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RIGHT NOW at NRN w/ Roger L. Simon: My politics changed when 9/11 happened and I started Pajamas Media (PJ Media)

From a Hollywood Liberal to a prominent Conservative, pioneer of alternative media and founder of PJ Media, Roger L. Simon shares how he came to the political path he’s on today. The Academy-Award nominated screenwriter and American author has written ten novels, one of which was released this month, “The GOAT.” The trek has been a challenge, with intolerant, far-left Hollywood writing him off, he never stopped doing what he believed in. Simon says his pivot began with the OJ Simpson trials and continued after the world changing attack on September 11, 2001.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row column_type=”block” font_color=”light” background_type=”video” video_bg_url=”https://youtu.be/db7I6kvzNds” video_bg_start_time=”139″ video_bg_end_time=”900″ video_bg_parallax=”true” bt_text=”MEDIA” bt_font_weight=”300″ bt_font_style=”italic” shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″ add_bigtext=”true” min_height=”100″ bt_max_width=”300″][vc_column][wvc_video_opener caption_position=”bottom” video_url=”https://youtu.be/db7I6kvzNds” caption=”Media Spotlight | Interview with ROGER L. SIMON”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In his transformation from Liberal to Conservative, Simon explains to NRN’s interviewer Stephanie Dillon that he was prepared for 9/11 by events that happened before that solemn day, specifically the OJ Simpson trials. “I was prepared for 9/11 by earlier events,” he said. “Not earlier Islamic terror events, although there were those. Actually it was the OJ [Simpson] trials that started my transformation from the Left to the Right. Because I had been a civil rights worker in the south in the 60s, to see what was happening in the OJ trial sort of verminated out of everything we had been trying to do by popularizing black racism over white racism, when all racism is terrible.”

His politics didn’t change until 9/11 happened, when he created Pajamas Media. “I can remember that morning well, waking up in LA where I lived and realizing everything had changed in my life. That’s when Pajamas Media, PJ Media, really started. My life as a writer changed because I was quite popular in Hollywood until I started PJ Media.”

After that, he began his blog on PJ Media, and started writing about his political change and what he saw as the truth. “As a writer, someone who had been writing my whole life professionally, I was not good at lying. The truth is, when you’re writing a novel or a movie, if you don’t believe what you’re writing, it’s probably going to be terrible,” he said. “I started writing what I thought was the truth on my blog around 02’, 03’, and I was writing about my political change. I started the blog to promote my novel coming out and I could tell the publishers weren’t really happy about it. The novel tanked.” This is when Simon saw how Hollywood was pushing him out. “It got me effectively blackballed in Hollywood, despite being an Academy Award nominee.”

“The GOAT”: Possibly the Greatest Novel About Tennis Ever Written

Simon’s first self-published book released this month. “The GOAT” is about a tennis pro who sells his soul to be the greatest player of all time, but it definitely comes with a price. It tells the story of a 70-year-old screenwriter named Dan Gelber, resembling Simon himself, who injures himself playing tennis, resulting in a botched operation. He turns to a mysterious guru for traditional Himalaya herbs that lead him through a transformation he never thought possible. As fantastic as the outcome is, Gelber is faced with fresh problems of youth and memories of those in his past, along with all the other consequences he faces to be the GOAT (Greatest of All Time).

Roger L. Simon would love to have people from all political leanings read his books. “The GOAT” isn’t overtly political because it’s about issues of life and death that are bigger than political disagreements. His view is that people live their lives to change and evolve. Through all of Simon’s works, you get insight into the evolution of his life.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]