#BillMoyers #Journalism #USpol
Billy Don Moyers (June 5, 1934 – June 26, 2025) was an American journalist and political commentator
i only knew of bill moyers from his interviews with joseph campbell (a tv series and book called “the power of myth”).
thus morning i received an interesting newsletter from mother jones about bill’s legacy, and wanted to share some quotes
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Moyers was acutely aware, sooner than most, that big money was eating away at American democracy. “Ninety-six percent of the people believe it’s important that we reduce the influence of money [in politics],” he said in a 2014 interview. “Yet 91 percent think it’s not likely that its influence will be lessened. Think about that: People know what’s right to do yet don’t think it can or will be done. When the public loses faith in democracy’s ability to solve the problems it has created for itself, the game’s almost over. And I think we are this close to losing democracy to the mercenary class.” He went on to say that “there are people fighting back [and] if it weren’t for them, I would despair. It’s the people who are doing the nonviolent organizing at the grassroots that make me think there’s still hope.”
“If the watchdog doesn’t bark… how do you know there’s a burglar in the basement? And the press is supposed to be a watchdog.”
When I was growing up, I never heard anyone pray, “Give me this day my daily bread.” It was always, “Give us this day our daily bread.” That stuck. We’re all in this together. I take “We, the People” seriously because I don’t know how we build a civilization without reciprocity...
news is what’s hidden, everything else is publicity…
Q: We’ve always had an upper class in America. What’s different now?
Moyers: The rich today are richer, there are more of them, they have round-the-clock propaganda factories…
One of our two major parties is dominated by extremists dedicated to destroying the social contract and the other party has been so enfeebled by two decades of collaboration with the donor class it can offer only feeble resistance to the forces that are devastating everyday people. Our economy is a plantation run for the aristocrats — the CEOs, hedge funds, private equity firms — while the field hands are left with the scraps…
They have raised ignorance to ideology and stupefied an entire political party…
Donald Trump did not come out of nowhere,” Moyers closed. “When he rode into town, it was ripe for plucking.”…
“…a conviction once expressed by Robert La Follette: “Democracy is a life, and requires daily struggle.” If it weren’t for them, I would despair. There’s a scene in Conrad’s The Secret Agent when the anarchist grows despondent over whether even the detonation of a bomb might arouse Londoners: “What if nothing could move them?”
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a link to the 2014 interview
https://billmoyers.com/2014/05/08/an-interview-with-bill-moyers/
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