Media Monster Killer -Coffee Talk with Bill Moyers

[papau]

http://www.independent.com/cover/Cover953.htm

The mainstream news media, Moyers laments, has taken a dive at a time when the power of the Republican Party has never been more absolute and more morally bankrupt.
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Speaking about Bush, Bill Moyers said...

I never took him as a compassionate conservative. I'm a Texan. I saw what he had done to Texas and I knew he would do to the nation what he had done to Texas. And by God he's done it. He's turned the environment over to the polluters, he's turned the courts over to big business, and he's turned the schools over to the religious right. I was not fooled by his prevarications and his camouflage and his deceits.
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And...

There are always a lot of people who prefer the comfortable lie to the uncomfortable truth. .... Ideologues embrace a worldview that cannot be changed because they admit no evidence to the contrary.

I’d also say conservatives have never been more politically dominant and more intellectually and morally bankrupt

Media Monster Killer
Corporate Media, Coming of the Rapture, and the Culture of Fear: Coffee Talk with Bill Moyers

by Nick Welsh
The Santa Barbara Independent
Feb. 24, 2005

Spend five minutes on the phone with Bill Moyers, dubbed by some “the conscience” of American journalism, and it's abundantly obvious that the man is troubled, and profoundly pissed off; though it's doubtful someone so imbued with good Southern manners would use such talk. Now 70, Moyers has spent most of the past 55 years hunting the truth behind his craft, a working journalist tracing the twisted paths of power for both newspapers and television. Embodying that rare combination of graciousness, dignity, and passion, Moyers has been audacious enough to tell “the truth behind the news,” rather than to report the “he-said-she-said” ping-pong that often passes for news. And the truth about the news business -- and democracy -- as Moyers sees, could not be more grim.

The mainstream news media, Moyers laments, has taken a dive at a time when the power of the Republican Party has never been more absolute and more morally bankrupt. As a result, public discourse has been reduced to a scream-fest dominated by such unabashedly conservative media giants as Fox, Clear Channel, and Sinclair, who've become "echo chambers" for the Bush administration, if not outright propagandists. And when it comes to the realities of bare-knuckle politics, Moyers is hardly some pious sissy. For three years he worked closely with former President Lyndon Johnson, whose ferocity as a political infighter was exceeded only by his reputed Machiavellian genius. After his stint with Johnson, Moyers went to work for CBS; in 1986 he created his own independent production company, Public Affairs Television.

"I never took him as a compassionate conservative.
I'm a Texan. I saw what he had done to Texas and I knew he would do to the nation what he had done to Texas.
And by God he's done it.’"
— Bill Moyers

Via Public Affairs, Moyers explored not just the political but the spiritual dimension of American life, introducing the likes of anthropologist Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth) and poet Robert Bly to the American public. Over the past three years, Moyers became best known for his searing weekly news series NOW -- broadcast Friday nights on public television -- which painstakingly dissected the worrisome cross-pollination between political and corporate power.

Late last December, Moyers pulled the plug on NOW. He had no time for anything else, he explained, and his five grandchildren weren't getting any younger. And at age 70, neither was he. Moyers is hardly retiring from life; rather he's launching what he called his "third act." On March 1, Moyers is set to appear at UCSB's Campbell Hall to kick off a fundraising campaign for the university's Arts & Lectures program -- where he'll be interviewed by acclaimed Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Two weeks ago, he gave me a chunk of prime time on the phone, and the following is an abbreviated version of that conversation.

NICK WELSH: When you arrive in S.B., there could be 500 reporters from all over the world covering jury selection for the Michael Jackson trial. Any interest in a firsthand look; any gut reaction to seeing so much journalistic time, energy, and resources devoted to such a trial? <snip>


at: http://www.independent.com/cover/Cover953.htm

[republicannincompoop]

1. Yes, a truly GOOD man. Troubled by America's Future, we

should all pay attention when he turns meloncholy.

If only all Christians (I am an athiest) had his moral compass.....

Can you imagine any republican "Christian" allowing Joseph Campbell to state there is no God on their program, like Bill did?

THAT is courage: To allow, encourage opposing views with patience and grace.

To LISTEN when others speak.

Thanks, Mr. Moyers!!!!