Guest guest Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 " dorindamoreno " <dorindamoreno Mon, 16 May 2005 08:46:01 -0700 Bill Moyers Fights Back > Bill Moyers Fights Back > > http://story.news./s/thenation/20050515/cm_thenation/12484/ > nc%3A742 > > John Nichols Sun May 15, 3:40 PM ET > > Bill Moyers is not taking attacks by Bush administration allies on > public broadcasting in general and his journalism in particular > sitting down. > > > > " I should put my detractors on notice, " declared the veteran > journalist who stepped down in January as the host of PBS's Now with > Bill Moyers, who recently turned 70. " They might compel me out of the > rocking chair and into the anchor chair. " > > Moyers closed the National Conference on Media Reform in St. Louis on > Sunday with his first public response to the revelation that White > House allies on the board of directors of the Corporation for Public > Broadcasting have secretly been holding PBS in general -- and his > show in particular -- to a partisan litmus test. > > " I simply never imagined that any CPB chairman, Democrat or > Republican, would cross the line from resisting White House pressure > to carrying it out for the White House. And that's what (CPB chair) > Kenneth Tomlinson has been doing. " > > Recalling former President Richard Nixon's failed attempt to cut the > funding for public broadcasting in the early 1970s, Moyers said, " I > always knew that Nixon would be back -- again and again. I just > didn't know that this time he would ask to be the chairman of the > Corporation for Public Broadcasting. " > > That was a pointed reference to Tomlinson, a Republican party > stalwart, who contracted with an outside consultant to monitor > Moyers's weekly news program for signs of what Tomlinson and his > allies perceived to be liberal bias. Moyers ridiculed the initiative > first by reading off a long list of conservatives who had appeared on > NOW, then by reading a letter from conservative U.S. Rep. Ron Paul > (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, praising the show, and finally > by noting that Tomlinson had paid a former Bush White House aide > $10,000 to do the monitoring. > > " Gee, Ken, for $2 a week you can pick up a copy of TV Guide, " he > joked, before suggesting that the CPB chair could have " watched the > show. " > > " Hell, Ken, " Moyers finally said. " you could have called me collect > and I would have told you. " > > Moyers said he wasn't buying Tomlinson's claim that the results of > the monitoring were not being released to protect PBS's image. " Where > I come from in Texas, we shovel that stuff every day, " said the man > who came to Washington as a press aide to former President Lyndon > Johnson and was present when the Public Broadcasting Act was written > in the 1960s. > > Moyers revealed to the crowd of 2,000 media reform activists that he > had written Tomlinson on Friday, suggesting that the pair appear on a > PBS program to discuss the controversy. He also revealed that he had > tried three times to meet with the full CPB board but had been > refused. Expressing his sense that the board had " crossed the line > from resisting White House pressure to carrying it out, " Moyers said, > " I would like to give Mr. Tomlinson the benefit of the doubt, but I > can't. " > > The man who has won 30 Emmy Awards for his hosting of various PBS > programs was blunt about his critics. " They've been after me for > years now and I am sure they will be stomping on my grave after I'm > dead, " he said. As the laughter from the crowd of 2,300 media reform > activists quieted, however, he added, " I should remind them that one > of our boys made it out 2,000 years ago. " > > Moyers was even blunter about why he thought Tomlinson and other > allies of the administration were so determined to knock his > groundbreaking news program off the air and to replace it with more > conservative fare such as a weekly roundtable discussion featuring > Wall Street Journal editorial page staffers. Joking that, " I thought > public television was supposed to be an alternative to commercial > media, not a funder of it. " Speaking of the investigative reporting > NOW did on everything from the war in Iraq to offshore tax havens and > ownership of the media, Moyers said, " Our reporting was giving the > radical right fits because it wasn't the party line. " > > " The more compelling our journalism, the angrier the radical right of > the Republican Party gets, " he explained. " That's because the one > thing they loathe more than liberals is the truth. And the quickest > way to be damned by them as liberal is to tell the truth. " > > The broadcasting giant was greeted with cheers when he declaration > that " the quality of our media and the quality of our democracy are > intertwined. But the loudest applause of the day came in response to > his invitation to the crowd to join him in the fight to " take public > broadcasting back from threats, from interference. " > > " It is, " Moyers said, " a worthy goal. " > > Moyers has endorsed a call by Free Press, Common Cause, Consumer > Federation of America, Consumers Union and Media Access Project for > town hall meetings nationwide that would allow Americans to speak > directly to PBS station managers and policymakers. > > That call came in the context of a broader appeal for media reforms > and a fight against manipulation of the news in the public and > private sector. > > " An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only > partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a > people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of > propaganda, is less inclined to put up a fight, ask questions and be > skeptical, " Moyers said. " And just as a democracy can die of too many > lies, that kind of orthodoxy can kill us, too. " > > A video of the speech is available at > http://www.freepress.net/conference/audio05/freepress-closing40515.mov > > An audio recording can be downloaded at > http://www.freepress.net/conference/audio05/moyers.mp3 > > (John Nichols is a co-founder of Free Press, the national media > reform network that organized the National Conference on Media Reform.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.