Latest news with #BillMoyers
Los Angeles Times
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Bill Moyers, former White House aide and PBS journalist, dies at 91
Bill Moyers, a soft-spoken former White House aide turned journalist who became a standard bearer of quality in TV news, died Thursday in New York. He was 91. Moyers' son William told the Associated Press his father died at Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital after a long illness. Moyers began his TV career in 1971 during the early years of PBS after serving as a leading advisor and press secretary to President Johnson. He spent 10 years in two stints at CBS News in the 1970s and '80s. He was editor and chief correspondent for 'CBS Reports,' the network's prestigious documentary series, and an analyst for the 'CBS Evening News.' He also did a turn as a commentator on 'NBC Nightly News' and was a host of the MSNBC program 'Insight' in 1996. But Moyers was often frustrated with the restraints of corporate-owned media and returned to non-commercial PBS each time. At PBS, 'Bill Moyers Journal' was the first news program on the service, launched in 1972 just as the Watergate scandal was heating up. His documentaries and series, which included 'Now With Bill Moyers' and the weekly interview show 'Moyers & Company, ' often examined complex issues and offered serious discussion. He earned top prizes in television journalism, including more than 30 Emmy Awards. His final program for PBS aired in 2013. Moyers made a posthumous star out of a literature professor at Sarah Lawrence College with the landmark 1988 PBS series 'Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth,' an exploration of religious and mythological archetypes. The series was watched by 30 million viewers. His 2006 series 'Faith and Reason,' where Moyers interviewed authors about the role of religion in their lives, was the kind of programming that distinguished public television, even as audiences had more viewing options on cable. Moyers also fronted tough investigative programs such as 'The Secret Government,' a deep dive into the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration. He often focused on the influence of money in the nation's politics. A believer in liberal causes, Moyers aggravated Republican administrations who often cited his programs when they accused PBS of bias and attempted to cut its federal funding. PBS President Paula Kerger, who worked closely with Moyers for decades, said he always embodied the aspirations of public television. 'Bill was always of service: as a journalist, a mentor, and a fierce champion for PBS,' Kerger said in a statement. 'He fought for excellence and honesty in our public discourse, and was always willing to take on the most important issues of the day with curiosity and compassion.' Moyers was born June 5, 1934 in Hugo, Okla., the son of a dirt farmer and day laborer. He attended high school in Marshall, Texas, where he covered sports for the local newspaper. After graduating from the University of Texas, he earned a master's in divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and became an ordained minister. He preached at small rural churches. While in college, he established a relationship with Johnson, who hired him to work on his 1954 reelection campaign for U.S. Senate. He worked as a news editor for KTBC radio and television, the Austin, Texas, outlets owned by Johnson's wife, Lady Bird. Moyers stuck with Johnson when the senator was elected as John F. Kennedy's vice president, becoming his personal assistant and later serving as a deputy director of the Peace Corps. After Johnson was sworn in as president on Nov. 22, 1963, following the assassination of Kennedy, Moyers ascended as well. He was a top Johnson aide with a wide range of duties including press secretary. According to a 1965 profile in Time magazine, Moyers was a key figure in assembling Johnson's ambitious domestic policy initiatives known as the Great Society. He shaped legislation and edited and polished the work of Johnson's speechwriters. When Johnson underwent anesthesia for a gall bladder operation, Moyers was given responsibility to decide whether then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey should take over the president's powers in the event of a crisis. Moyers had a major impact on political communication when in 1964 he signed off on the creation of the 'Daisy' ad for Johnson's presidential election campaign. The ad showing a girl counting petals she pulls from a daisy blends into a countdown for the launch of nuclear missile. Moyers expressed regret for the spot — an attack on Johnson's Republican opponent Barry Goldwater's views on the use of nuclear weapons. He believed the use of visceral imagery harmed the country's politics in the long term. Moyers left the Johnson White House in 1967 as he was disenchanted with the escalation of the Vietnam War. He went on to become publisher of the Long Island, N.Y., daily newspaper Newsday, raising its stature in the journalism industry, before his first tenure at PBS. When he rejoined PBS in 1986, he formed his own production company called Public Affairs Television. Moyers' preacher-like delivery and emphasis on high moral standards in his commentaries led some people to criticize him as being a pious scold. But as cable news brought a more raucous style of current affairs discussions to TV, Moyers' gentler approach was an oasis for many. 'His mission has always been to make things better, not louder,' Neil Gabler wrote in an appreciation of Moyers for The Times in 2009. 'In a world of ego and bombast, he has always been modest and self-effacing.' Moyers is survived by his wife Judith; three children, Suzanne Moyers, John D. Moyers and William Cope Moyers; six grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
Straits Times
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
Bill Moyers, broadcaster and LBJ's White House press secretary, dies at 91
FILE PHOTO: Journalist Bill Moyers delivers the keynote speech at the People for the American Way Foundation's Spirit of Liberty dinner in Beverly Hills September 21, 2004. REUTERS/Fred Prouser FSP/ABP/File Photo Bill Moyers, a key member of Democratic President Lyndon Johnson's inner circle who went on to become a guiding force in American journalism during more than 40 years in public television, died on Thursday aged 91. Moyers, who announced he was "signing off" from internet journalism in December 2017, three years after retiring from the PBS airwaves, died of complications from prostate cancer at a Manhattan hospital, the Washington Post and New York Times reported, citing his son, William Cope Moyers. His death was confirmed to Reuters in a statement from Paula Kerger, president and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service, who saluted Moyers as a "true giant of public media." "Not only was Bill a journalist of the highest caliber, he played an essential role in the creation of PBS as a trusted aide to President Johnson," Kerger said. At a time when critics said broadcast news was becoming fluffier and shallower, Moyers pursued a thoughtful, in-depth approach, bringing an intellectual perspective delivered in a soothing Texas drawl. He took an activist approach to the job, and The Nation magazine called him a "radical presence" in broadcast news, which his critics said was proof that the Public Broadcasting Service network should not get federal funding. Starting in 1971, Moyers regularly hosted a succession of news and commentary shows on public television, including "Bill Moyers' Journal," "Now With Bill Moyers," "Moyers on America" and "Moyers and Company," as well as limited-run series on the U.S. Constitution, faith and mythology. Among the other topics he explored at length on his programs were poverty, racism, money in politics, climate change, income inequality, the shortcomings of the media and what he called the "pirates and predators of Wall Street." "He used the tools of the documentarian to wield a velvet sledgehammer, bludgeoning corporate polluters and government ne'er-do-wells with precision and grace," New York Times media columnist David Carr wrote in 2004. Billy Don Moyers was born in Hugo, Oklahoma, on June 5, 1934, and grew up mostly in Marshall, Texas. A dutiful, energetic overachiever, he dedicated himself to school, church and work, including a job at the local newspaper. His early adult life would be a tug of war between the pulpit, the press and politics. He was attending North Texas State College when he first went to Washington in 1954 as a summer intern in the office of then-Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson. When he returned to school, transferring to the University of Texas, he worked on the student newspaper, and Johnson made sure he had a job at the Austin television station owned by his wife, "Lady Bird" Johnson. He also pursued a career in the clergy, becoming ordained as a Baptist minister in 1954 and earning a master of divinity degree at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1959. 'YOUNG MAN IN CHARGE OF EVERYTHING' Johnson's legendary powers of persuasion eventually prevailed and Moyers became an aide during Johnson's unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination against John F. Kennedy in 1960. After the election, Kennedy chose Moyers to be assistant director of his newly established Peace Corps. After Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and Johnson became president, Moyers moved to the White House. He was only 30 years old but became one of the most important people in Washington - a duty-bound, deal-making extension of his boss. He served as Johnson's press secretary, adviser, speech writer and congressional go-between. In 1965, he appeared on the covers of Newsweek and Time, which called him "LBJ's Young Man in Charge of Everything." Moyers was a driving force in forging Johnson's Great Society legislation - laws and programs that included the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the "war on poverty," Medicaid and Medicare, conservation and aid to education. "He taught me so much about politics and about what's possible, about human behavior, about the consequences of decisions," Moyers said of Johnson in a 1989 Texas Monthly interview. "At the same time, he was a driven man, a man who could consume you." Critics said Moyers sometimes got his hands dirty on Johnson's behalf. He was known to leak stories and plant questions with the press corps in advance of news conferences. The Washington Post reported that he ordered the FBI to search for gay people in the administration, and CBS correspondent Morley Safer said in his autobiography that Moyers also had a role in the FBI's bugging of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Moyers left Johnson's service in 1967 - partly because he no longer believed in his boss's war in Vietnam - to become publisher of Newsday, a Long Island, New York daily. The newspaper won two Pulitzer Prizes under his leadership, but he left in 1970 after the publisher deemed him too liberal. Moyers then went on a bus ride around the country that he chronicled in the book "Listening to America: A Traveler Rediscovers His Country." He made his move to PBS in 1971 with "Bill Moyers Journal" and in 1986 he and his wife, Judith, started their own production company to make shows for public television stations. Moyers had stints with the major networks - as a correspondent and commentator with CBS in the 1970s, and with NBC and MSNBC in the 1990s - but greatly preferred the freedom and depth that public television offered. The Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago called him "one of the few broadcast journalists who might be said to approach the stature" of legendary CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow. Moyers' body of work earned him more than 30 Emmys, nine Peabodys, two Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Awards and three George Polk Awards, among other accolades. He was elected to the Television Hall of Fame in 1995. Moyers and his wife had three children, William Cope, Alice Suzanne, and John Davidson. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Hill
8 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Bill Moyers, former WH press secretary and acclaimed journalist, dead at 91
Former White House press secretary Bill Moyers died on Thursday at the age of 91 after a 'long illness.' His death was confirmed by Tom Johnson, CNN's former CEO and close friend, according to the Associated Press. Moyers served under former President Lyndon B. Johnson, where he helped create the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and eventually curated informational programming for PBS. Prior to his role at the White House, Moyers helped bolster the Peace Corps as its first associate director of public affairs. 'We knew from the beginning that the Peace Corps was not an agency, program, or mission. Now we know—from those who lived and died for it—that it is a way of being in the world,' he wrote of the government agency in an article reflecting on its success. After years of service in the federal government, Moyers was hired to be a senior news analyst for 'The CBS Evening News' and chief correspondent for 'CBS Reports.' For his lifetime of work, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and earned 30 Emmys, 11 George Foster Peabody awards and three George Polks, in addition to two awards for career excellence in broadcast journalism by Columbia University, per AP. Moyers was also the acclaimed producer of 'The Secret Government,' which spotlighted the Iran-Contra scandal. The 1988 film followed his realtime commentary on U.S. foreign relations with Iran. Forty-four years ago, Moyers hosted an episode of 'Bill Moyers Journal' where he discussed Operation Opera, a United Nations resolution condemning the 1981 Israeli bombing of Iraq's nuclear facility and Iran's political massacres with reflections on its historical impact. 'As are all such events, this one was made of many parts. There was reality two realities actually: Iran's and ours. And there was also the perception of reality, again from two viewpoints: theirs and ours,' Moyers said during the June 19, 1981 show. 'The perceptions became so beclouded that reality drifted out of focus, the way your own image does in one of those tricky reflecting mirrors at the circus. In this final edition of my Journal, we'll consider how such flawed perceptions contributed to the crisis.'
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill Moyers, LBJ White House press secretary and legendary journalist, dead at 91
Former White House Press Secretary and famed broadcast journalist Bill Moyers has died at the age of 91. Moyers died on Thurday at a hospital in New York, his assistant, Tom Johnson, told the Associated Press. His son, William Moyers, said his father's death came after a "long illness." During his career, Moyers worked as a Baptist minister and was later named the deputy director of the Peace Corps. He served as the White House Press Secretary for Lyndon B. Johnson and later became a senior analyst for The CBS Evening News and a chief correspondent on CBS Reports. Moyers' most well-known work was created for PBS. He produced hundreds of hours of programming that covered topics like government corruption, drug addiction, and religious and environmental abuse. In the late 80's, Moyers produced "Joseph Campbell and Power of Myth," which was a series of six one-hour interview with the religious scholar whose work probed, in party, how humans use and understand stories. He produced a best-selling book based on the discussions. He also produced "The Secret Government" around the same time, which dove into the Iran-Contra scandal. His work helped to shape movements and policies. In 1993, his series "Healing and the Mind" was influential on the medical community and on medical education. While Moyers considered himself an "old-fashioned liberal" during a 2004 radio interview, he preferred to describe himself as a "citizen journalist" working outside the bounds of a strictly black and white ideological framework. In 2007, he told the Associated Press that public radio allowed him the freedom to throw "the conversation of democracy open to all comers." While he appreciated the skill of his colleagues in commercial media, he also saw the flaws of a profit-seeking business model on the practice of journalism. 'I think my peers in commercial television are talented and devoted journalists,' he said during one interview, 'but they've chosen to work in a corporate mainstream that trims their talent to fit the corporate nature of American life. And you do not get rewarded for telling the hard truths about America in a profit-seeking environment.' During his career, Moyers won 30 Emmys, 11 George Foster Peabody awards, three George Polk awards, and the Alfred I duPont-Columbia University Gold Baton Aware for career excellence in broadcast journalism twice. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995. Moyers, born in Hugo, Oklahoma on June 5, 1934, got his start in journalism writing about sports. He had wanted to play football, but said he was too small, so he wrote about it instead for his school's newspaper. He started his working career in journalism at age 16 for the Marshall News Messenger. He joined Johnson's campaign in 1954 after writing to the then-senator asking if he could work for his campaign. He was hired for the summer, and returned as a personal assistant in the early 1960s before heading the Peace Corps for two years, where he eventually held a top leadership role. He served as White House press secretary from July 8 1965 to February 1 1967. In 1986, he and his wife, Judith Davidson Moyers, started their own production company called Public Affairs Television. This allowed him the freedom to pursue projects he cared about, regardless of their potential profitability.
The Independent
9 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Bill Moyers, LBJ White House press secretary and legendary journalist, dead at 91
Former White House Press Secretary and famed broadcast journalist Bill Moyers has died at the age of 91. Moyers died on Thurday at a hospital in New York, his assistant, Tom Johnson, told the Associated Press. His son, William Moyers, said his father's death came after a "long illness." During his career, Moyers worked as a Baptist minister and was later named the deputy director of the Peace Corps. He served as the White House Press Secretary for Lyndon B. Johnson and later became a senior analyst for The CBS Evening News and a chief correspondent on CBS Reports. Moyers' most well-known work was created for PBS. He produced hundreds of hours of programming that covered topics like government corruption, drug addiction, and religious and environmental abuse. In the late 80's, Moyers produced "Joseph Campbell and Power of Myth," which was a series of six one-hour interview with the religious scholar whose work probed, in party, how humans use and understand stories. He produced a best-selling book based on the discussions. He also produced "The Secret Government" around the same time, which dove into the Iran-Contra scandal. His work helped to shape movements and policies. In 1993, his series "Healing and the Mind" was influential on the medical community and on medical education. While Moyers considered himself an "old-fashioned liberal" during a 2004 radio interview, he preferred to describe himself as a "citizen journalist" working outside the bounds of a strictly black and white ideological framework. In 2007, he told the Associated Press that public radio allowed him the freedom to throw "the conversation of democracy open to all comers." While he appreciated the skill of his colleagues in commercial media, he also saw the flaws of a profit-seeking business model on the practice of journalism. 'I think my peers in commercial television are talented and devoted journalists,' he said during one interview, 'but they've chosen to work in a corporate mainstream that trims their talent to fit the corporate nature of American life. And you do not get rewarded for telling the hard truths about America in a profit-seeking environment.' During his career, Moyers won 30 Emmys, 11 George Foster Peabody awards, three George Polk awards, and the Alfred I duPont-Columbia University Gold Baton Aware for career excellence in broadcast journalism twice. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995. Moyers, born in Hugo, Oklahoma on June 5, 1934, got his start in journalism writing about sports. He had wanted to play football, but said he was too small, so he wrote about it instead for his school's newspaper. He started his working career in journalism at age 16 for the Marshall News Messenger. He joined Johnson's campaign in 1954 after writing to the then-senator asking if he could work for his campaign. He was hired for the summer, and returned as a personal assistant in the early 1960s before heading the Peace Corps for two years, where he eventually held a top leadership role. He served as White House press secretary from July 8 1965 to February 1 1967. In 1986, he and his wife, Judith Davidson Moyers, started their own production company called Public Affairs Television. This allowed him the freedom to pursue projects he cared about, regardless of their potential profitability.
