Posted on 11/14/2002 8:35:03 PM PST by Sparta
BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the Back of the Book segment, the Bill Moyers empire. The liberal commentator works at PBS where his left-wing outlook has drawn some attention -- by us yesterday -- and Mr. Moyers is very, very well funded. He is paid $200,000 by The Florence & John Schuman Foundation. As the president, Moyers oversees $75 million in grant money. Much of it flows into some very interesting hands. In addition, Moyers has a production company that is paid by PBS, which, of course, gets taxpayer money.
Joining us now from Washington is a man who's been investigating Moyers and his money. Stephen Hayes is a staff writer at the conservative [magazine] The Weekly Standard.
We always like to tell everybody what -- you know, the publication -- which way they tilt just to be fair. But I want to talk money, not ideology. We took care of Moyers and the ideology last night. Seventy-five million dollars is a lot of jack to control. What's he doing with it?
STEPHEN HAYES, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Well, he's doing -- he's doing a lot of things with it. I mean, one of them is he is giving a lot of money to left-wing organizations, campaign-finance organizations, media organizations, environmental groups that agitate for change, basically advocacy groups, in short, that agitate for change in public policy.
O'REILLY: All right, but it's all in the liberal realm. He doesn't kick...
HAYES: All of it.
O'REILLY: ... over any into other causes or other...
HAYES: Nothing.
O'REILLY: All right.
HAYES: He has a couple -- I -- you know, to be fair, he has a couple that could be probably qualified as centrist. He gives some to the Columbia Journalism Review.
O'REILLY: Well, I want to go -- I want to get to that in a moment. But he gives $2 million to his son, John Moyers, who runs tompaine.com...
HAYES: That's right.
O'REILLY: ... the far left Web site. So he gets $2 million from Daddy to put out his New York Times advertisements. People go, "Well, who pays for those?" Well, his father pays for it.
HAYES: Right.
O'REILLY: But, you know, this is America, and, if Bill Moyers can get a job that pays him $200,000 to give money to his liberal friends, more power to Bill Moyers. What a deal. However, then he goes on to PBS.
Now here we're into the taxpayer arena. Back to that. And he's an avowed -- avowed -- liberal, trying his best to, you know, get the propaganda out. And he's paid for by your money, my tax money, and everybody's tax money, correct?
HAYES: That's exactly right. Moyers would tell you that he doesn't have an agenda, which, I think, you know, is...
O'REILLY: Yes, it's ridiculous. It's absurd.
(CROSSTALK)
HAYES: ... yesterday is absurd.
O'REILLY: Yes, it's absurd.
HAYES: Yes, he -- no, he spends our money. He -- like you said, it flows freely to Bill Moyers and through PBS, through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
O'REILLY: Now we couldn't find out how much he's making on his PBS program, which is not really a successful program, reaches, you know, maybe a million people a week, maybe a little bit more. Did you find out how much he's being paid?
HAYES: No, he would never -- PBS won't tell me. Moyers wouldn't disclose it. Moyers says he's a small, independent contractor, and he doesn't need to divulge these kinds of things to...
O'REILLY: But doesn't PBS has a fiduciary duty to break down where its money goes because there is some public money flowing into it?
HAYES: Well, it will break down -- PBS will give you breakdowns. I would say they're very complicated breakdowns that, you know, con -- I spent a month on the story and, at the end of the day, had to phone the PBS president to say, "How does this stuff work?" and she basically said to me...
O'REILLY: Yes. They're giving you the two-step.
HAYES: Yes. Well, she said, "Look," you know, "even I can't really tell you how it works."
O'REILLY: Yes, because Moyers doesn't get a check right from PBS. They pay his production company, right?
HAYES: Right, right. They pay his production company. He may take some profits from that. You know, like I said, it's just all this kind of murky, shady area. We just don't know.
O'REILLY: All right. So now Moyers is basically, then, making -- well, you've got to figure he's making a half-million bucks a year with the two -- with the foundation -- probably paying him about $300,000, $350,000 for the PBS show, and then his lecture fees. He's all over the place bashing me, getting paid money for doing that. So he's doing well for a socialist, right?
HAYES: Yes, he is, and let me -- let me make this one point to you. I thought we weren't getting into ideology. I'm happy to go there.
O'REILLY: Oh, it was a cheap shot. You know me.
HAYES: I'm happy to go there.
O'REILLY: Big mouth O'Reilly. Go ahead.
HAYES: No, here -- the one thing that we're not talking about that we should be talking about and it might be the most lucrative portion of the Moyers empire is the royalties he gets.
Basically, what happens in -- you know, to give you the thumbnail overview, is that Moyers will fund these left-wing groups. The left-wing groups will then promote Moyers' show. PBS and Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the taxpayers -- the United States taxpayers will air these programs, but then they don't retain the rights to the resale of these programs.
So you go on amazon.com or some such site, do a search for Bill Moyers, and you'll see 40 products. People can pay 30 bucks a pop for these Moyers' documentaries that PBS...
O'REILLY: And he gets it.
HAYES: ... that we have paid for.
O'REILLY: That's -- we -- wait. We fund -- let me just explain it.
HAYES: Exactly.
O'REILLY: We gave him the money, the taxpayer, to go out and shoot the documentaries, OK. Then they run on PBS one time, and then he sells them and gets all the money.
HAYES: That's exactly right.
O'REILLY: So we're funding his enterprise.
HAYES: Right.
O'REILLY: But it even gets worse. Bill Moyers got a Columbia DuPont Award, didn't he?
HAYES: He did.
O'REILLY: How much money did he give Columbia?
HAYES: I don't know the exact figure, but, over the course of the past decade, it's been a lot of money. I mean, he gives some to "The Journalism Review," he gives some to the school, he gives...
O'REILLY: We think it -- we're looking at more than a million, I think.
HAYES: Yes. At least.
O'REILLY: All right. So he gets the Columbia DuPont Award, the biggest prestigious award and he's kicking money to Columbia. Ha-ha.
HAYES: Yes, it's -- it's pretty grim. I mean, the Columbia people I talked to said...
O'REILLY: I'll say. Oh, come on.
HAYES: ... said, "Hey, this isn't a big deal." But lawyers should certainly disclose that, huh?
O'REILLY: Of course, it's a big deal. Yes. I mean, look, it's rotten, rotten, rotten, rotten.
HAYES: It stinks. You're right.
O'REILLY: All right. Mr. Hayes, thank you very much. We appreciate it.
HAYES: Thank you, Bill.
O'REILLY: Bill Moyers is welcome on this program anytime. We'll give him plenty of time to set us straight.
Bump!!
You must be joking. The BBC, especially BBC Radio, makes Rosa Luxemburg look like Maggy Thatcher. The BBC has always been a heavily-biased left-wing sanctimonious organ. They're far to the left of PBS and NPR. Scary.
I'll bet 3/4 of these commentators are financing Yasser Arafart.
I can't believe Sparta ever listens to the BBC.
I have listened regularly for 30 years.
As recently as 5 years ago I still thought them fairly impartial.
Now I don't listen any more for more than 5 minutes,
just to see what they are up to.
One small example: The BBC in their impartial reports frequently refers to 'the warmongers' in Bush's cabinet.
Excellent idea. In fact, the mantra of the incoming Congress should be a top to bottom review of how to "Defund the Left."
Democrats are already at a disadvantage because of the soft money ban, and they have more Senate seats to defend in the next two elections. Republicans can cement their majority by turning off the cash nozzle of taxpayer funds that wind up among the long and sundry "public policy groups" that are nothing more than fronts for leftist advocacy.
Leni
For those who want to defund PBS/NPR, as I do with every fiber in my body, click on my name. You'll see a list of 100+ Republicans who refused to reduce "Public Broadcasting" just 1%.
Don't give up! Just recognize that we have to educate 'em!
I don't care if it's abolished. I just want the taxpayer support to stop.
Let them get their money the old-fashioned way.
Get sponsors. (If they can.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.