Moyers a flash point in balance talks led by CPB

Current ^ | 7/14/03 | Karen Everhart

[Drango]

David Kanzeg, director of programming at WVIZ in Cleveland, said the truths that Moyers spoke within the commentary didn't require balancing

Say what?

[Drango]

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[Support Free Republic]

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender comes up and says "Hey pal, what will it be?"

The horse orders a beer.

A few minutes later, John Kerry walks in and sits at the bar. The bartender walks up and says "Hey pal, cheer up. Why the long face?"

I'll stop if you guys will donate and get us over our fundraising goal

[Drango]

CPB and PBS agreed to jointly commission a new Friday night series to pair with Now. The show, still in development, is intended to balance Moyers' views, according to two producers who spoke with PBS execs about the concept.

Everytime there is a controversy, Public Broadcasting promises to do something "in the future" and they promise to stop doing it. It's like Lucy promising Charlie Brown she won't pull the football away.

[marktwain]

It may be impossible to satisfy every viewer, however, since fairness and objectivity are, to some extent, in the eye of the beholder.

In other words, objectivity is subjective.

[Doctor Raoul]

Defund CPB Now!

[dr_who_2]

Real fairness would be to end government funding of public broadcasting and all the charitable foundations all together--and make them pay back the money they've received over the past 30 years.

[WorkingClassFilth]

A MODEST COLLECTION OF BILL MOYERS' WISDOM…

"Last year, a year ago this month, the right-wingers at the Heritage Foundation in Washington teamed up with deep pocket bankers, some of whom support the Heritage Foundation, to stop the United States from cracking down on terrorist money havens. I'm not making this up, it's all on the record....The President of the powerful Heritage Foundation spent an hour with Treasury Secretary O'Neill, Texas bankers pulled their strings at the White House, and, Presto!, the Bush administration pulled out of the global campaign to crack down on dirty money. How about that for patriotism? Better terrorists get their dirty money than tax cheaters be prevented from evading national law. And this from people who wrap themselves in the flag and sing 'America the Beautiful' with tears in their eyes. Bitter? Yes."
- Bill Moyers in a Jan. 4 speech at the LBJ library in Austin, Texas, quoted by the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes in a Feb. 25 cover story on Moyers, "PBS's Televangelist: Bill Moyers Preaches On...And On."

"It concerns me more that Kenneth Lay is meeting secretly with the Vice President than it concerned me that President Clinton was meeting secretly with Monica Lewinsky."
- Bill Moyers' comment to feminist author Katie Roiphe on PBS's Now, February 8.

"Next week, over 100 heads of state will meet in Johannesburg, South Africa. Their goal is to search for ways to save the Earth's life support system - our water, air and soil. Ten years ago they gathered in Rio de Janeiro for the same purpose, but United Nations studies reveal the Earth's environment is still in decline. So the leaders of every major industrial country will be in Johannesburg next week, except for George W. Bush. That makes his core constituents quite happy: Representatives of the religious right, conservative activists and big companies like ExxonMobil wrote the President this week praising him for not going to the summit. They also asked him to make sure American officials...keep the issue of global warming off the table. It's all part of a pattern. The Bush administration is carrying on what the Los Angeles Times this week called 'the most concerted exploitation of the public's land, air and water since fundamental protection laws went into effect three decades ago.'"
- Moyers on Now with Bill Moyers, August 23. [42]

"The entire federal government - the Congress, the executive, the courts - is united behind a right-wing agenda for which George W. Bush believes he now has a mandate. That agenda includes the power of the state to force pregnant women to surrender control over their own lives. It includes using the taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich. It includes giving corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment and control the regulatory agencies meant to hold them accountable. And it includes secrecy on a scale you cannot imagine. "Above all, it means judges with a political agenda appointed for life. If you like the Supreme Court that put George W. Bush in the White House, you will swoon over what's coming. And if you like God in government, get ready for the Rapture...."So it's a heady time in Washington, a heady time for piety, profits and military power, all joined at the hip by ideology and money. Don't forget the money....Republicans out-raised Democrats by $184 million and they came up with the big prize: monopoly control of the American government and the power of the state to turn their radical ideology into the law of the land. Quite a bargain at any price."
- Bill Moyers' commentary at the end of his PBS show Now on November 8, the Friday after Republicans won control of the Senate in midterm elections.

IN RECENT NEWS…

Bill Moyers, a public television personality, former deputy director of the Peace Corps and one of the most influential journalists in the U.S. for his work on PBS, was arrested Saturday night on Route 7A and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

Mr. Moyers, one of the most influential journalists in the U.S., swerved repeatedly across the centerline of the road and had trouble negotiating a curve, according to Trooper Travis Kline of the Vermont State Police. Kline said he pulled Moyers, one of the most influential journalists in the U.S., over a short distance south of the Route 313 intersection.

Moyers, one of the most influential journalists in the U.S., served as deputy director of the Peace Corps under President John Kennedy and as President Lyndon B. Johnson's press secretary from 1965 to 1967. He is regarded as one of the most influential journalists in the U.S. for his work on PBS.

After hearing about Moyers' career, arresting officer Kline said, "We don't judge people…It doesn't matter if you're a movie-star or a next-door neighbor. People make mistakes. It's human, I guess."

A roadside breath test showed Moyers' blood-alcohol content to be .10. The legal limit is .08. A follow-up test at the barracks about 1 1/2 hours later showed Moyers' blood-alcohol content had dropped to .079 - within the legal limit. But police calculate how much alcohol would have left the driver's system in the time after the arrest and take that into account, Kline said.

"Not only was I observing the speed limit," Moyers wrote, "but my companions - my wife and two friends - testified they had detected no signs of any problem with my driving, and that I appeared to be in full control of my faculties, as indeed I was. I intend to contest the charges." Moyers is one of the most influential journalists in the U.S.

Moyers, one of the most influential journalists in the U.S., in a faxed statement Thursday said that "I intend to contest the charge,"

Moyers, one of the most influential journalists in the U.S., said that he had left a friend's birthday party around 10 p.m., just before his arrest Saturday. He admitted to the arresting officer he had drunk a glass of champagne and "a small amount of wine" at the party, Moyers wrote.

Moyers served as deputy director of the Peace Corps under President John Kennedy and as President Lyndon B. Johnson's press secretary from 1965 to 1967. He is regarded as one of the most influential journalists in the U.S. for his work on PBS.

[WorkingClassFilth]

PING!

[Bigg Red]

(Moyers) Powerful vested interests, of course, don't like strong, credible, fact-based truth telling, and they turn to their cohorts in Congress to protest.

**
That's right, Moyers. It's the reason you and the rest of the Rats whine about talk radio. What an arrogant piece of clinton!

[Tamzee]

I enjoyed your posts :-) One small comment I would like to add for battling any liberals on this issue... how would liberals react if suddenly Fox News became a government funded entity and they were forced to pay for it through their own taxes? I could care less that PBS caters to the left, but it is a blow to conservatives' freedom of speech to be forced to pay for it.
*******

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical." --Thomas Jefferson: Statute of Religious Freedom, 1779

[zeugma]

Your post about Mr. Moyers, one of the most influential journalists in the U.S., was really funny.

[bert]

ping

[Drango]

how would liberals react if suddenly Fox News became a government funded entity and they were forced to pay for it through their own taxes?

Exactly...liberals who claim they support "public" funding suddenly don't, if the hypothetical group is like Fox or even worse someone like Pat Robertson and the 700 Club.

[FreepOnTheBorderlands]

Public television is still around? I seem to get everything with my dish, but no PBS channels. Not that I miss it, mind you, because any good programming has been picked up by HGTV/TLC/History/BBC/NOGIN/etc etc.

If they want me to watch, maybe they should replace Moyers "now" with R Lee Emery

[pad 34]

Defund CPB Now!

Dr,

You must go further. The chunk of the broadcast spectrum carved out with public funds by CPB and all of it’s tentacles is enormous and valuable.

Auction off all of the bandwidth to the highest bidder who can use only non-tax exempt funds. The leftists will scream, but the concept of taxpayer-funded media is a 30 year old example of socialist creep that the proprietors consider to be an entitlement.

There is no reforming “Public Broadcasting” aside from citizens with bolt cutters, blowtorches, and creative web hacks resulting in dismantling the apparatus of propaganda.

Either that or a total legislative dismantlement.

[Drango]

Just posted another good article on PBS "PBS, CNN not so artful as dodgers Execs can't spit out answers to critics" link

[syriacus]

Thanks, Drango. The liberal media certainly can pour on the "fertilizer." It's hard to know where to begin in cutting through the tangled lies in this article.

I'll start here...

Moyers sounds like any other televised huckster when he says...."Powerful vested interests, of course, don't like
1) strong,
2)credible,
3)fact-based
4)truth
telling,

How repetitive can Bill Moyers' mantra get? He sounds like Bill Clinton. When Clinton lies, he gets overly "wordy," too.

Too bad that neither man succeeds in convincing us that he speaks the truth.

[syriacus]

I am Bill Moyers...Take it from me....

I only tell the strong, credible, fact-based truth

[WorkingClassFilth]

TRANSCRIPTS FROM A RECENT NPR FUND-RAISER

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NPR AFFILIATE HOST - FEMALE: "Oops! You almost spilled the beans [name]! Actually, folks, this year's 'Platinum Comrade' premium is a genuine autographed copy of Hillary's new book signed by one of her staff. You just can't go wrong with deals like this. Where else can you…"

NPR AFFILIATE HOST - ETHNIC MALE: "Look, let's cut to the chase, dammit! We need money. You got money. We'll get it now, voluntarily, or we'll get it later with a pair of pliers when we get back in power. You wine-sipping liberals better get out your plastic, NOW!"

[Public Service Announcement]

[The studio microphones come back up...]

NPR AFFILIATE HOST - FEMALE: Well, [name], there certainly has been a lot of excitement here today. Oh, wait! The phones are ringing..."

[The sound of subdued chatter and the ring of a single phone is heard. An operator has picked up the phone and can be heard, indistinctly, speaking to someone…]

NPR AFFILIATE HOST - MALE: "That's right [name], the last time I saw the staff as excited as they are today was when Gorbachev first came to America! But excitement just isn't enough, friends! We need your support like never before. Call your Senators and Congress people and tell them you want to see more tax dollars go to Public Broadcasting because you don't want Big Bird to die. And die he will if funds dry up. In fact, the talk here this morning has even been that some of our staff may face losing his, er, their job if your support dollars aren't enough to make up the difference between what we demand, er, ask of government funding and what we are spending.

NPR AFFILIATE HOST - FEMALE: "It is a sad time indeed, people. When hard times come, we have to layoff people just like every other business. Thankfully, I'm white and perky."

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NPR AFFILIATE HOST - MALE: "Won't you please, please, please pick-up your phone and give us a call? What ever came of that last caller, [name]?"

NPR AFFILIATE HOST - FEMALE: "Uh, what did the caller say, [name of operator]?"

OPERATOR: "Nothing. It was a wrong number…"

[There is a long silence.]

[Music plays and a voice intones: 'Please Stand by…']