = x. and then the liberals say x. equals y. and then the host says i guess we will never know. you have over a thousand computers behind you. just look at up. >> we are still debating the same things over and over again. >> leaves office in the presidential race. it recently said he supported same-sex marriage because joe biden can't keep his mouth shut. they were likely have to appeal. do you? you don't. >> it doesn't even make sense politically at this point. >> one of the interesting things that you mentioned in the book is constantly having to revise sections of the book like we have a chapter on shootings in

the nra. >> the gun massacre was hard to keep up to date and was depressing that the same thing in the same-sex marriage for the buck in a good way. a lot of specialties. a couple of the states have rules that the ban is unconstitutional. so, yes, the chapter sadly right up until last minute i was editing -- >> i think we are the real victims. there was like a good 30 seconds there. but it's kind of funny. so, there is also, you know, just certain -- they are only as left as you can go. what the right does really well is they will frame moderate liberalism as extremism.

if barack obama put in place universal health care, he would have been called a socialist. succumb. his account is put together this compromise is still a giveaway. what was it called? a socialist. you might as well give us free health care if they are going to call you a socialist anyway. if msnbc is as left as you can get. if they do a great job of painting the radical, and then rachel or the 18 hours of joe scarborough say that we need to invade these other countries, smart people who don't have time to watch democracy now like we do will watch it and be like this is as left as we can get and even they are saying we have to invade iraq again. or even they are saying whatever. then people believe it. so, what we try to do it would have been really easy and on a ton of news shows with hash tag

fox news fails. but that's not fair. even when they talk about same-sex marriage it's like talking up the rights, talk about equal pay. when they talk about climate change, turn the lights off that but they will never talk about factory farms. so, we try to cover the stories and they really aren't getting any play at all. >> to say fox news is extremist, we all know that. i get it. they've done really good work in other areas but it's sort of a challenge. like you are liberals and you can do better.

where should we be getting our news from or what should we be doing to be more informed and to avoid all of this? >> answer to the second question is back in the days they thought that the answer was to match fox news, so we would get asked how much corporate money and try to match them in the ratings and we could just get smashed every single time. it's not going to happen. it runs counter to what we are trying to do. i think what it's going to look like his girl of warfare -- gorilla warfare. multiple outlets rarely online just because that's how most people get their information if they have internet access. >> if you all look under your seats there is a free cocktail.

we will never have the money cnn has. >> i go home at night and i play with my tax break. [laughter] anyone that is here that has been on our show, we have a 10-dollar table that we offer people their tech because if we let the cats out, they are going

to make a real stick about it and so yelling and we don't want our guests to sneeze coming into that kind of as far as we go. so you do feel helpless but if you take a story, the wall but it has been covered with covered the way that was if it wasn't for the independent journalist. ferguson wouldn't have been covered the way that it was on the ground. she jumped from the bushes. people took photographs of the area and there are no bushes. anything but politically the

best things in life take a while. they are hard and they need more perseverance and dedication. it really sucks sometimes. you feel so fucking alone. whether it is you have a blog or a phone to videotape a cause, whatever we are finally having access to pick our own shows and writing and i think that is really -- >> the plaintiff neutrality is important. if we can control the internet we are in trouble. >> ridicule or not covering that as a journalist click >> i was one of the first journalists at the park. so, i was watching, you know, then grabbing from the first

day. and it was just really amazing. that was my first experience, seeing the reality and then seeing how the media interpret the reality and it was a betting because you had him saying is untrue and very easily disproven if you got off your ass and went to the park ass >> that is how out of touch for cnn is where you have one of the largest movement in most of our lifetimes happening with at least billboard advertising literally straight from wall street and i like where are you. >> then you had andrew at "the new york times" and the only reason he went to the park is because the ceo called him and said i'm very concerned about this occupied wall street business. so, andrew walked down in his report said something like it

doesn't seem like they are violent get. >> and he didn't even cover it up and tell you that because he uncovered secret e-mails. he just wrote about that in "the new york times." he gave me a call and i was like whatever you need. >> that's where "the new york times" was at. there was another chilean bellefonte that wrote about the movement and claimed its that the leaderless movement and then she found the ambassador for the movement. so basic facts. if they have a leader, did they not have a leader and that was just very easy to afford if he went there and spoke to people that didn't have the leader. >> but it really did use the 60s and the democrats ass while you didn't hear obama talk about class until occupied wall street. >> if you understand the ark of the movements there were groups before occupied wall street and

there will be groups after occupied wall street. the ad and flow. but it was definitely a big moment. i think it will be called a revolution in the history books. a fairly small revolution. but that's what us. so you built it from nothing. having these weird building a huge internationally successful dalia radio show having this book managing to land me. >> so much money. >> pull your self up by your bootstraps. i didn't just make money by asking people for if i needed by taking people. >> the idea of someone who's never seen us watching tv and

being like that guy knows what he's talking about. [laughter] i don't know what the other kids are talking about. >> this is why i see c-span. >> the fans are citizens ass >> it is a break of asylum.

>> being an independent journalist, some of your favorite outlets do not pay living salaries. they probably don't pay their interns, which is a problem because then they also report on the living wage of stuff. >> how many of those have you quit now? >> four. sometimes that is the principle. it's really frustrating. >> anything without citizen radio. you do what you're supposed to do. i'm going to go on msnbc, we technically have succeeded and we have been living in squalor because that is how they treat at least journalists who don't sell out you have to work up a

major publication but if you are trying to do the right thing, stay with the independent media it is better if you are a trust fund kid because you can't survive. >> what i will say, not to be too sappy, but there were so many times i think rational people would have quit. i don't want to speak for you but for me personally, dropped out of high school, we met at the bookstore, failed comic out of the car for a year and a half because the comedy club ass i was playing at coffeehouses in des moines where they literally passed the hat and people would throw change and then the same with the show it's not because we were cutting-edge technology people because we are not getting the gigs, the podcast we will be able to talk. >> he was like you should do this podcast thing.

i feel like again especially in this economy. we thought if we are going to fail by not fail doing what we want to do and that is the way that we wrote the book. we told sarah we want to write about these issues, but we didn't censor ourselves we just sent it to her and stuff we would have said to her thinking she would say no, she didn't and that was just us following our debt. she's like shut up. shut up. >> my boss is watching. but it's true. and the same thing with standup. when i stop trying to be somebody else, that's when i

succeeded. same with the podcast we were going to lose so many listeners when we started having you on and doing these weird bits just like that. people loved it and we didn't care. i feel like so many times if you do it for you instead of doing what you think people want, people will gravitate towards that because no one is doing it and only you can do ass don't say only you can do u. but that's true. no one else can replicate that. >> i'm going to go to college to study something you're not interested in to segue into a job that you hate to pay off the debt? a lot of people do that and it's nothing against you. >> a lot of people go to college for different reasons and they still get screwed over. the traditional means of how it used to be successful are no longer.

if you go to college it is no longer safe. >> i read the book to my tax break. they loved it. they fell asleep to it. not a lot of celebrity dishing. it seems to be completely void of that. >> our sql called she did what? [laughter] it is going to be bad. what do you want people to take from the buck when they read the book? >> you spent a lot of time making those.

>> we did an interview where someone was like what you like to see the hash tag come absolutely. >> but this interview is better, right? >> so people will think critically about the media and support the media and maybe if you're interested in journalism or going into the media and consider pursuing that instead of going to cnn or msnbc. >> you are more powerful than you think you are. >> these sort of revolutionary acts we talked about but we've all seen it takes one person nowadays, one cell phone, one blog. they did it better than "the new york times" when it came to torture. the people on the ground in ferguson, the movement for

treyvon martin. i feel like we are finally making some progress. and what i will say i feel like if you see treyvon martin it doesn't get said enough in our circle but you have to take care of yourself. we did this like weird interview that got aggressive where we get e-mails from you all the time, whether it is structured like an ally and your high school were started in the occupied chapter or whatever. we also get e-mails that talk about citizen radio kids helping you get of her depression and stuff like that. and i am starting to learn as i get older that's a political act, too staying alive and staying active and staying brave and just even if your family or your friends think no one is listening to you it's like keep

going because they well if you don't stop. >> just do you. >> i think that's it. >> is this audience too timid to ask questions? >> i think we can move on to the q. and a session. >> just quick for the hard-core listeners, i just want to say how much we love with all of our hearts john. [applause] he's made the show great. >> it's true. >> when this lovely bookstore was like you can get glenn or jeremy we said we can get someone better than that. there is no one that he would have wanted to do this. >> thank you for having me.

forgetting the audience the privilege of speaking. >> i will sign any book. it doesn't matter. i will sign the machine. whatever book you want. >> who has questions for jamie and ally? >> this is your chance to be on book tv. >> so i am a journalist or was a journalist and kind of the same situation treyvon martin dot segue into that, what would you recommend or how would you advise the incoming journalists as far as covering news, and i'm talking about college level.

>> find the beach and become an expert. a lot of college journalists are doing work right now. but basically you have to become indispensable. so, when let's say the national media is looking for an expert on the ground everybody points to you and says she's been on the ground and she's been covering this. we see this right now. shaun king is a great example of this. he's been doing great work in ferguson in st. louis and is considered an expert. he created the timelines of events and basically proved single-handedly that police were lying. so you just want to be the expert. >> my answer is a little more complicated. what you're going to want to do is you have to do a lot of research and maybe put some

money up. but i did do is make a time machine and make sure, find a way to be reborn as a rich white guy. [laughter] and then just be wrong about every war and you will be the pundits they go to for the new war. >> wasn't it be easier to do a just one of the guys situations where you dress up? >> based on the reaction to that treyvon martin >> i did. >> great movie. good stuff. do that. >> allison's advice is pragmatic and great. mine is going to be what i eat limited to earlier. but make it yourself. and again, write what you want to write. i do it because once they stop

thinking about making a living which is awful to say, that's when i started to come closer because i just didn't give a shit. even when ally wrote in the nation, she is really funny and you were not censoring yourself. obviously you were covering serious issues but we just have more fun on this show cursing and being weird and interviewing people on those issues. but again, you know your own voice and what you want to write about. so, do that and you will stand out. you will stand out not sounding like every other drone that's writing. >> you can set up a blog and there's just as chance of going viral then something mother jones used or whatever.

>> other questions? >> i'm about to have my fifth citizen. >> that's amazing. >> actually he only chat in the book so far is about stephen cole there, and i love it. but i'm curious about what you think if it will improve or not since he's taking over in january. >> he is so good. >> it depends on who the writers are. >> we want to make it abundantly clear that we are not treyvon martin there are people online who treyvon martin

>> we think that those shows are great and they did a lot of good under the republican administration. cynically trade press is that in the chapter. the dalia show legitimately played a really important role. >> but again, it's the larger media problem that john stewart painted it as you want to go. >> please stop putting me in this decision. >> he had a meeting with them that was pretty serious but yes, he's a comedian and he says that. >> when you think the dalia show is as left as you can go and they are only coverage is occupied or they hold a rally to make fun of political activism, then there are a really lot of smart, sweet funny kids that love does dalia show that kind of gets like high school but

into being treyvon martin >> we know people that went to the rally and they were excited and came back like they just made fun of passion basically. imagine if all of those people did something when they were there. so, the bias, very omar is so funny. >> a lot of their correspondence are so funny. >> of the john oliver the john oliver show is good. >> great. >> it's so funny. he was one of the correspondence that did the occupied peace and so we labeled it and write about him in the book. and our poor sweet publicist was like he's interested. not once they get past chapter two. [laughter] >> we can't amend it and say his new show is much better. but if the show was fantastic. they've more leniency. maybe he's always wanted to do that. i don't know. but you can watch those comedy

shows and have fun. we don't want you not to have fun. but don't expect the amy goodman of comedy shows. >> that isn't as far left as you can go. >> other questions? >> so, as the woman in the front row was saying i'm also an inspired journalist because i can learn more about journalism from you. so i was just curious when you were hitting your lowest of lows, what kept you going? >> so, i think that for me personally what helped me is this balance of 80% self-loathing and the most ridiculous confidence that you will ever see.

and this self-loathing keeps me humble and in check and it's why i take advice and it's why i can change a joke if it doesn't work. and i always wanted to grow. i'm i'm kind starting at the bottom. it's like okay now i want to try to get good at improv or jujitsu it's my quest to tragic things better and then the humility to be like you suck at this right now but that makes you better by being aware and asking the question to get better. but then there has to be part of your brain that when i see the dalia show even though i know i'm not going to have a tv to show, i still cross my arms and i'd like i can do that. you know what i mean? you need that drive to be like ibd than what i'm saying so much that this misery is going to be part of the story that i tell when i succeed.

and that has helped me a lot. >> they are powerful motivators. >> other questions? >> also, just though that it happens to anybody. anytime that you feel low or depressed, don't feel crazy. >> you're in good company. people that succeed without any kind of arduous challenge are terrible people. >> i had to chase delete cookies challenge or adversity. >> while you were talking i wasn't really listening. [laughter] >> yes, i mean the best

comedians of struggle, and you're not going to see a good successful journalist or comedian who is like yes i just knew that i wanted to do it and my dad paid for me to have a loft in williamsburg and made a couple of calls to cbs. you don't see that. you see those that can afford to do the internships or something like that. and so, the good people have to struggle more. if you are saying the right thing, you have to struggle more. and i think you just accept that, then that helps. >> everybody struggles. struggle is the part of life i'm like i'm so good at advice and comedy and the next morning i text him and it happens to

everybody especially creative people. we are fragile. it's something we don't really think about. i think about this a lot. like everybody treyvon martin i'm certain i can say with a fair degree of certainty that almost everybody if not everybody in this room has some little pocket of panic happening in their brain right now. >> the panic pocket. >> you see my infomercial. >> but we don't really talk about it that much. >> it challenges your story. everybody has it. especially the people that don't express that out. they are the most afraid. >> i'm sorry, you were saying something about citizen radio? >> it is one of the things to hide from my weekly press. if the place where you will quickly talk with your anger and struggle and fight and that kind of panic stuff and you've

created something that they can relate to, not only can you become and stay informed these douches choose treyvon martin news issues. >> to make a personal comparison to write about earlier that no one on the news wanted to admit they were wrong. we were not all of these little brilliant progressives. occasionally you will meet someone that's like i knew i was an atheist or i knew that i was left wing when i was mine. it's like i bet you are fun to hang out with. every one that is decent will admit a time in their life that they were wrong. and you don't see that on the news. you watch the news now talking about it and the same people that were wrong about the last one. you should visit in the next couple. if they did in sports they should get in the war and we should do the same thing personally. if it wasn't for the support of

the citizen radio talking about how i thought i was a screwup with alcohol and i had to quit and that took a lot to talk about but then i started getting e-mails from people i'm quitting with you. the "newsweek" with the wind of that would be like if suddenly one day i never drank. you know what they mean time and again i talk about it because because i talked about a struggle that helped me and other people and it should be the same with politics. admit that you are wrong. >> like you say to go back in the book on the chapter about drugs, you mention that. we know that you smoke pot. everybody has. >> yes and if it isn't your bag, it's something else, vicodin. you do something that that if you want privileged and white you would get busted so fast. >> we did have another question. >> i've always been curious about what you do to prep for

the show. you have so much to talk about and so much to say. so i was wondering about that. >> what do you do to prep for the show lacks. >> i get the stories. >> i get the cash. [laughter] >> we kind of go through twitter and news stories and all that kind of stuff and make a mental note. the show is completely improvised. >> we don't like the script. >> all day we talk about what is passing us off. >> we are in a position where the media fucks everyday and there are more than we can cover so it easy to buy the news sales and then we just improvised about that.

>> something that isn't talked about a lot is just trying to not be ashamed of after a day of reading bad news watch the voice or take a walk or do jujitsu. >> i have known the way to many that burnout superfast because they are so fucks they just don't want to give themselves mental holidays ever and that is absurd. you need time to rest and recoup >> one of the interesting thing is counting on as a comedian and improviser and eccentric billionaire. a lot of shows like this they will tell you a lot of the talking head shows that you see light at midnight they will say this is what the right jokes

about. >> that is not improvised. >> so you know, first going into it aren't they going to tell me what we are going to talk about so that i can prepare and the first couple of times it's like what are we going to talk about. >> to your credit that freaks out a lot of people. we tried a lot of different people and you were the only one fucks it's hard though it intimidates people. >> the process for the episode as i will show up about 11:00 and talk about all the people that we hate and are angry at for about a half an hour. >> alley will sit on the couch and mediate both of us.

then we just go into the office and start recording. sometimes i will talk about i'm going to throw this at them as soon as we start recording. but generally it is so under planned. >> do we have time for one more or do we have to wrap it up? >> we will be right over there. >> make sure that you buy your copy and if you haven't purchased it already fucks i didn't know if anybody was going to come when we were plugging it on the radio i was like it's pretty. >> he said it's a good first date night. >> what the fuck does that mean. >> it's go check out the new sale of the event.

>> i get it, you just want to be my friend. [laughter] yes. so, go to the er citizen radio.com. >> follow john. thank you so much. it was nice to have you. a special shout out i may have eluded to my panic around him, but my dad and stepmom are here and they have been so supportive and awesome and i've been just a fucking monster of a child so thank you to them. we love them very much. [applause]