Today’s news media have a few quality commentators, but for the most part they are talking heads, regurgitating corporate swill to infotain the masses. Not long ago we had a journalist who commanded respect. I did not always agree with him, but integrity demanded that I respect him as a true giant walking in a forest of gnomes. I am most pleased that he will soon be back on the air.
You already may have heard that I’d be coming back in January with a new series on the public television station nearest you. But you may not have heard exactly why. It’s not just that I lack retirement skills, as my wife and co-editor, Judith, keeps reminding me. Or that the squeaky rocking chair on the front porch got on my nerves. I’m coming back because in tumultuous times like these I relish the company of people who try to make sense of the tumult. These are the people I’ll bring to our new broadcast, Moyers & Company.
Journalism has long been for me a continuing course in adult education. Given what’s happening in this country, it’s time to sign up for more classes. The lack of civility and common sense that has paralyzed our democracy, the vast economic and social inequality that sends both left and right raging into the streets, the corrosive influence of money in politics – we’re in a tailspin with little hope for a course correction from our elected leadership or corporate-dominated media. The need for voices of reason, simple and eloquent, has rarely been stronger… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Truth-out>
I for one look forward to his return, and I’m glad to see that, under the Obama administration, PBS is welcoming such journalists again, instead of the Bush administration forcing them out.
8 Responses to “The Return of a Giant”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
It will be like a breath of fresh air to me.
Indeed he will!
Certainly agree with this—and most certainly agree with your assessment of the plethora of “gnomes” spouting “swill” from scripts handed to them—
Thanks, Phyllis. I’ll be posting another article on media in less than an hour.
It is most welcome news to see him come back!
Jack, I agree.
There are several lines worthy of quoting, but to me this is the best. And even better than being the best, it is universal — there are no political boundaries, no national borders, no philosophical fences to climb.
“. . .the health of our body politic is everybody’s business. . . . ”
My other favouite quote is the following, and I would go so far as to change the word ‘Journalism’ to ‘Life’.
“Journalism has long been for me a continuing course in adult education. Given what’s happening in this country, it’s time to sign up for more classes.”
I look forward to following him on the internet since I don’t have television.
These are some of the reasons I call him a giant.