Bill Moyers is leaving PBS:
Bill Moyers, whose weekly magazine “Now” on PBS has capped a 30-year career in TV journalism, is leaving the broadcast after the November elections.
His next venture: Writing a long-proposed book about Lyndon Johnson, whom he served before and during Johnson’s presidency.
“It isn’t because I feel old,” Moyers, 69, told The Associated Press of his decision, which he made official Thursday. “It’s because I feel compelled to do something else now, that only I can do – which is that book.”
The veteran journalist said he had pondered the new course for some time, and originally considered stepping down in June, when he turns 70. Instead, he will scale back his duties after that, but stay on through the presidential race.
I only hope they replace him with someone slightly less partisan. Maybe Howard Dean or Al Gore.
Ricky
Someone please let me know when his left-wing show is labled in any way ideological in a major publication.
THAT liberal media.
JKC
Hmmm….
One unashamed liberal on PBS vs…
Limbaugh
O’Reilly
All of Fox “News”
Joe Scarborough on MSNBC
Tucker Carlson on CNN.
Jeebus, you are a bunch of whiney guys these days.
Ricky
JKC,
One of these days you guys will actually realize the difference between pundits that acknowledge their slanted analysis (Carlson, Limbaugh, etc) and people who are presented as non-biased and putting forth “news”.
Limbaugh labels himself.
Nice try, but……the attempt at dishonesty didn’t work.
Rick
JKC,
I’ll happily trade the entities and time slots you cite for conservatives, for the entirety of PBS, NPR, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, NYT, Reuters and other “ashamed” liberal outlets. Straight up, in a Noo Yawk minnit.
Cordially…
Ricky
There is a large cadre of folks who think that two newspaper editorial boards, one cable channel and talk radio keep the lefties from getting their message out over their grasp of the network/large paper media, Rick.
JPS
Good stuff, Rick. Just let the left keep academia (I’m taking one for the team here). They’re so smug and shrill (rarely having their viewpoints challenged by anyone they’d deign to take seriously) that they’re a net hindrance to their ends.
peggy
I’m new here, but…isn’t this whole liberal/conservative media debate like, old?
Clearly folks on either side get what they want to hear/read/see, and curious folks on either side have plenty of places to go to find one another for (dare I say it?! -common ground? Ok, at least healthy debate?
John, why the gratuitous jab at a news item that announces Moyers’ future plans? I don’t get it. So he’s leftist, so what? He’s a fine journalist, and his ‘Now” program didn’t purport to be a straight news program, so c’mon already.
M. Scott Eiland
Good riddance. The man who greenlighted the “Daisy” ad in the 1964 election deserves nothing but contempt as he departs the scene–he’s just one of LBJ’s lickspittles who made a name for himself.
Matthew
What has always bothered me was that some tax payer money pays for Moyers and other left wing agenda stuff on PBS.
HH
Alan Colmes, David Corn, Neal Gabler, Ellis Henican and the other lefties employed by Fox will be surprised to learn that they’re conservatives.
“He’s a fine journalist”
Propagandist actually… and yeah, he’s making a mint thanks to taxpayers.
Ricky
Where can I find a single mainstream source that designates it as a left-wing program?
JKC
“…and yeah, he’s making a mint thanks to taxpayers.”
Assuming that’s true, that would make him different from Dick Cheney (or any other defense contractor) how?
Rick
Cheney fills a Constitutional office, and defense contractors provide “Common Defense” services and hardware.
Bill Moyers provides what governmental function? And receives public monies by what Constitutional basis?
Cordially…
Matthew
The Vice President of the United States is a defense contractor? I didn’t know he had a side business.
A defense contractor supplies needed items to the military. Moyers supplies left wing commentary on PBS. You really don
Matthew
The Vice President of the United States is a defense contractor? I didn’t know he had a side business.
A defense contractor supplies needed items to the military. Moyers supplies left wing commentary on PBS. You really don
JKC
Matt-
Unlike Halliburton, Moyers never overcharged the taxpayers… :)
Look, this whole thing is silly. So what if Moyers is a liberal? It’s not like the conservative point of view can’t get heard these days.
And before you start with the “taxpayer dollars” whining, try to remember that William F Buckley was on PBS long before Moyers was.
Kimmitt
“It’s not like the conservative point of view can’t get heard these days.”
The problem isn’t that the conservative point of view isn’t pressed. The problem is that it is opposed. The right simply will never be satisfied until no one is given a platform to speak who is opposed to their policies,
In particular, anyone who wishes to present facts as they exist is to be particularly villified — by implying that there is an objective reality independent of liberal and conservative worldviews, they assault the very foundations of conservative argument. When one has recourse to the cold, hard facts, the usual tactics of “slime and defend” are significantly less effective.
Beldar
Moyers’ programs have indeed been presented as news rather than commentary. And they’ve been methodically monolithic in their liberal viewpoint Moyers generally chooses only guests who agreed with him. His own record of disclosing conflicts of interests has been poor even as he’s criticized Republican officials for that sin. Moyers is certainly a bright and talented man, but I long ago lost any respect for him as a journalist, or even any interest in him as a commentator.
Rick
“In particular, anyone who wishes to present facts as they exist is to be particularly villified.”
Fox News certainly has suffered for it. Stray from the J-school herd mentality (an honorary dean of which is the unctuous Moyers), and you’re cast into darkness.
Luckily, the new media is busting up that herd, and Moyers is relaxing his suck on the public teat.
Cordially…
Kimmitt
“Fox News certainly has suffered for it.”
You see it in action right here. In a world with no objective reality, this statement would be taken as yet another unprovable opinion.
Ricky
Interesting that such a view is put forth on a discussion about a show financed by taxpayer dollars that didn’t put forth an opposing viewpoint from the right (so much for the Buckley mention).
Rick
“You see it in action right here. In a world with no objective reality, this statement would be taken as yet another unprovable opinion.”
What is “it” that is “in action?”
Do you mean to suggest that Fox is welcomed as a mainstream peer at the other cable and broadcast news entities?
Cordially…