Bill Moyers & PBS Must Be Preserved !!!

"I decided long ago that this wasn’t healthy for democracy. I came to see that news is what people want to keep hidden, and everything else is publicity. In my documentaries, whether on the Watergate scandal thirty years ago, or the Iran-Contra conspiracy twenty years ago, or Bill Clinton’s fundraising scandals ten years ago, or five years ago the chemical industry’s long and despicable cover up of its cynical and unspeakable withholding of critical data about its toxic products, I realized that investigative journalism could not be a collaboration between the journalist and the subject. Objectivity was not satisfied by two opposing people offering competing opinions, leaving the viewer to split the difference. I came to believe that objective journalism means describing the object being reported on, including the little fibs and fantasies, as well as the big lie of people in power." -Bill Moyers, PBS journalist

I really thought Bill Moyers' interview with Pema Chodron on PBS last night was extremely worthwhile television in every conceivable sense of the phrase. It didn't matter whether you were a red or a blue person (or green or orange or yellow or purple or cream-colored), Pema said it herself, "Everyone has the ability to be liberated." I just hope we as a people, enough of us at least, WAKE UP to what the current government is trying to do in America, which is to stamp out opposing views and control our minds, basically, just as George Orwell describes in "1984." After the Bill Moyers show aired, PBS ran an interview with the Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Journalism, Dr. Schell (I think). He said the politicians are trying to turn our news into pure public relations instead of true Democratic journalism and free press. That was a very important point. When Bill Moyers was attacked from within by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, he gave a tremendous rebuttal in the form of a speech at the National Conference on Media Reform in St. Louis, Missouri on May 15, 2005. The long quote above is an excerpt from that speech, and I've linked to the whole speech if you click on the title of this blog entry. Bill Moyers has the kind of integrity we need to preserve and elevate in this country, and certainly it must not be squelched by the fear-based conservatives trying to take over our country right now. My hat is off to Bill Moyers and any journalist with the guts to tell the real truth about whatever issue he or she decides to report on, regardless of anyone in power's position on the events in question. (OK, now I'll hop down off my tiny e-soapbox!)

This whole blog entry was inspired by an email from my brother Dave. Here is the text of his email, and the reply I just sent him because I think it might be helpful to others (perhaps):

"Hey Walt! Thanks for the heads up on the Bill Moyers program (we used to see him around the Upper W Side). We caught most of the show. I liked Pema Chodron's comments about 'faith' and 'God,' and am still trying to wrap my head around the 'groundlessness' stuff she was talking about."

Here's part of my response explaining the 'groundlessness' stuff:

Basically, groundlessness means that even though we all live under the general illusion that things are as they appear, the truth is much different than that and can easily be shattered (for example, when her husband requested a divorce out of the blue or when the planes hit the twin towers). In those moments, suddenly we realize that we aren't really standing on terra firma, that everything is subject to unexpected change at any given moment. Do you honestly have any idea what will happen to you tomorrow? Do any of us? We have some good guesses, but you never know for sure. The more aware of this constantly changing nature of reality we are, the more prepared we are when something does in fact come along and rock our world. I hope that helps--it's basically the same exact thing Pema said.

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