ONE LESS GOOD GUY JOURNALIST
Bill Moyers Retiring From TV Journalism

From the AP via Yahoo, courtesy of my old pal Matt:

"I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee," says Moyers. "We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."

And

But Moyers believes that challenging those in power is a journalist's duty, and, consequently, his.

"What they're really objecting to is not my ideology," he says in his thoughtful, almost pastoral manner. "I'd be doing this if the Democrats were in power. It's not that I'm a liberal, it really isn't. It's the fact that I'm doing journalism that isn't determined by the establishment.

"You don't get rewarded in commercial broadcasting for trying to tell the truth about the institutions of power in this country," he goes on. "I think my peers in commercial television are talented and devoted journalists, but they've chosen to work in a corporate mainstream that trims their talent to fit the corporate nature of American life. And you do not get rewarded for telling the hard truths about America in a profit-seeking environment."

Through his own devices, Moyers has been the journalist he wanted to be, while honored for it with more than 30 Emmys and 10 Peabody awards.

Click here for the rest.

Moyers has really only come to my attention in the last few years, but they've been good years: I've read some of his fantastic essays and speeches about the sorry state of the corporate news media, and Now has worked its way onto my ever shrinking television viewing list; that he is a Texan is only icing on the cake. I understand that he's getting old, but his retirement is quite a loss to the alternative news scene.

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