Jon Wiener

Jon Wiener (born May 16, 1944) is an American historian and journalist based in Los Angeles. He successfully waged a 25-year legal battle to win the release of the FBIs files on John Lennon. Wiener played a key role in efforts to expose the surveillance as well as the behind-the-scenes battling between the government and the former Beatle, and is a recognized expert on the FBI-versus-Lennon controversy. A professor emeritus of United States history at the University of California, Irvine, he is also a contributing editor to the left-leaning political weekly magazine The Nation and host of The Nation s weekly podcast, Start Making Sense. He also hosts a weekly radio program in Los Angeles.In addition to being an advocate for liberal causes and transparency in government, he wrote two books about Lennon, and has described Lennons song Imagine as being a hymn to idealism with relevance today. He has been criticized by reporters for having a left-oriented bias in his books, sometimes leading to a revisionism regarding Lennons political orientation. Wiener interviewed Gore Vidal many times, and recently published a book of interviews with the late celebrity which spanned many years.

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