the publisher of "the washington post" is a man named fred ryan, and he only wants praise and get this, he is also the chairman of the reagan library foundation. that has not been disclosed by "the washington post." uh-oh! so there is a huge conflict of enters and "post" readers have no idea of the agenda that is really going on. brian: please break this down. [laughter] marty: first of all, let's be clear, i have nothing to do with the editorial page of "the washington post" and these are run by george will, and if anybody knows him, and i don't know him personally, he is completely independent and he hatotal independence with this column. brian: he does not work there. marty: he does not work in the office and as far as i know he never comes there and he has never come in and he works at home or his own private office, i have no idea. he writes however he wants to write. he doesn't take instruction from the publisher of the "post" as to what to write, so it is preposterous. the publisher doesn't offer us advice in the newsroom as to what we should publish either. brian: if we look ba

an emotional and humble jason rezaian hugged washington post publisher fred ryan and offered his profound gratitude to those who fought relentlessly for his freedom. >> for much of the 18 months i was in prison, my iranian interrogators told me the washington post did not exist. that no one knew of my plight. and that the united states government would not lift a finger for my release. >> reporter: this marked rezaian's first public appearance since his release of 545 days of captivity in iran. >> no other country would do so much for an ordinary citizen. >> reporter: this touched secretary of state john kerry. >> you can never leave anybody behind. the most sacred pledge. >> reporter: this wasn't just a celebration of a new home for the post. but of a free press. >> committing journalism. reporting on the truth, is not a crime. it is a badge of honor. it is is a public service. [ applause ] >> reporter: with rezaian an his family looking on, the washington post owner, amazon and the amazon owner, they dedicated the build. >> i think the post is a little more swash buckling. there is a li

and one guy calls to set up the meeting and says-- says this is great i will bring my neighbor and fred ryan says look, buddy, lightning struck your wants it will not happen a second time. but, everyone-- everyone who called and reagan answered the phone, they all came in and got to meet the president of the united states and have their photo taken. >> host: let's hear from lynchburg virginia, democrat line. >> caller: this is my second time calling. c-span for many years, the subject of ronald reagan, but let's be truthful about a few things about ronald reagan. and the one, iran contra, which oliver north took the blame for him. number two, this is the beginning of the middle class dumbing down during the reagan administration. overall, we have not had a republican president balance the budget since they write the eye has-- dwight d eisenhower, so i don't know why a lot of people save reagan's success, you had to enter 41 marines died in the middle east being bombed overnight and nothing was done about that. i can go on and on with pilfering from social security, he took money from social

jason, he is the washington post reporter, and his newspaper, fred ryan, the publisher there, put out a statement that they can't wait for him to come home. that leaves just one, he's the only one left we have not heard from his family. so, guys, by the process of elimination, if there were anybody left in iran, we suspect he would be the one because we've heard from either the employers or the families of everyone else. >> all right, chris, quickly, we also got word this morning that secretary kerr have i back in the u.s. there had been some speculation that perhaps he would meet with the americans once they arrived in switzerland. do we know why he decided to come back to the u.s.? >> we have not heard why. we don't know whether it was a scheduling issue or why he had to come back across. we will find out. certainly those americanss will go from switzerland to germany, and then be home and we're also looking for word about what kind of reception they'll get once they're back here in the united states. >> all right, chris fraits for us in washington, thanks so much. and we'll come ba

. >> sreenivasan: washington post publisher fred ryan say the newspaper is elated that its former tehran bureau chief, jason rezaian, left iran today after 545 days in captivity, adding, he looks forward to welcoming rezaian back to the newsroom. for more on that part of the story, i am joined over the phone by "post" executive editor marty baron and foreign editor douglas jehl. this has been a incredibly slow and painful proseses. there was a point last year in about october when jason was convicted by an iranian court. i mean does that take the wind out of your sails at that point. >> it was a below, one of many belows. i think it was clear from the very outset that the process of jason's trial before an iranian court was really a char aid and a cruel side show that ultimately his fate was going to be resolve-- and that is what happened this weekend. >> sreenivasan: what sort of access did you have to the process is? were you getting updated from the state department? or were you in touch with somebody in iran directly? >> no. we did not dpet updates from the state department about how

his chief of staff, fred ryan, said mr. president, what are you doing? better telluess i the american people. that was a letter that was released in november of 1994 announcing his alzheimer's and did it with bravery and conviction and humility, and very much his christian spirit is throughout the letter. host: and some of the lines he wrote, this promotes greater awareness and promote a clear understanding who are affected by it. it will begin a journey that will be into the sunset of my life. hostguest: yes. it is. reagan. he is thinking of other people, not himself. he is talking about the future of america which is bright. he is also expressing a lot of concern about what the affliction does to families come also his own family, including nancy about the slow descent into alzheimer's. host: first call for you comes from providence, rhode island. this is jack, for biographer craig shirley, the author of "last act: the final years and emerging legacy of ronald reagan ." jack, good morning, you are on. caller: good morning to you, pedro. merry christmas

fred ryan is going to come up and say a few words. fred? mr. ryan: thank you, denis and gene. and thank you to everybody who is part of the great panel discussion that got us started. when the puts her committee accepted our invitation to come to the centennial, we were thrilled. in almost any endeavor, there is a recognition for excellence. for the kind of work that represents the very best that can be achieved. in sports, you have the heisman trophy. in entertainment, there are the academy awards. in journalism, publishing, composing, the pulitzer prize is the definition of excellence. at this time in the media industry, there are many sites and platforms that seek to rather than to inform and did the way journalism should. it is more important than ever that we rise to the decisions -- standards of our profession and the standards set by the pulitzer prize. we strive to win it not just only for bragging rights, marty mentioned we have 61, but we know those awards mean you have contributed something meaningful to society. they have done something that has impact. i have prep

the post leadership including fred ryan, marty barron who worked tirelessly on our behalf, along with the post lawyers. jeff basos, who not only gave me a ride home to freedom but spent the past year and a half supporting the post efforts on my behalf and encouraging them to do whatever they could to get me home. bob kimmet and his team to led the outreach with the u.n. and others and global outreach. i'm truly fortunate to have this opportunity to thank secretary kerry and brett m mcgerk who advocated on my behalf. no other country would do so much for an ordinary citizen, and i know that. to my colleagues at the post, you guys are all awesome. there's so many of you who i want to talk to, and i hope we'll have time to do that over the coming weeks and months. knowing what you went to to keep my story alive is humbling and should make us all proud to be part of the future of the washington post. and lastly i want to thank my family, my heros, my mom, mary, my brother, allie, and my wife, yeggie. you guys mean everything to me. and i'm just happy to be home with you. thank you very mu

. >> we reached out to fred ryan over the weekend. fred is a great guy obviously. pu publisher of the post. so thrill and so beyond words. i'm going to follow up on what you said. i read this over the weekend. policy makers face a hazard if they do not face on that provocation we seen it twice, the rewarding of the postal taking him hos damage and taking u.s. soldiers in a way. and the reversal of the underlying heinous action of iran. >> even the washington post said we need a stricter u.s. policy or this is going to happen again and again. >> i don't know whose saluting iran, do you? >>. >> no. >> it's the longer term question. we have not only the nuclear agreement but the entire regional threat posed to iran which is fundamental to our interest. and there's still fundamental questions. these limits run out after 10 or 15 years. in the meantime, what will iran do with the wind fall of the resources? >> let me ask you this, richard, over the weekend a lot of president obama's supporters say we've dismantled iran's nuclear program. it's worth releasing a hundred b

the publisher of the post fred ryan issuing a statement he has been waiting to issue.e says "the post" is elated to hear the news the plane has been taken off and he has been released from iranian prison and we are relieved this 545-day nightmare for jason and his family is finally over. the statement says jason experienced deplorable conditions and inhumane treatment. the top priority must be his health and his well-being. e-mails being exchanged among "post" official and some in those e-mails, "wheels up." he was detained in july of 2014. jason should have been writing the story and he would have been writing about this news today but, instead, he has been behind bars far too long and i'm sure his family must be -- >> incredible. >> do you think, brian, because he is a writer and, yet, the first and foremost as "the washington post" colleagues stated and is so true, his health is most important. at sometime, though, because we are hearing about different treatments of different prisoners there who have now been released, how plausible do you think it might be that th

mika, fred ryan and of course his brother were in constant contact with everybody. er talked to fred where he didn't bring him up. we never talked to so many of our friends at the "post" where they didn't bring him up. talk about a family that fought right hell for him, it was moving through the entire process. >> and a long road ahead. >> his brother -- >> what a great guy, yeah. >>> finally, another classic rock trailblazer has passed away. paul kantner, the founding member, singer and guitarist for jefferson airplane has died. the group scored hits with "somebody to love" and "white rabbit." five of their seven members. the. >> that's three in a couple of weeks. obviously jefferson airplane, one of the most important bands in the late '60s and the band that scared the held out of parents. [ laughter ] >> that's his legacy. >> yeah, like "white rabbit" and everything. there were others that were like okay, but jefferson airplane really scared parents but had some of the greatest music of the late '60s and, of course, own owned a definitive spot at woodstock. >> i d

fred. >> oh, my goodness. well, you know, i'm glad that as many folks as can be said are trying to make the most of it. chad myers, thanks so much. let's check in with ryan young. he's at penn station where there are many people who are anxious to get back on any kind of railway, and so how it's it looking? >> definitely, fred, think about people getting ready for the monday morning commute, the long island railroad takes some 300,000 people here to the city. that's shut down right now because there's two feet of snow at the rail yards and workers right now, some 2,000 workers are working to get the lines back open. you can understand that with all the snow that's left over, you think about the city and all the snow that you see around it, someone has to get the railway back open and ready for work monday morn. we drove in from new jersey this morning. we can see snow everywhere. the big thing about this is we didn't see it on the roadway. it was pretty easy to get here from new jersey. when you look downstairs there are signs telling travelers be worried about monday morning because they might not open the railway until a little later on. we'll get up a

fred armisen. we're all friends. >> jimmy: pal, i've gotta ask, y penn station? what is this thing? >> pennsy is a food hall created inside the pennsylvania station area. by michael coronado, with my nd ryan juliani. we set up this cool mario by mary catering thing in the middle of it. there's pat lafrieda, there's mark forgione, there's a place called little beet. delicious food. >> jimmy: what do you do there in mario by mary? [ cheers and applause ] right now. >> okay. >> jimmy: fred, you're going to make us a drink? >> fred's going to make us a a drink.good. >> which is basically tomato soup, because it's so cold out. and we're going to go like this. i took a little anyalote of this and to some of these d the addition of vodka. because tomato and vodka have gone together -- >> perfectly. >> like the bible and christianity. [ laughter ]all right. now, buddy, we are doing -- what do you call it? let's do -- we're doing a a grilled cheese off, okay? >> yes. >> jimmy: now, here's -- what ngredient? i'll tell you mine. >> my secret ingredient is black truffles, my friend. they're going to make me a a winner. how about you, jimmy? what's yours?s wonder bread. [ light laughter ] american che

ryan brackley, on loan from the boulder county d.a. what was your first impression? >> very tough case. >> reporter: they combed though the case file -- fred's statements, leslie's autopsy, and all those tests conducted at the creek. >> this location was a breathtakingly beautiful place in the middle of nowhere. it was the perfect place to commit a murder where nobody would see you. >> reporter: fresh eyes in the d.a.'s office began to see what the sheriff had suspected from the start. >> the defendant's story did not match up with the landscape, the scene and all of the other the colorado bureau of investigation was able to develop. >> reporter: at what point did you finally, all of you, say, "we got enough. let's go get him."? >> i think it was when we felt like we had tested this thing to death. that we had absolutely everything we could possibly put together to take to the jury. >> reporter: february 6, 2012, just over three and a half years since leslie mueller died. a monday, fred was at his office, when a texas ranger showed up with an arrest warrant in hand. sheriff ron bruce, down from colorado, stood a few feet away. >> he looked a