"All Governments Lie," an I.F. Stone Lecture by Myra MacPherson

Myra MacPherson, a journalist and author nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, will discuss her new book, "All Governments Lie," and the relevance of rebel journalist I.F. Stone for today's youth and the media.

Presented by The Graduate School of Journalism

Izzy, as he was known to everyone from the corner grocer to Albert Einstein, taught a generation of journalists to doubt government propaganda, dig for facts in documents, and find the whistleblowers who told the truth. He was the first journalist to expose the lies about the Gulf of Tonkin excuse for starting the Vietnam War. His reporting helped end Senator Joseph McCarthy's reign of anti-Communist terror and revealed the FBI hounding of Civil Rights and Anti-War Activists. With the timing of a standup comic and the wisdom of a scholar, he covered the 20th century and predicted today's foreign policy course: "All governments lie but disaster lies in wait for countries whose leaders smoke the same hashish they give out." Stone wrote that 35 years ago. "There was an increased reliance at home and abroad on suppresssion by force and an increasingly arrogant determination to 'Go It Alone.'" That was I.F. Stone during Cold War escalation fifty years ago. Find out why he is more than just a fascinating legend in journalism.

Myra MacPherson is the author of three previous books -- Long Time Passing: Vietnam and The Haunted Generation, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, The Power Lovers, and She Came to Live Out Loud. She was a celebrated journalist for the Washington Post renowned for her penetrating political profiles, and has written for the New York Times and numerous national magazines including Vanity Fair. She lives in Palm Desert, CA and Washington, D.C

There will be book signing after the event.

See more events associated with the International Reporting department of the J-School.

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