George’s academic life was derailed in late 1967 when he stumbled upon an effort to organize an anti-war Student Communications Network; he dropped out of school to join this movement and quickly became it’s lead organizer. This group began contributing to the recently-founded Liberation News Service, and by the following February it was operating as the LNS New York office.

The New York office grew in importance following the anti-war protests at Columbia in April 1968, and in July the original LNS team in Washington DC moved to New York to combine their operations. The merger was uneasy, and within a few weeks the original LNS founders split off again, causing an acrimonious dispute which took months to resolve.

Among the staff who moved from Washington to New York but did not split off was Sheila Ryan, with whom George developed a romantic relationship.

Over the subsequent years, they both became increasingly involved in international reporting, eventually taking a leave from LNS to work on a book about Palestine.