The Moyers Legacy

[babylonsister]

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100322/editors

The Moyers Legacy
Editorial

This article appeared in the March 22, 2010 edition of The Nation.
March 4, 2010


Even in an age of old-media uncertainty, much is still made of the transfer of network anchor and host positions. Too often the discussion is purely about personality, but there's more to it than a celebrity shuffle: the character and content of programs with rich histories and the potential for crucial contributions to civic discourse are at stake. So oceans of ink are spilled when CBS shifts the news anchor chair from Dan Rather to Bob Schieffer to Katie Couric; or when Tim Russert's Meet the Press post goes to David Gregory. Unfortunately, scant attention has been paid to the coming shift of what over the past decade has become the most significant seat in broadcast journalism--the Friday night position occupied by Bill Moyers.

Moyers has been the most radical presence on broadcast and cable television since 2002, when the former White House press secretary, newspaper publisher, CBS and NBC commentator, bestselling author and award-winning documentarian settled into the work of producing weekly reviews not of the transitory arguments of the moment but of the great debates on the fate of the Republic. What has made Moyers, who will retire in April, such a radical presence is not his politics but his journalism.

As the host of NOW With Bill Moyers, Moyers on America and, since 2007, Bill Moyers Journal, he has provided an antidote to the blather served up by most news and public affairs programs. Never satisfied to practice stenography to power, as so many news programs do, or to moderate recitations of talking points by political hacks, Moyers refuses to treat Americans as imbeciles who need to be ideologically coddled.

Moyers has always chosen his guests with a purpose: to put new ideas, new analyses, new approaches on the table when most outlets invite talking-head insiders to narrow the range of options. So he has earned the ire of the political and corporate elites who benefit most from a constrained debate as he has cultivated an oasis for outliers who offer unbought and unbossed takes on wars of whim, executive excess, economic wrongdoing and, above all, the corruption of politics.

This has made Moyers, whose pronouncements in recent years have celebrated the populist and progressive reformers of a century ago, a tribune for some of the most insightful progressive thinkers of our time, including Barbara Ehrenreich, Lawrence Lessig, Glenn Greenwald, Michael Pollan, Nikki Giovanni, Roberto Lovato and George Soros.

snip//

The question is whether what comes next will matter. PBS plans to replace Bill Moyers Journal with a public affairs program featuring a new format. Whoever fills the slot will no doubt do things differently, which is to be expected. But it's crucial that a forum be maintained for those with dissenting views--on the left and the right--and for those who are ready to toss aside talking points and wrestle honestly with the great issues of the day. Moyers has created a necessary forum, as did Buckley before him. To lose it would be disastrous, not just for PBS and broadcast television but for our Republic, which can ill afford the hollow hectoring and pointless positioning that passes for debate on TV programs that in entire seasons don't say as much as Bill Moyers does in a single show.

[housewolf]

1. A bit about the show that's replacing him - "Need to Know"

http://leslienotes.typepad.com/the_long_and_short_of_it_/2010/01/bill-moyers-retirement.html

PBS CEO Paula Kerger has announced Need to Know, a new hour-long public affairs show with a heavy online interactity component. It's being billed as what smart and busy people need to know.

Need to Know "will take the top stories and put them in context, offering a deeper understanding of the issues of our times," she said.

We'll see the return of reporting "beats"--the economy, the environment and energy, health, security, and culture.

-----------------

http://www.pbs.org/aboutpbs/news/20100113_needtoknow.html

Los Angeles, CA: PBS/TCA Press Tour; January 13, 2010 -- Demonstrating its leadership role in shaping news and public affairs journalism for the decade ahead, PBS will offer NEED TO KNOW, an integrated broadcast and online current affairs project launching in May 2010.

Uniting broadcast and web in an innovative approach to newsgathering and reporting, NEED TO KNOW will advance PBS’s role as America’s most-trusted provider of news and information into a dynamic source of current affairs coverage for today’s media consumers.

“Through persistent, strategic innovation during the past three years, PBS has been transforming itself, taking public media content beyond the television screen and making it available on multiple platforms, including the Internet and mobile devices,” said Paula Kerger, President and CEO of PBS. “NEED TO KNOW is the latest step in this ongoing evolution. NEED TO KNOW will take the top stories and put them in context, offering a deeper understanding of the issues of our times.”

“In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis, thoughtful commentary and relevant features are the hallmarks of PBS public affairs programming,” said Neal Shapiro, President and CEO of WNET.ORG. “NEED TO KNOW will carry on this tradition, but it will break through the limitations of the broadcast schedule by means of a web-based production model that empowers audiences to ‘tune in’ anytime and anywhere. NEED TO KNOW is truly news for a new generation.”

NEED TO KNOW is one of the key components of a PBS news and public affairs initiative, the first phase of which focuses on improving service to the public in three areas — on-air, online and service to communities through local stations.

“The goal of the initiative is to make all of our news and public affairs content more user-friendly and pertinent to the way people use media now. That means updating what we offer on television, but also connecting and coordinating everything we do both online and on-air to give the public easier access to the full array of what PBS offers,” said John Boland, PBS Chief Content Officer, who devised the initiative. “This responds not only to the digital multi-platform media environment of the 21st century, but also to the crisis in journalism.”

Viewers saw the first phase of changes to the broadcast line-up with the debut of the redesigned PBS NEWSHOUR in December and the revamped NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT in early January. In the spring, as NEED TO KNOW premieres, PBS will begin aggregating all of its news and public affairs content along with offerings from editorial partners in an online “supervertical” site at pbs.org, as well as distributing the content across the web. PBS is also joining leading public media entities in a partnership to develop a local/national system to support stations in responding more effectively to the gaps in local journalism created by the upheaval in the newspaper industry.

A cross-media initiative built around a wide community of journalists and producers, with input from a savvy engaged audience, NEED TO KNOW will cover five primary beats: the Economy; the Environment and Energy; Health; Security; and Culture. Stories, interviews, blogs and photo features will be continually added to and updated online, with the production teams inviting interaction and input from online readers and users who are on the lookout for the latest information on a given subject.

Each week’s online story development will culminate in the weekly one-hour broadcast, curated from the week’s reporting by the various beat teams. The broadcast will feature documentary-style field reports, both domestic and international, short features and studio-based interviews and conversation to complement and advance the produced reports. NEED TO KNOW will be produced in WNET.ORG’s new flagship studio at Lincoln Center in New York City. The program will air on PBS stations nationwide on Friday evenings, joining PBS’s acclaimed public affairs lineup, including PBS NEWSHOUR and NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, as well as FRONTLINE and WASHINGTON WEEK WITH GWEN IFILL.

“NEED TO KNOW will complement PBS NEWSHOUR’s daily news coverage and FRONTLINE’s long-lead documentary format with an end-of-week exploration of what we suggest smart, busy people ‘need to know’,” said Stephen Segaller, Vice President for Content at WNET.ORG and Executive in Charge of NEED TO KNOW. “In the past five years, the world of content has changed dramatically. We’re inundated with content and information — but what’s important? We believe this new online-to-broadcast approach — in its philosophy and its uniquely contemporary production method — will bring a new immediacy and engagement to public affairs programming on PBS. And it will bring new faces, new voices and new audiences to a revered media institution.”

[napi21]

2. It sounds god, but we'll see. I'm really going to miss Bill!!!

His show isn't on our PBS channel here in Ga. until Sundays but I never miss it. I admit he has a right to retire as does everyone else, but I'm sure going to missd him, as I do Rather.

I will certainlye PBS a chance and watch the replacement show a few times and make my own judgement.

[cornermouse]

3. I won't be there nor will I be giving PBS any money.

They got rid of both NOW and Moyers at the same time. That tells me all I need to know about them. When NOW and Moyers go off air, I'm going to start boycotting.