Bill Moyers: On America

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I recently read Bill Moyers' On America and was reminded again why Bush Republicans run from him (in the words of Paul Begala) "like vampires from holy water." Moyers is the real deal: a liberal who's beliefs are grounded in morality, passion, history and the American tradition. In short, Moyers is everything they wish they were, but still a Democrat.

In the chapter entitled The Fight of Our Lives, Moyers discusses a subject close to his heart--the media:

When journalism throws in with power, the first news marched by censors to the guillotine is the news the authorities don't want us to know. The greatest moments in the history of the press came not when journalists made common cause with the state but when they stood fearlessly independent of it.

He points out that we live in an age of convergence, when a quasi-official partisan press is ideologically linked to an authoritarian administration that is, itself, linked to power financial interests.

Yeah, I know -- opponents use this kind of observation to accuse Moyers of wearing a tin-foil hat. But that's their standard canard -- call someone crazy when they get too close to the truth:

Conspiracy is unneccessary when ideology hungers for power and its many adherents swarm of their own accord to the same pot of honey.

Stretching from the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal to the faux news of Rupert Murdoch's empire to the nattering nabobs of know-nothing radio to a legion of think tanks bought and paid for by conglomerates, the religious, partisan, and corporate right has raised a mighty megaphone for sectarian, economic, and plitical forces that aim to transform the egalitarian and democratic ideals embodied in our founding documents.

With no strong opposition party to challenge such triumphalist hegemony, it is left to journalismto be domocracy's best friend.

Like I always say: one job of government is to keep an eye on business and make sure the power of money does not overwhelm the power of the people. And who keeps an eye on government? An independent press.