. >> ray stannard baker, who is he?> he grew up with a father who was in business but who loved telling stories. from the time he was a little kid, listening to stories are really better to much to him. he goes to michigan state but he goes -- takes the course, one of the first courses in journalism called rapid writing. he became enamored with the idea of journalism. he got interested in the pullman strike, a lot of the violent stuff that was going on. it was a really turbulent time. some of his articles were attracted to mcclure. mcclure gets him to come from there to "mcclure's" magazine. it wasn't just that they had mcclure and the magazine, they became family. they would meet for lunch everyday. they would share dinner together and criticize one another's work. they made each other better. years later, baker said he looked back on that is the best time of his life. he wrote about railroads and documented a two-year project. teddy roosevelt reads the proofs of his articles ahead of time, sends ray baker his message

sends ray baker. his message on the railroads, baker's criticism, they maintain their integrity. baker looks back on the time and says nothing would ever surpass it. none of the regulation gets passed. >> explain that again. roosevelt would read these articles before they were published? >> yeah, they would send the proofs of the articles to him. >> why? >> he asked them. he knew, for example, when ray baker started on the series on the railroads, roosevelt knew his next big task was to get a bill to regulate the railroads. knowing it was there, can i see your articles as they come along so i know they'll be educated. he'd have him to lunch, they would talk about them. when he was deciding what the regulation looked like, he sent this message to baker, what do you think of this? baker disagreed entirely. he said you're not strong enough. it's wrong. you have to do x instead of y. roosevelt fought back. he said, no, you're wrong. you don't understand the practical politics. the message comes, you put baker's idea in it. baker was stunned. >> what would be the american population b

what they are doing to us and they were willing to regulate corporations to the first time, when ray baker wrote about railroads this is unfair what they are doing to us so they regulate railroad, lincoln stefns writes about corruption in the city, mayors get thrown out and fors go go to jail as a result in the state and later in life they all met, this is another one of those epilogue things they would all meet for mcclure's birthday because he eventually lost his magazine and gave his money to his writers and never made a profit because he just loved what he was doing and as a result failed eventually but they would go back on his birthday to celebrate it so in the that 1930s and 1940s they lived long and looked back on this period by far as the best period of their life with such nostalgia because they knew their reports changed the country to allow the teddy roosevelt to change the country and he just hopes a new generation of journalist accounts come along with the mission and call to make the country closer to its ancient ideals. >> that is. >> rose: that is another great aspiration

when ray baker wrote about railroad abuses, roosevelt would see him ahead of time, see the proofs, have breakfast, lunch, dinner, got railroad legislation. lincoln got people thrown out of cities and states for corruption because of what he wrote. what happened of cour what happened, they were sensationalizing, they called them muck rackers. years later they looked back as the happiest time in their lives. they were changing the country and took it as a badge of honor. >> bully pulpit, an extraordinary book. before you go, i wanted to ask you about the 50th anniversary. we're just digging deeper and deeper into lbj and jfk and everything that happened in dallas that dreadful day. one of the things so stunningly poignant, to understate it, jackie kennedy, her role. the fact she wore that pink dress and refused to change the dress blood stained as she stood next to lbj on the plane, on the 707 during the swearing in. what did you learn in all of your work on lbj and jfk about why jackie kennedy did what she did that day. >> i think what she wanted was for the country to see what this man

ray baker, william allen rights of white 50,000 word pieces month after month after month.d them and talked about them. i'm just not sure that that -- that anyone will be given an amount of time by a newspaper or magazine today. and the expense accounts and a camaraderie. in the attention span to talk about it. so i worry about where the country is going in terms of our influence on the government. complied is said there is no one left well less. sometimes i think that is true for us. where are we? we just complain about what is going on in washington. we have not figured out how to do something about the paralysis that is there. >> and i think the fragmentation in the media is only going to continue these people make up there on the media all the time. social media, blocking, and the factory media. i mean, that is happening all over the place. and how is president wilson treated by the media? >> u.s. treated pretty well, especially by the race standard bakers, many of them in debt working. >> i love baker. he is my favorite. >> he really spent his final years not only work

ray baker, william allen rights of white 50,000 word pieces month after month after month.d them and talked about them. i'm just not sure that that -- that anyone will be given an amount of time by a newspaper or magazine today. and the expense accounts and a camaraderie. in the attention span to talk about it. so i worry about where the country is going in terms of our influence on the government. complied is said there is no one left well less. sometimes i think that is true for us. where are we? we just complain about what is going on in washington. we have not figured out how to do something about the paralysis that is there. >> and i think the fragmentation in the media is only going to continue these people make up there on the media all the time. social media, blocking, and the factory media. i mean, that is happening all over the place. and how is president wilson treated by the media? >> u.s. treated pretty well, especially by the race standard bakers, many of them in debt working. >> i love baker. he is my favorite. >> he really spent his final years not only work