Bill Moyers on the latest attack on NPR

[maxx]

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/bl...el_winshi.html

Double standard? You bet. A fundraiser for NPR is axed for his own personal bias and unprofessionalism but Ailes gets away scot free, still running a news division that is constantly pumping arsenic into democracy's drinking water while he slanders public radio as equal to the monsters and murderers of the Third Reich.

[Jimaz]

Pretty strong words for Moyers. Bravo!

Where else would you hear the programs you hear on NPR if it were not for NPR itself? Their detractors offer no comparable alternative. We need more NPRs not less. If they ever succeed in knocking NPR off the public airwaves, I'd recommend switching exclusively to foreign shortwave. That would then be the only hope to access any truth.

If these guys want to debase their own lives, fine, they should do that. But why do they insist on meddling in everyone else's life to the obsessive extent that they do? Why can't they simply mind their own business?

This is one of the reasons why, in my own vocabulary, I've replaced the phrase "powers that be" with the phrase "parasitic saboteurs in power." That new triad anchors two key flanks:

• The powerful are not necessarily constructive.
• The powerful are not necessarily benevolent.

Of course in an ideal world they should be both.

[gnome]

Wonder if Mr. M is ever going to own up to misleading the American people during the early going in Vietnam?

[maxx]

Wonder if Mr. M is ever going to own up to misleading the American people during the early going in Vietnam?

Please give a citation?

[lilpup]

turns out that the recording being used against NPR was heavily edited, too, to make the fundraiser's comments seem worse than they were

[Mikeg]

I don't know the particulars about any misleading of the public he may have done during the Vietnam war, but it wouldn't surprise me given Bill Moyer's past unethical behavior as a staff member and press flack for LBJ. Here's a guy who not only requested the FBI to investigate whether certain members of LBJ's administration and Goldwater's campaign staff were homosexuals, he also planted questions for LBJ among members of the press prior to a press conference so that he would be sure to get asked the right questions [sources: WashPost | Slate].

In Moyers' blog post "in defense of NPR", he describes NPR's nemesis as being "one of the sleaziest operatives ever to climb out of a sewer". His phrasing calls to mind the old adage "it takes one to know one"!

I find it amazing that anyone believes that Bill Moyers is somehow qualified to provide respected commentary on the ethical nature of current events involving the press and media.

[maxx]

How about giving specific examples from the Moyers' article that you disagree with.

[Mikeg]

How about giving specific examples from the Moyers' article that you disagree with.

It's easier to cite the one statement in the article that I agree with:

"public broadcasting has made its share of mistakes"

With Moyers' admission in his very first sentence that NPR has an ideological nemesis on the right, he undercuts the rest of his attempted defense of NPR.

[jiminnm]

Mikeg, don't forget that Moyers was also the architect of one of the most despicable political ads, the 1964 LBJ ad that pictured a little girl picking flowers with a mushroom cloud going off in the background [[implying that Goldwater would start a nuclear war with the USSR). Moyers denied it for a long time but I think he finally admitted it. I don't know if he ever apologized for it.

I fail to see why anyone pays any attention to him.

[Mikeg]

Mikeg, don't forget that Moyers was also the architect of one of the most despicable political ads, the 1964 LBJ ad that pictured a little girl picking flowers with a mushroom cloud going off in the background [[implying that Goldwater would start a nuclear war with the USSR). Moyers denied it for a long time but I think he finally admitted it. I don't know if he ever apologized for it.

I fail to see why anyone pays any attention to him.

You and me, both!

[gnome]

I happen to admire Mr. M's whole Mr. Roger's kindly veneer. It is a good dodge, but when you know a little about the guy you shouldn't be fooled by the act.

On the subject of the NPR sting... being an avid listener and supporter I am not at all surprised by what was revealed. The good and the bad. NPR has a left bent and the more they act like they don't, the dumber they sound. Their over reaction to Juan Williams is a clear afront to anyone who thinks being objective is a good thing.

If they want to stand for being progressive, stand for it, don't shy away from who you are.

[lincoln8740]

I happen to admire Mr. M's whole Mr. Roger's kindly veneer. It is a good dodge, but when you know a little about the guy you shouldn't be fooled by the act.

On the subject of the NPR sting... being an avid listener and supporter I am not at all surprised by what was revealed. The good and the bad. NPR has a left bent and the more they act like they don't, the dumber they sound. Their over reaction to Juan Williams is a clear afront to anyone who thinks being objective is a good thing.

If they want to stand for being progressive, stand for it, don't shy away from who you are.

Exactly. They can be as left as they want to be. Just no more Federal tax dolloars. If there wasn't taxpayer money involved would this even be a story?.

[maxx]

Mikeg, don't forget that Moyers was also the architect of one of the most despicable political ads, the 1964 LBJ ad that pictured a little girl picking flowers with a mushroom cloud going off in the background [[implying that Goldwater would start a nuclear war with the USSR). Moyers denied it for a long time but I think he finally admitted it. I don't know if he ever apologized for it.

I fail to see why anyone pays any attention to him.

Adman Tony Schwartz took credit for the ad in his book The Resonant Chord.
And why should Moyers or anyone apologize for it. Goldwater's own rhetoric did him in.

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Barry Goldwater

I could have ended the war in a month. I could have made North Vietnam look like a mud puddle.
Barry Goldwater'

You've got to forget about this civilian. Whenever you drop bombs, you're going to hit civilians.
Barry Goldwater“If I had inherited the mess that Johnson got into, I would have said to North Vietnam, by dropping leaflets out of B-52s, 'You quit the war in three days or the next time these babies come over there going to drop some big bombs on you.' And I'd make a swamp out of North Vietnam ... I'd rather kill a hell of a lot of North Vietnamese than one American and we've lost enough of them,” Barry Goldwater quote

[maxx]

It's easier to cite the one statement in the article that I agree with:

"public broadcasting has made its share of mistakes"

With Moyers' admission in his very first sentence that NPR has an ideological nemesis on the right, he undercuts the rest of his attempted defense of NPR.

Bull, moderate Republicans like Miliken have the same ideological nemesis. Today Goldwater would be considered a raving liberal by Republicans.

RE: the article
Did another news outlook cover the Watergate hearings in the depth that NPR did? Did Moyers get that wrong?
Is Moyers wrong about Bush's planting of Republican ideologues in the CPB?

Is Moyers wrong in making a distinction between the fundraiser Schiller and the news director?

Is Moyers wrong about NPR's impartial treatment of political groups like the Tea Party?

Is he wrong in his noting how ideologues like Beck are promoted by Fox?

And if you disagree with Mears's assessment of NPR, give examples.