User:THF/Moyers

Moyers's speech was singled out by conservative author David Limbaugh as an example of Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Presidential draft initiative
On July 24, 2006, liberal political commentator Molly Ivins published an article entitled Run Bill Moyers for President, Seriously on the progressive website Truthdig. Then in October 2006 Ralph Nader wrote an article supporting a Moyers candidacy. There was no effect from the op-eds, and Moyers did not run.

Allegations of bias
Bush-appointee Corporation for Public Broadcasting chairman Kenneth Tomlinson was a regular critic of Moyers; in 2003, he wrote to Pat Mitchell, the president of PBS, that "[NOW with Bill Moyers] does not contain anything approaching the balance the law requires for public broadcasting." In 2005, Tomlinson commissioned a study of the show. Tomlinson said that the study supported what he characterized as "the image of the left-wing bias of NOW". George Neumayr, the executive editor of The American Spectator, a conservative magazine, told the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer that "PBS looks like a liberal monopoly to me, and Bill Moyers is Exhibit A of that very strident left-wing bias... [Moyers] uses his show as a platform from which to attack conservatives and Republicans."

Moyers, who left the show in 2004 before returning in 2007, replied to this by saying that his journalism showed "the actual experience of regular people is the missing link in a nation wired for everything but the truth." Moyers characterized Tomlinson as "an ally of Karl Rove and the right-wing monopoly's point man to keep tabs on public broadcasting." Tomlinson, he said, "found kindred spirits at the right-wing editorial board of The Wall Street Journal where the 'animal spirits of business' are routinely celebrated." Moyers also responded to these accusations in a speech given to The National Conference for Media Reform, saying that he had repeatedly invited Tomlinson to debate him on the subject but had repeatedly been ignored.

During coverage of the 2004 presidential election, Moyers stated, "I think that if Kerry were to win this in a tight race, I think that there would be an effort to mount a coup, quite frankly. I mean that the right wing is not going to accept it." George Will poked fun at Moyers for that statement, saying that he "is an intellectual icon in the sort of deep blue precincts that think red America is paranoid." Morton Kondracke also criticized the remark, and David Asman of Fox News noted the hypocrisy of the remark coming from Moyers, given Moyers's criticism of the lack of "civil discourse" in opinion journalism. John Leo singled out the remark as one of the most "over-the-top" remarks of 2004.

Moyers has been a regular subject of viewer letters to PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler, who notes that "Moyers clearly has huge numbers of fans among PBS viewers, and they depend on his reporting, analysis and commentary. He clearly also has lots of critics who view him as a relentless Bush-basher." For example, a July 13, 2007, edition of Bill Moyers Journal discussed the possible impeachment of then-President George W. Bush and featured guests from opposing ends of the political spectrum that both supported impeachment; Getler praised Moyers for his initiative in highlighting different topics but said "there was almost a complete absence of balance" and "no rebuttal arguments or legal challenges" to the impeachment grounds laid out. Moyers and Getler discussed their views about balance in the next column. On August 16, 2007, Moyers stated that Karl Rove was a secular skeptic and agnostic who had manipulated the Christian right for partisan purposes. The next day, Rove denied he was an agnostic and criticized Moyers's remarks as inaccurate and relying upon a blogger; Getler criticized Moyers's remark as unsupported.

After producing an essay criticizing Israel's role in the Gaza war, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League sent a letter to Moyers accusing him of "anti-Semitism" and "ignorance" for suggesting that Jews were "genetically coded" for violence; Moyers denied the charges.

Personal life
Moyers married Judith Suzanne Davidson (a producer) on December 18, 1954. They have three children and five grandchildren. His son William Cope Moyers (CNN producer, Hazelden Foundation spokesman) struggled to overcome alcoholism as detailed in the book Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption. He includes letters from Bill Moyers in his book, which he says are "a testament to a father's love for his son, a father's confusion with his son, and ultimately, a father's satisfaction with his son." His other son, John Moyers, assisted in the foundation of www.TomPaine.com, "an online public affairs journal of progressive analysis and commentary", funded mostly by the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy foundation, which Bill Moyers runs.

Books

 * The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis : With Excerpts from an Essay on Watergate (1988), coauthor Henry Steele Commager, Seven Locks Press, hardcover: ISBN 0932020615, 1990 reprint: ISBN 0932020852, 2000 paperback: ISBN 0932020607; examines the Iran-Contra affair
 * The Power of Myth (1988), host: Bill Moyers, author: Joseph Campbell, Doubleday, ISBN 0385247737
 * A World of Ideas : Conversations With Thoughtful Men and Women About American Life Today and the Ideas Shaping Our Future (1989), Doubleday, hardcover: ISBN 0385262787, paperback: ISBN 0385263465
 * A World of Ideas II: Public Opinions from Private Citizens (1990), Doubleday, hardcover: ISBN 0385416644, paperback: ISBN 0385416652, 1994 Random House values edition: ISBN 0517114704
 * Healing and the Mind (1993), Doubleday hardcover: ISBN 0385468709, 1995 paperback: ISBN 0385476876
 * The Language of Life (1995), Doubleday hardcover: ISBN 0385479174, 1996 paperback: ISBN 0385484100, conversations with 34 poets
 * Genesis: A Living Conversation (1996), Doubleday hardcover: ISBN 0385483457, 1997 paperback: ISBN 0385490437
 * Sister Wendy in Conversation With Bill Moyers: The Complete Conversation (1997), WGBH Educational Foundation, ISBN 1578070775
 * Fooling with Words: A Celebration of Poets and Their Craft (1999), William Morrow, hardcover: ISBN 0688173462, 2000 Harper paperback: ISBN 0688177921
 * Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Times (2004), New Press, ISBN 1565848926, 2005 Anchor paperback: ISBN 1400095360; twenty selected speeches and commentaries
 * Moyers on Democracy (2008), Doubleday, ISBN 978-0385523806