Bill Moyers v. the Media/Government Clusterfuck

I caught Amy Goodman interviewing Bill Moyers on Democracy Now!, where he was pimping his new series on PBS. In it he rehashes how the media allowed the government, quite willingly, to use it to sell the war. Including letting officials leak reports to them and then use those stories to bolster the claims in those reports, allowing them to use reporters in staged press conferences. Basically whoring themselves out to ensure future access and scoop their competitors.

To me, none of this is news. The part of the interview that did pique my attention, and certainly caught the lovely Amy off guard, occured when she brought up the fact that the administration had been monitoring Moyers' content through their appointee to head the CPB, Ken Tomlinson. Bill's answer was not a swipe at the current regime, but at the problem of dependance on government money in general:

But PBS has been a marvelous source of creativity and alternative information, Amy, but it will never achieve its full potential until is slips the tether of government support. Only 17% of PBS’s budget comes from Congress, but that 17% compromises the system so much that unconsciously people know that there are places you can't go, there are things you don’t do. And we serve a sort of centrist role here. I’m fortunate. I don’t take public -- my new series does not have public money in it. I didn't take any money from CPB or any money from PBS. I raised it all from foundations and corporations that believe in the independence of journalism. I am independent. But until PBS finds a way -- has it own trust fund, no longer has to go up with its cup out to Congress, it’s not going to achieve its full potential, although I take my hat off to my colleagues throughout the system, because they do the best job they can.

Goodman quickly tried to shift the focus to corporate money, but while Moyers agreed with its potential corrupting influence, his criticism was not nearly as strong:

And, yes, going to get support from people who have identities to sell, images to promote, is compromising if we’re not very careful. I’ve had one corporate underwriter for over seventeen years: Mutual of America Insurance Company. They have not once in seventeen years, through some of the most controversial programming on public television, mine, have they ever interfered, have they ever asked Monday morning questions, have they ever been troubled. They may have been troubled, but they wouldn't say anything to me about it. They got lots of criticisms when I would do certain broadcasts, but Mutual has never interfered. I am very lucky in that regard.

The focus quickly changed to the the old hat observations of the incestuous nature of the Washington, DC elite and the corrupting nature of campaign money, and I quickly lost interest.

Update: Friday's episode of B.M. Journal will feature an interview with John Stewart. I tried to watch last night's episode, but I turned it off after a few minutes. Instead I watched the recording of Tuesday's Daily Show with the John McCain Interview.

He's fucked.

Yeah. You're all fucked.