New York (AP) -Tom Johnson’s career was taken from the White House to Jobs, a newspaper publisher of Dallas and Los Angeles. As a result, I was able to change the story of two influential figures: Lyndon B. Johnson and Ted Turner, but this is not the real reason he wrote a memoir.
Instead, despite the pain of depression, despite how his achievements were severely committed, he hoped to seek help when others needed help and talked about how his achievements came.
Johnson, an 84 -year -old, said in an interview, “I want to tell you that depression is a treated disease.” “You don’t have to kill yourself like two best friends.”
He calls the memoir “driven”. It seems to be partially paying for my mother. My mother said that he could work hard to a young boy growing up in Georgia and achieved what he wanted in his life, and he was recognized that it would cost money.
He went to Harvard’s graduate school to work at the White House. As a secretary of the Bill Moyers and the first middle school assistant, his most important duty was to make a careful note at the meeting. He believed that when LBJs left the White House in 1969 and returned to Texas, Johnson took Johnson to his top aide.
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A few years later
So after half a century, he was wrong with our Vietnamese policy. It was miserable and wrong. ”
He knew that his old boss felt pressure without believing in the strategic importance of war, but it did not go well and caused unnecessary death. Johnson asked former president to go around the Texas ranch and whether he did something else.
“He said Go to my tomb Johnson recalled. The former president died a few weeks later.
Johnson went to work for Times Mirror, the first publisher of Los Angeles Times at Dallas Times Herald. He said he was considered too free and was pushed by Chandler family who owned the newspaper. He considered CNN’s presidential position despite the advice of “Nutty” by founder Turner.
He worked in 1990 and quickly regarded Turner’s vision to consume what CNN needed to succeed as a global news organization. In retrospect, as CNN chairman, he has been the most successful as a television network for 11 years.
Tom Johnson said, “Lyndon Baines Johnson was the most complex human being I met.” He will remain the most complex human being until he starts working at Ted Turner in CNN decades later. In terms of complexity, the two men were in their league. “
“Driving” is full of internal stories about working for the two, but Johnson is clear about his loyalty. He respects both. He left CNN right after Turner was effective. Removed his duty According to network sales to Time Warner; As a result, he wrote that Johnson’s depression was rebuilt.
Johnson was diagnosed with depression while in the Los Angeles Times and retreated from family, friends and activities. His wife Edwina forced him to get help.
“You really learn the importance of this person who travels with you when I was difficult to love.” “I will drive her out and chased the children. Never to those at work.”
Johnson removed the gun from home
Johnson said in 1989 that the lowest point came when he lost his work as a publisher. Johnson, a hunter, took a gun to a colleague and went out of the house. “It is a serious mistake to have a weapon that can be easily approached for suicide,” he recalled.
He told Turner about the fight against depression when discussing the CNN job. It was not a problem. Johnson said, “I will tell you about hell, friends, and me.
In trial and error, he found the right drug to help him. Johnson also said he had benefited from talking with other prominent men who fight depression: newspaper columnist Art Book Baltic“60 minutes” correspondent Mike Wallis And novelist William Styron.
Johnson was also a worker, and often left home before he did not return until his children, Ik and Christa went back to bed. He had to grow up with his daughter’s sports event. “Do not forget that you are dad too.”
“The biggest regret in my life was that I was not a good father for my children,” he said. “I was a good provider, but I was not there for them.”
After retiring at the age of 60, Johnson tried to give time to his family when he was young. He also advocates and raises money to help people. Mental healthPharmaceutical abuse, Alzheimer’s disease, and the latter were diagnosed by his daughter at Covid-19 pandemic.
And he uses ‘Driven’, which was called ‘the most stressful project in my life’.
His journey emphasized that you actually don’t leave journalism. Johnson was obsessed with the fact that it was realistic and fair. “My wife will be with another wife if you do another book. ‘
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David Bauder writes about AP’s media and entertainment intersection. Follow him and
