I'm Right Again Dot Com
A New Commentary Each Wednesday May 14, 2014
ABOUT BILL MOYERS
I like to say something nice about people a long time before it's announced that they are about ready to die from some terrible illness. This week our commentary is about a man who was born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas, by the name of Billy Don Moyers. The first time I heard that soft inflection in Bill Moyers' voice - and it had to be in 1963 while he was a special assistant to President Johnson - I knew little about him, except that I could guess where he was raised.
For a long time, I did not know that he was an ordained Baptist minister.
Moyers was a journalism major and cub reporter in east Texas, who was hired by Lady Byrd Johnson to be an assistant news director at her Austin radio and television stations. Though LBJ brought him to Washington, he and Johnson fell out over the Viet Nam War.
Bill has always spoken his mind.
He followed his stint in the White House as the publisher of the New York daily newspaper "Newsday," 1967-1970. The owner, Harry Guggenheim and Moyers had more than slight differences over editorial policies. In 1968, Moyers backed Hubert Humphrey, while Guggenheim supported Richard Nixon. Later, Guggenheim sold his interest to the Times-Mirror Company - although Moyers had offered $10-million more for the paper. Moyers subsequently resigned.
I don't know all of the reasons he bounced around from Public Broadcasting to CBS, to NBC and MSNBC and then back to PBS over the years, but in my lifetime at least, Bill Moyers has lasted longer at his craft than any other, and for good reason.
Someone said, "No one has done a better job of analyzing (and may I add documenting) the state of affairs than Bill Moyers."
I have found that owners, sponsors, and important civic leaders can successfully interfere with that sort of work.
Nothing says it better than Moyers' 2006 Lifetime Emmy Award, just one his many honors: "Bill Moyers has devoted his lifetime to the exploration of major issues and ideas our time and our country, giving television viewers an informed perspective on political and societal concerns."
Yes, I recognize that Bill Moyers has a liberal take on most everything, but his great common sense perspective and the ability to make his case has had a great impact on others, irrespective of their politics.
If you want to widen your perspective, visit http://www.billmoyers.com
-Phil Richardson, Observer and Storyteller.
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