Bill Moyers' Departure from TV Leaves a Huge Hole

[NewDeal_Dem]

This week PBS stations around the country will broadcast the final segment of Moyers & Company, Bill Moyers' provocative, groundbreaking interview show. Moyers, who came to PBS in 1971, is retiring the show, but not retiring from the world of public affairs. He will continue to write, speak out, and produce his remarkable website, filled each day with insightful articles by Bill and others about dangers to our democracy and battles for social justice. But the end of Moyers' regular presence on television will leave a huge hole in America's broadcast landscape. No other program has journalistic breadth and depth, as well as the progressive viewpoint, that Moyers' show has provided views for over four decades. Will PBS -- which has been under increasing pressure from Congress and funders to move to the right -- even try to fill that gap?

Moyers, who turned 80 in June, has been one of the most prolific and influential figures in American journalism. Not content just to diagnose and document corporate and political malpractice, Moyers has regularly taken his cameras and microphones to cities and towns where unions, community organizations, environmental groups, tenants rights activists, and others were waging grassroots campaigns for change. Moyers has given them a voice. He has used TV as a tool to expose political and corporate wrongdoing and to tell stories about ordinary people working together for justice.

He has introduced America to great thinkers, activists, and everyday heroes typically ignored by mainstream media. He has produced dozens of hard-hitting investigative documentaries uncovering corporate abuse of workers and consumers, the corrupting influence of money in politics, the dangers of the Religious Right, conservatives' attacks on scientists over global warming, and many other topics. A gifted storyteller, Moyers' TV shows, speeches, and magazine articles have roared with a combination of outrage and decency, exposing abuse and celebrating the country's history of activism.

Moyers' website offers full streaming video and podcasts of Moyers & Company, online-only essays, analytical blogs, interactive features, as well as an extensive video library of Moyers' past work. There you can browse and view hundreds of Moyers' programs covering a wide range of topics including the economy, faith and reason, money and politics, war, media, and the arts...

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/01/bill-moyers-departure-tv-leaves-huge-hole

[sgtbenobo]

1. I wonder if they even consider....

....someone like Lee Camp to fill the void?

PBS is a dead horse that enjoys beating itself.

[NewDeal_Dem]

2. Camp doesn't seem to be a person who would fill the void left by Moyers. IMO.

[appalachiablue]

3. PBS isn't dead yet, Frontline and programs like 'Finding Your Roots' are well done.

I've followed LEE CAMP for several years. Great talent, really like his style but he's having trouble already with enough material for a new show running several months, 'Redacted Tonite' Friday nights, on RT (Russia Today) channel.

[colsohlibgal]

4. Thom Hartmann Would be Great Replacement

But I'm not sure anyone will be given a similar opportunity to put forth a real populist viewpoint on PBS, it's sad and it's all big money.

[appalachiablue]

5. Moyers and Hartmann are the best, outstanding communicators. Not sure TH would go to PBS

if it was a choice given he has his own production co. for some time. It's a terrible gap for PBS although Moyers is 80, said he stayed on 3 more years after the demand so is more than deserving. He's been a national treasure, what a great American. There's just nothing close to either of these two in my mind, TYT (The Young Turks) are good but not in the same league, yet. Radio talkers I don't think so, except Mike 'Pap' Papantonio, firebrand lawyer on 'Ring of Fire' who's excellent. The media is very slim on TV hosts and that's bad for many, although there's dozens of writers, different media though. The left is the weakest I've ever seen in terms of media and political candidates.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. i.had no idea he was 80

[laserhaas]

7. He was tool and helped cover up (protect) LBJ on the JFK thingys

http://www.justice-integrity.org/faq/771-much-too-late-public-learns-of-bill-moyers-conflicts-over-pbs-lbj

we need less dilettante's like him and Taibbi

and more sincere's