Bill Moyers's last story on NOW about right-wing media!

[Angry Girl]

Bill Moyers Retiring From TV Journalism
Dec 9, 4:08 PM (ET)
By FRAZIER MOORE

It hasn't been so much a habit for Moyers as a truth-telling mission during his three decades as a TV journalist. But come next week, he will sign off from "Now," the weekly PBS newsmagazine he began in 2002, as, at age 70, he retires from television.

"I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee," says Moyers. "We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20041209/D86SBTC80.html

[mistertrickster]

1. Woo hoo! Tell it like it is, brother.

I hope this isn't pre-empted for the Disco pledge drive crap they run every six weeks.

[The Judged]

2. I hope he isn't declared a terrorist or enemy combatant for this!

Angry Girl posted this quote:

"I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee," says Moyers. "We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."

Bill Moyers Retiring From TV Journalism
Dec 9, 4:08 PM (ET)
By FRAZIER MOORE



<squinting and rubbing eyes> Do these tired eyes see the truth? It hasn't been totally stifled yet?

[BeHereNow]

6. Welcome to DU

and I hear ya.
Under the recently granted powers to the
Homeland Security goon squad, technically
ALL of us can be accused and not even
told what exactly we are accused of.
FASCISM, plain and simple.
bhn

[The Judged]

11. thanks! it feels great to post without being attacked by "moderates."

Those newly defined by Republican lexicon to be "moderates" when they are actually Republican right wing revolutionary theocrats.

Wolves or Wolfowitz's in sheeps clothing.

[DireStrike]

32. Thank you! I love hearing that sentiment, as I share it.

...And then we have Al From in the DLC saying we need to move to the "center", or else nobody will vote for us. :shrug: :(

[SammyWinstonJack]

46. Not yet

"It hasn't been totally stifled yet?" Give 'em time. Welcome to DU!

[stray cat]

3. Any news on when the show will broadcast? nt

[Angry Girl]

7. Next week. I think it's Dec 17

[cyn2]

4. One of our "voices in the wilderness"....so sad to see him go! n/t

[AspenRose]

25. No kidding

He's been great. Since PBS picked up Tucker Carlson, I fear it will move EVEN MORE to the right with Moyers gone (remember NewsHour's Gwen Ifill and her horribly biased moderating at the debates)?

Finished reading (Media Matters) David Brock's "The Republican Noise Machine" a couple of weeks ago. Pretty much comes to the same conclusion....

I'm going to have to revise my holiday reading list because I just finished "Against All Enemies" and "Worse Than Watergate" and now I am profoundly depressed for the state of our country....don't want to spend the season depressed.

[blondeatlast]

33. Wasn't "Noise" an eye-opener?

I'm listening to it now, just about finished.

There almost is no middle in the nation now, just the Radical Right and the rest of us.

[Quill Pen]

38. Hopefully David Brancaccio will carry the mantle

Brancaccio has been Moyers' co-anchor the last couple of years, and he seems very capable.

In particular, he's adopted the highly professional Moyersesque interview style where he ACTUALLY ALLOWS guests to answer questions fully and completely in their own words (unlike Charlie Rose, Baba Wawa, or any of the daytime pseudojournalists like Katie Couric, who constantly interrupt their guests and make certain they're doing far more talking than the guest actually is aRRRRGGH :mad:)

As far as new co-anchors for NOW, I think Ray Suarez (currently on NPR and Lehrer News Hour) or Scott Simon could be effective additions.

[Professor Chronotis]

44. Brancaccio (My first post. be kind.)

Brancaccio was the host of PRI (Now American Public Media)'s "Marketplace" radio show. That show has tackled many "follow the money" issues in the past and always maintained its integrity and journalistic standards... even if it meant using Carter's Theory of Criminal Investigation: "Follow the rich white man." Although "Marketplace" tends to be a bit campy ("airline stocks took off today," and other cute-speak), the tone of the show often belies its serious content -- in addition to the "numbers", they cover some of the more heinous things done for want of money. Just recently, for example, they looked at how much in non-cash compensation Congressmen get from lobby groups. Raised a few hackles there.

To what degree Brancaccio was responsible for "Marketplace"'s content I can't be sure, but he's a great interviewer, facilitator, and moderator, and obviously in the interests of getting the truth known not afraid to jump without a certain net. I believe that, though he has large shoes to fill, we can expect good, if stylistically different, things from him.

I promise in the future my posts will be shorter. Just making up for lost time. ;)

--Prof.

[Crowdance]

50. Great Post!

Welcome to the DU!

[Quill Pen]

54. Excellent point about Marketplace

Thanks, I'd forgotten about his work on Marketplace...and that wasn't long at all! Welcome.

[robre]

5. It's easy to understand what the media is.

The media is a pure statist organization. They are a mouthpiece for government propaghanda of whoever currently controls our government. Their sources are press releases, preprepared interviews, and "leaks" which really are still press releases of a different sort.

Like political "scientists" they have an insane desire for stability. They could be living under Nazi germany and not care just as long as the government seems to "fundamentally work" except in isolated circumstances, even if in those isolated circumstances the government's prescription is death. The main stream media will continue be like this because their license could be revoked or they could be fined at any time.

[The Judged]

12. The end justifies the means! Whisper campaigns! Radicals rule!

If everyone stood up for the truth at the same time, we could brush aside all of the lies and get right to the nitty-gritty of the matter: American Democracy is a fable.

[Laelth]

51. Well, maybe.

I might believe that the media is a "pure statist organization" that merely serves the government in power had I been born recently. However, I was politically sentient through Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and *, and I can tell you, you're wrong, and Moyers is right. Carter and Clinton both got hammered by the media for either minor offenses (oval office nonsense) or things beyond their control (the growth of OPEC and the Iran Hostage crisis). Reagan, on the other hand, was adored by the press. Bush I was given a free pass (read my lips, I'm gonna raise taxes anyway), and * is beyond reproach in the media. No, Moyers has it right. Republicans get a free ride in the media today. Democrats get the shaft. As a result, America suffers.

just my 2 cents ...

And on a different subject, welcome to DU Professor Chronotis! :hi:

-Laelth

[Thurston Howell IV]

8. It's the "Republican Noise Machine"

"Right-Wing Media And How It Corrupts Democracy"
A must read book by David Brock

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400048753/bushmisundere-20/103-3292676-6192631?creative=327641&camp=14573&link_code=as1

[blondeatlast]

34. Essential reading. I am talking it up to everyone I know.

We need to get this one to #1 on the NYT.

Talk it up to EVERYONE, and buy one for your favorite progressive on your Christmas list.

It's crucial as hell.

[donheld]

9. I will miss Bill Moyers more than Dan Rather or Tom Brokaw

by a landslide.

[AirAmFan]

48. Can you believe he was LBJ's Press Secretary--FORTY years ago?

He's the last direct link to a time when politics attracted tens of thousands of young people driven by pure optimism and sincere altruism, long before corporate disinformation and segmented political database marketing took over.

[Swamp Rat]

10. The last of the great journalists are going... and we'll be stuck with

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Godspeed, Bill Moyers, and thanks!

[Donna Zen]

14. Portals of truth

There were so few that the loss of this one should cause us all to grieve. NPR is gone as well...left a few years ago.

That leaves us with the Daily Show. Michael Moore tried but the Democratic party has decided to oust him as well.

[Dr Fate]

15. How about a prominent Democrat saying this to Wolf Blitzers face-on TV?

Never gonna see it-wouldnt want to go on TV and tell the plain truth-that would be "radical."

[Griffy]

16. would love it!

its time to mobilize.. NOW plan forprotest... this weekend at your capital and prepare for DC in January 3-6 or longer

[Nordic]

28. Our Dems are too spineless

which is why I'm done with the Democratic Party. Unless Howard Dean takes it over.

He's the only guy with some balls out there.

Democrats (not us, but the beltway ones) need to learn the definition of the word "OPPOSITION"

[blondeatlast]

35. If a Democrat can even get on--you REALLY need to

read "Noise Machine."

They've gotten control of everything.

[Griffy]

17. Perhaps.. Rather, Jennings and Brokaw know this...

and left not to simply get out of the corupt MSM, but to expose it.. I know they say they want to do "documentaries"... hmmm they remeber real news and may want it back! Remeber the meeting they had just after memogate BS... i doubt they want America to go theocratic and oppressed.

[Q]

18. Expose it?

One doesn't lay in bed with corruption and get up unscathed. No...I'm afraid Brokaw and the others knew exactly what they were doing and the blood of tens of thousands is on their hands just as much as those who ordered them into battle or bombs dropped on innocent civilians.

They knew about the lies...but they still reported what the Bush* WH ordered them to report with some sort of false patriotism as their guide.

And then there were real journalists like Moyers...who never let his ideology get in the way of the truth. He will be missed and I look forward to more of his keynote speeches.

[Quill Pen]

39. I seriously doubt it...

...I've seen some appalling ad-libs from Rather and Brokaw that have no place in my Cronkite/Moyers/Murrow-influenced view of the desirable Fourth Estate.

One of Rather's more egregious violations is documented in "Fahrenheit 9/11." He's practically beating off, on-camera, at the start of the war back in March '03.

[hollowdweller]

19. Moyers is one of the great thinkers of our time and observer of culture

[Bridget Burke]

20. Pretty good for a Baptist born in Oklahoma, raised in Texas.

He brought Joseph Campbell to public attention, for one thing.

[RedEarth]

40. Yep...one of the best journalist ever....

[NicRic]

21. Noticed since election the media......

been discusing things like social security , the suffering of our troops and many other things that where ignored when Kerry spoke about these problems, and explained how bush has failed. I say to little to late and F/U to the media that is now one of the reasons we are stuck with another four years of miisery while bush rapes our economy for his country club friends !

[lakelly]

22. God Bless, Bill Moyers

Yes, the departure of Bill Moyers is the saddest and most dispiriting of all. Who will replace him? The pretty boys and girls that now populate what is now MSM Or, perhaps, more right wing nut case ideologues. What the world needs a another Scarborough or O'Reilly or even better Rush Limbaugh! God help us all. Sincerely, who will be the next Moyers? With out reporters with honesty, integrity, and most importantly, a hunger for the truth we are looking at dark times ahead.

[bajamary]

23. Moyers void can't be filled

Bill Moyers is the best broadcast journalist we have had in these terrible times. His loss can not be overstated.

Bless him for all the years of standing true to the professional journalism and it's long lost values and guidelines.

He will be guiding others from behind the scenes and from his speeches and from the books he is about to write.

God speed, Mr. Moyers.

[newyawker99]

26. Hi bajamary!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[bajamary]

45. thanks

Hi Newyawker99,

Thanks for the warm welcome. Cheers.

bajamary

[sunnystarr]

24. How I wish this quote from Moyers could be broadcast all

over this country ... starting with Times Square.

"You don't get rewarded in commercial broadcasting for trying to tell the truth about the institutions of power in this country," he goes on. "I think my peers in commercial television are talented and devoted journalists, but they've chosen to work in a corporate mainstream that trims their talent to fit the corporate nature of American life. And you do not get rewarded for telling the hard truths about America in a profit-seeking environment."

[Nordic]

29. Hmmm. We need to put some profit motive into truth-telling

I sorta hoped that the gargantuan financial success of F/911 would lead to more of this type of thing.

I really think that if you had a news channel that was all like this, you could make BANK.

God knows the books are selling well enough.

WTF?

[blondeatlast]

36. It's not quite that simple. The Radical R has been engineering this

for 30+ years.

They have their foundations (non-profit, yet thoroughly political), the media, and they've rigged the whole thing against ANY intelligent discourse. The media is their willing slaves--and I DO mean willing.

Repeating myself, but it really is necessary: Read "The Republican Noise Machine." We are up against in incredibly well-engineered and well-oiled machine with oddles of money behind it.

This is the muckraking book of the decade; believe it.

[Nordic]

42. Yeah, Lewis Lapham's article about this in Harper's was good, too

He even mentioned the offers (quite lucrative) he'd gotten to join the right-wing machine

My point, however, is that it seems there's a big market out there hungry, and willing to pay for, an alternative.

I smell opportunity for someone. Don't know who. Not me, I don' have the $$ to start it up. Wish I did.

[blondeatlast]

43. True enough. Here's a perhaps pretty wild idea:

Unite the bloggers on the Left.

Everyday I tune into DU, DailyKos, Truthout, and various others.

If those resources could be concentrated into one source, I think it would become damn powerful. I could even see pushing it into print eventually.

I wonder if they could look beyond themselves enough to see this happen.

Will Pitt, are you out there? What do you think?

I also have thought maybe we could get at least a daily half hour news show on Sundance Channel. Redford's one of our most reliable (and welthy) supoorters, if we could only get his ear somehow.

[hollowdweller]

47. My Favorite Moyers Commentary right before Iraq

"Iraq is not Vietnam, but war is war. Some of you will recall that I was Press Secretary to Lyndon Johnson during the escalation of war in Vietnam. Like the White House today, we didn't talk very much about what the war would cost. Not in the beginning. We weren't sure, and we didn't really want to know too soon, anyway"

Snip

"Ah, the glories of war; the adrenaline that flows to men behind desks at the very thought of the armies that will march, the missiles that will fly, the ships that will sail, on their command. Our Secretary of Defense has a plaque on his desk that says, "Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords." I don't think so.

To launch an armada against Hussein's own hostages, a people who have not fired a shot at us in anger, seems a crude and poor alternative to shrewd, disciplined diplomacy.

Don't get me wrong. Vietnam didn't make me a dove; it made me read the Constitution. That's all. Government's first obligation is to defend its citizens. There's nothing in the Constitution that says it's permissible for a great nation to go hunting for Hussein by killing the people he holds hostage, his own people, who have no choice in the matter, who have done us no harm.

Unprovoked, the noble sport of war becomes the murder of the innocent."

http://www.pbs.org/now/printable/transcript_moyers14_print.html

[GregD]

27. Paging Mr. Wonk!

Hope you will be recording the farewell show!

[robbedvoter]

30. Propaganda arm of RNC - been using that for years - about ALL MEDIA

I refuse to buy this "for profit" BS about the MSM - because I know they ax succesful shows which are against the required talking points (Donahue, Spin Room, the 1 h Crossfire)

[blondeatlast]

37. Again, repeating myself, but: profit ISN"T what they are after.

Read "The Republican Noise Machine."

[blondeatlast]

31. Moyers touches the surface here, if you want to wade through

the real mud, read "The Republican Noise Machine" by David Brock.

Moyers will be sorely, sorely missed at a time when he's needed most.

[Supersedeas]

56. there is even more to find that what Brock exposes--that's Moyer's challen

challenge to us.

[BEdasein]

41. Going.. going... Gone!

It is unfortunate that Moyers is leaving. It's a frightening thing watching more and more journalists who were steeped in the principles of honest and agressive investigative journalism leaving the profession. Too often they are replaced with corporate hacks. Farewell Bill, you've done a wonderful thing with the time that you've had. Thank you.

BE

[elshiva]

49. God Bless you Moyers

I love you Mr. Moyers, your metaphors, your accent, your compassion,
your liberalism. No one can take your place.
(haunting strains of Judy Collins singing "Amazing Grace"):-(

[HuskiesHowls]

52. He will be missed

Here is an excerpt from a speech he gave accepting a reward:

<snip>
The news is not good these days. I can tell you, though, that as a journalist I know the news is never the end of the story. The news can be the truth that sets us free—not only to feel but to fight for the future we want. And the will to fight is the antidote to despair, the cure for cynicism, and the answer to those faces looking back at me from those photographs on my desk. What we need to match the science of human health is what the ancient Israelites called 'hocma' —the science of the heart.....the capacity to see....to feel....and then to act...as if the future depended on you. Believe me, it does.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/the_delusional_is_no_longer_marginal.php

[Patriot Acts]

53. This makes me VERY happy....

I have a warm fuzzy feeling from head to my... err uh, toes!

[sarahlee]

55. Be sure you read

Moyers speech "Battlefield Earth"

Posted the link here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=91787&mesg_id=91787

[oasis]

57. Moyers is one in a million.