Why does Bill Moyers get a bad rap?

I don't know why people think that Bill Moyers is not to be listened to. The other day I ran across a comment on a news site and the writer dismissed out of hand that Moyers had been used as a source. You knew that the commentator on the news story had not even gone to the Moyers reference to check it out.


For the past two weeks, Bill Moyers has been having as his guest Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a media analyst, very bright and perceptive, commenting on the elections and the absolutely god-awful bullshit coverage on the TV. My god I am so tired of it. The talking heads are absolutely incapable of discussing the issues or even asking the questions that would focus on the issues.


Tonight Jamieson gave her comments on the Iowa and NH votes. Also, Moyers interviewed Shelby Steele, a conservative (!) essayist and scholar at the Hoover Institute at Stanford, commenting on Obama. Steele has just published a book on Obama called A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama And Why He Can't Win. Steele wrote a book called The Content of Our Character which I read a number of years ago with real appreciation. A really interesting interview.


Both the commentary by Jamieson and the interview with Steele can be found here. If you come to this post late, search Moyers' site for the references to the program.


You might enjoy it if for nothing else than the pleasant change of pace from the crap shoot on NBC, Fox, CBS, CNN. (Only C Span will give you some interesting actual coverage of the issues as the candidates discuss them. The rest of the idiots are more interested in sound bytes and stupidity. I have a fantasy of calling up and getting on Hardball and telling Mathews to shut the hell up and start doing some real journalism.)


You have to grant me this: listening to Moyers talk about the issues and the quality of the reporting is a hell of a lot more interesting than watching somebody like Wolf Blitzer or even the mainstream tools at Washington Week that follows the Moyers show out here in PST zone. (Washington Week which is now sponsored by National Journal and the National Mining Association. Sheeesh. Or as Archie Bunker used to sneer, Jeez, Editht!