Two Journalism Icons Walk into a Luncheon...


"When the Going Was Good,"

Graydon Carter Talks to Ken Auletta

On April 15 the Silurians Press Club hosted two top-tier journalists who have played key roles in  our profession for decades. Award-winning editor and documentary producer  Graydon Carter, who led Vanity Fair through 25 years of achievement, discussed his must-read memoir “When the Going Was Good” with author, media critic and Silurian Lifetime Achievement Award winner  Ken Auletta, who is currently producing a documentary about the Murdochs. Don’t miss this marquee conversation!

A person with gray hair wearing a dark blazer and white shirt stands with hands in their pockets against a gray backdrop.

An instant New York Times bestseller, Carter’s memoir revives the glamorous heyday of print magazines when they were at the vanguard of American culture. The Financial Times called When the Going Was Good as “Catnip to anyone in publishing” and it was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and the New York Post.

 Carter is the founder of Air Mail. Before this, he was a staff writer for both Time and Life. He cocreated Spy, edited The New York Observer. He is also the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer of more than a dozen documentaries and one hit Broadway play.
Ken Auletta

Auletta launched the Annals of Communications column for The New Yorker magazine in 1992. He is the author of thirteen books, including five national bestsellers.His thirteenth book, Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence, was published in July 2022. Ken is currently reporting a documentary on Murdoch with acclaimed director Matt Tyrnauer, and is also writing about The Murdoch Puzzle.

In ranking him as America's premier media critic, the Columbia Journalism Review concluded, "no other reporter has covered the new communications revolution as thoroughly as has Auletta." New York Magazine described him as the "media Boswell."

In another life, Auletta taught and trained Peace Corps volunteers; served as Special Assistant to the U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce; worked in Senator Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 campaign for the Presidency; was Executive Editor of the weekly Manhattan Tribune.