Originally published at: Bill Moyers Saw What Was Coming - TPM – Talking Points Memo
I cannot say for sure when Bill Moyers first developed such a clear eyed-view of the path we were heading down, but I can say that by the time I first started working for him in 2012, as America was clawing its way out of the recession that trailed the 2008 financial crisis, it was…
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“You know, that is one of the consequences of the weak sense of responsibility of the press. The press does not feel responsibility for its judgments. It makes judgments and attaches labels with the greatest of ease. Mediocre journalists simply make headlines of their conclusions, which suddenly become generally accepted.” ― Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Warning to the West
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Who could forget his series Power Of Myth with Joseph Campbell?
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A true genius. Sorry he has passed.
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His voice - steady, even, inflected, balanced, well-studied - has been sorely missed. Are there any Thought Leaders (besides Jon Stewart) who have taken up this mantle of Reason? Via con dios, Bill Moyers. A sad time for us all.
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I could never get over the Vietnam stuff. RIP
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Thank you for this. A worthy tribute to an outstanding human being.
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Not I. It came out in 1988, the year after I completed my doctorate and embarked on my academic career. I had always been fascinated by mythology and read quite a bit of it, but I’d not been exposed to its theoretical side at all.
Had it come out 16 years earlier (when I was in high school) it might have changed the course my academic career. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t happen on The Hero With a Thousand Faces (it was published in 1949) when I was in high school or as an undergrad.
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Twenty years ago Bill Moyers’ show on PBS was must watch TV for me and my leftie friends. There has been a huge void since he stopped making shows and nothing quite like him has come along to fill the void. He spoke with the authority of someone who had been there and done that.
I think all of our Moyers replacements are either comedians (Stewart, Oliver, Colbert) or podcast/social media mini-moguls. I admire all of these individuals, but he was a very big deal to me and I miss him greatly.
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Nobody could. Thus, by this obsession, folks of The Vietnam Drafteees Generation trash Medicare and the Civil Rights Act. Not “relevant”.
(sigh)
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It’s what the rent-seeking oligarchs and petty bigots of 21st century America do not understand.
“Look it up,” Bill concluded. “In the preamble to the Constitution: ‘We the people.’”
A preamble that MAGATs (ie: “petty bigots”) put on their bumpers, having no clue what the whole document is about.
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What’s important for the journalist is not how close you are to power but how close you are to reality
I may never find a more devastating single-sentence indictment of “access journalism.”
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Well, The Power of Myth DID come out in time for my college career and I most definitely chose a Study of Religion degree because of it. I think Bill’s interview with Joseph Campbell brought a measure of fame that Campbell wouldn’t have otherwise had (no offense to Joe). Unless, perhaps, some other journalist interviewed him, but who would that have been? Bill Moyers was the perfect person and vehicle to bring Joe to the masses. And we were ALL better off for it.
RIP Bill Moyers. I think his like shall not come our way again… 
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Reagan is giving testimony thru Alzheimer haze abt “arms-for-hostages”: he signed weapons transfer but in his heart this was not so. Moyer in a subsequent documentary about the Iran Contra affair showed this clip and said,(I paraphrase) “The President said that and it was a lie”. That day sometime in the early 90’s began the relentless campaign by the Republican’s (now the confederate nazi American goon Faction’s) relentless campaign to destroy public broadcasting system. And here we are.
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John, thank you. Well said.
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Excellent piece. Thank you.
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Don’t understand where you’re going? Bill Moyers could have quit the LBJ administration and opposed the Vietnam war. There are some mistakes you can’t recover from if you are a public figure.
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Thank you for this piece, it is a well stated, well deserved tribute to a true American. I have been fortunate to live in a time when true giants walked the streets of this nation. I count him as one among them. As my Mom used to say, “he was a real human being.” May his memory be a blessing.
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I read many of Bill Moyers’ pieces, but never saw the interviews with Joseph Campbell. I was just thinking I should look into those, since I enjoyed reading one of Campbell’s books. Well, they’re available on BillMoyers.com, but if you go there you’ll notice a message saying “Bill Moyers is taking a break.” Yes, indeed. But maybe someone will be inspired to carry on his work.
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I’ll join the chorus and thank you for this retrospective on a wonderful human. One aspect of his contribution that resonated with me was his coverage of poetry, specifically the Dodge poetry festival and his book “Fooling With Words.” RIP
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