Posted on 11/28/2005 2:33:43 PM PST by Jean S
Bill Moyers, the former host of the "Now” program on PBS, brushed aside the claim that his show had a liberal bias, carping that conservative critics unfairly tarred him with the "liberal” brush.
Perhaps Moyers forgot that he clearly showed his liberal stripes when he devoted his last "Now” broadcast to a fierce blast at "the right-wing media.”
Moyers became embroiled in controversy after Kenneth Tomlinson took over as chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and cited "Now” as a chief reason why he wanted to bring "balance” to public broadcasting with more conservative programming.
In an interview with the publication Broadcasting & Cable, Moyers was asked: "Was your show liberally biased?”
He answered: "Right wing partisans like Tomlinson have always attacked aggressive reporting as liberal. We were biased all right – in favor of uncovering the news that powerful people wanted to keep hidden.”
He went on: "It is an old canard of right-wing ideologues like Tomlinson to equate tough journalism with liberalism. "They hope to distract people from the message by trying to discredit the messenger.”
But that’s exactly what Moyers did late last year when he used his last taxpayer-funded "Now” program to attack conservative media.
As NewsMax reported in December 2004:
Moyers also stated in an earlier program: "I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has [sic] become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee."
As NewsMax reported at the time: He failed to mention that for decades the left-wing media establishment, ranging from PBS and NPR to the New York Times and the CBS of Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, has been and continues to be a partisan propaganda arm of the Democratic National Committee.
Maybe Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather can confirm Moyer has no liberal bias.
Moyers Tops 'Dishonor' Awards; He Crafted 1964 "Daisy" Ad
Wes Vernon
Saturday, March 29, 2003
WASHINGTON -- PBS commentator Bill Moyers scored big time with two of the Media Research Center's Dishonor Awards Thursday night. The annual ceremony highlights stupid or biased statements out of the mouths of the mainstream media news and entertainment stars.
Moyers, an old Lyndon Johnson acolyte, received the tongue-in-cheek "Dishonors" in two categories: the "I Hate You Conservatives Award," and the "Quote of the Year."
Moyers, whose Public Television salary is subsidized by the American taxpayer, had delivered an angry on-air reaction to results of the mid-term election of November, 2002.
The film clip in question showed the pundit bemoaning the Republican Party's "monopoly control of the American government" that was "united by a right-wing agenda."
He did not note in passing that his Democrat party had "monopoly control" of the government united behind a left-wing agenda while his mentor was shoveling out taxpayer dollars to build the so-called Great Society.
In his "Dishonor" award-winning rant, this relic of the sixties big government era compared President Bush unfavorably to the "reasonable" Republicanism symbolized in the fifties by the now-deceased President Dwight Eisenhower. He did not mention that Ike's "reasonableness" may have been rooted in the shrinking GOP presence in congressional, state, and local offices during his presidency, as opposed to George W. Bush who (unreasonably?) has thus far successfully campaigned to expand GOP strength.
As one presenter pointed out, it was Moyers who crafted the calm, cool, objective "reasonable" "daisy" 1964 campaign commercial whose message was that Barry Goldwater wanted to nuke little children back to the stone age.
Moyers accused Bush of trying to "force women to give up control over their own lives," "using taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich," and of bringing America "judges with a political agenda appointed for life."
Speaking of the latter, he did not mention the "reasonable" vicious left-wing campaign against Bush court nominee Miguel Estrada, first Hispanic nominated for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals,
The next policy position Moyers takes that is anywhere right of dead left center will be the first.
It was 7:35 p.m. on an election night, '88 or '90. Moyers was posing as an "analyst" for CBS. (You can't make this stuff up.)
Very early returns had come in from a couple of southern/border states and they were trending Repbulican.
Moyers, clearly enraged, opined, "When you see the South voting Republican like this, that is racism."
He doesn't think he has a bias. CBS regards him as a suitable "analyst."
You can't make it up.
Mike Wallace of CBS even said something to the effect that he was liberally biased. When Wallace says that about you, well, that speaks volumes.
One either is a bigot or is not a bigot --
and it doesn't matter how "liberal," he claims to be.
The biggest crooks, will always demand that you believe they are honest.
Likewise, the biggest bigots, will claim to be the biggest liberals.
If Jesus were alive,
Bill Moyers would be leading the cries to "Crucify Him!"
He is the living Judas.
"We were biased all right – in favor of uncovering the news that powerful people wanted to keep hidden.” "
Like Clinton's rapes and the blue dress??
My favorite Moyers quote happened after he produced some show about how the chemical companies were poisoning our water. When someone accused him of being one sided and asked him why there were no executives from the companies he was accusing, on the show to give their side of things or to defend themselves, his reply was:
"When it comes to poisoning children their aren’t two sides"
He, Carter, Studs Terkel, Walter Cronkite, Molly Ivins and Garrison Keilor are all frauds. They pose as kindly moderate sages, when in fact they are hate filled glib chronic liars and as left wing as Michael Moore.
It is almost like there is this mental disease Bitter Old Liberal Syndrome. B.O.L.S.
If we could arrange a debate between Moyers and Coulter or Hannity, I think it is just possible, we could get him to literally flip out and have to be restrained by stage hands ala Jerry Springer.
Ahh, dueling sources! Here's a couple arguing for DDB having made the ad:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200108u/pp2001-08-08
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_(television_commercial)
Maybe it was Moyers' idea, but it was the ad agency you cited which produced it. At any rate, it was axed after one showing. Goldwater said that Moyers made him puke when he saw the Marshall, TX, native on public television. Goldwater also declared Robert Strange McNamara and Richard Milhous Nixon as the most dishonest men that he ever encountered in public life. Of course, Goldwater had thrice supported Nixon for president before he issued his warning.
It does seem odd that Goldwater was among the first to support Nixon's bid in 1968. Nixon advanced about as many Great Society programs as Johnson- minority preferences and the EPA among them. I think he invented "compassionate conservatism" without giving it the new name- it would still have been called 'liberal big government' without the spin.
McNamara is perhaps the most widely despised Secretary of Defense in American history, a distinction he worked hard at earning. Some old hands who knew McNamara think they see too much of him in Rumsfeld, who has also managed to alienate the uniformed military. People who admire Rummy whacking the press corp might be surprised to learn he isn't a big favorite.
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