Tom Johnson — Driven: A Life in Public Service and Journalism from LBJ to CNN - with Judy Woodruff

EPISODE · Nov 9, 2025 · 1H 3M

Tom Johnson — Driven: A Life in Public Service and Journalism from LBJ to CNN - with Judy Woodruff

from Politics and Prose Presents · host Politics and Prose

Driven brings a seasoned perspective to today's conversations about government, media, and the future of truth in the form of a long-awaited autobiography by Tom Johnson, an award-winning journalist who helped shape the twenty-four-hour news media as we know it. Johnson's storied career in politics and journalism spans the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, where he was privy to painful negotiations on Vietnam and notified the president that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated, through the executive leadership of the LA Times and, finally, Ted Turner's upstart CNN in Atlanta.From his perspective "inside the room," Johnson provides eyewitness accounts of Lyndon B. Johnson's triumphs and disasters and his on-the-ground view of the magnificent achievements and significant shortfalls of late twentieth-century American journalism. Johnson is also candid about his lifelong struggle with depression and mental health and recovery advocacy. With more than eight decades behind him, Driven is not just Johnson's look at the past but a chance for his story to offer guidance about finding balance in an uncertain future.Tom Johnson served as chief executive officer of two of America's most respected news organizations, the Los Angeles Times and CNN. Part of the first White House Fellows class, he eventually became assistant press secretary under Bill Moyers, then assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, following LBJ back to Texas after he left office. He is a recipient of several awards, including the Horatio Alger Award, Ten Outstanding Young Americans, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Paul White Award, to name a few. In 2006, he also received the John Gardner Legacy of Leadership Award by the White House Fellows for lifetime achievement in public service. A native of Macon, Georgia and graduate of the University of Georgia and Harvard Business School, Johnson lives in Atlanta.Johnson is in conversation with Judy Woodruff. Woodruff is a senior correspondent and the former anchor and managing editor of the PBS News Hour. She has covered politics and other news for five decades at NBC, CNN and PBS.https://politics-prose.com/book/9780820374536?ic_referral=o9WGjbklqNF3fGVZgXrzmlT3ITI6ENIintG7xB_TzucwM36CfPc6UuNbKxxSIfm3s12vK-A9resQzxE8-JjWGDoNtx-yz5XuufcjeZ0JoX4Q4KzbHVkRZMvL69IQo2pIXJ0tawc

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Tom Johnson — Driven: A Life in Public Service and Journalism from LBJ to CNN - with Judy Woodruff

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