Truth is hard to find these days. Honesty and integrity are in short supply, and the nation suffers because of it. Yet, good people do exist, and acclaimed journalist Bill Moyers was one of them. When he died on June 26 at age 91, the nation lost a man who leaves a legacy of faith and truth.
Moyers was in the public spotlight for more than 50 years and wrote/produced numerous films for PBS during that time. Many of his programs focused or touched on religious issues and reminded America that honesty, integrity and truth matter.
Cronkite once called him “the conscience” of our nation, and Cronkite was right. Sadly, Moyers died at a time when the U.S. as a country needs a conscience more than ever. But if we ever regain it, I doubt I’ll live to see it. I’m not ever my children will.
“A Wrong Number”
Who was Moyers? Billy Don Moyers was born in 1934 in Oklahoma but moved with his family to Texas soon afterward. He began his career in journalism at age 16 as a cub reporter for the Marshall News Messager.
When he was ready for college, he decided to major in journalism and liberal arts at the University of Texas, where he earned a bachelor’s degree. But religion and faith were important to him, and he felt called to be a minister.
Moyers earned a master’s in divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1954. He served as the part-time preacher of two churches before deciding his call to the ministry “was a wrong number.”
He eventually became deputy director of the Peace Corps and later, White House press secretary in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. Following the White House years, Moyers served as director of the Council on Foreign Relations, then senior news analyst for The CBS Evening News and chief correspondent for CBS Reports.
Despite these high-profile jobs, Moyers may be best remembered as an author, journalist and writer/producer of numerous programs for PBS. Some are available to watch on PBS.org and the PBS app.
Success at PBS
“Moyers covered stories in depth, frequently devoting whole episodes to a single issue such as Watergate, the Iran-Contra scandal or poverty and racial justice,” noted Geoff Bennett, co-anchor of the PBS NewsHour.
The writer/producer’s success at PBS came despite the fact that he used the “talking heads” program format, which journalists hate. This type of programming features one or more “talking heads” who speak directly to the camera or respond to an unseen or barely seen interviewer.
The media loathes the format because of its reputation for putting viewers to sleep, but Moyers made it work. His thoughtful questions elicited thoughtful and fascinating answers.
His reason for using talking heads says a great deal about the man: “The question is, are the talking heads thinking minds and thinking people? Are they interesting? …I think the most fascinating production value is the human face.”
A Legendary Program
Moyers’ six one-hour interviews with the incomparable Joseph Campbell in the mid-1980s became legendary. Campbell was an American writer and scholar whose specialty was religion and mythology.
And when the two men first sat down to shoot The Power of Myth, they were on the verge of creating programs that captured the attention of millions of viewers. Not surprisingly, the series was one of the most popular PBS productions of all time.
Each episode focused on a different theme or character – all of which were united by religious and cultural mythologies. Moyers asked interesting questions, and Campbell responded with answers that explored the ties that unite humankind.
It was television at its best, and I watched every single episode.
Another Epic Series
The 2006 PBS series Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason featured thought-provoking interviews with authors about their views on God and religion. Guests discussed such issues as whether “a world where religion is poison to some and salvation to others (can…) live together.”
They also tackled cultural identity and secularism, land and holy sites in the Middle East, the Ten Commandments in schools and courthouses, and other issues. All the while, Moyers’ greater focus was the junction of faith and politics.
Among his guests were author Salman Rushdie, an atheist who was born into a liberal Muslim family; sociologist Robert Bellah, who gained international recognition for his work on the sociology of religion; and Leon R. Kass, a physician and bioethicist.
His conversations with these and other writers provided insights into the ongoing argument between believers and nonbelievers and on the intolerance, fear and violent era in which we live.
Writer Salman Rushdie talked about the politicization of religion, which has great meaning in Trump’s 21st century America.
Philosopher Colin McGinn discussed religion, atheism and politics, and author Mary Gordon gave a fascinating interview for the episode called Death, Donald Trump and the Perils of ‘Either/Or’.
Defending the Truth
Moyers’ exchange with Gordon produced an unexpected answer that seemed to catch the seasoned interviewer off guard. He asked her, “What’s the work of the writer in a world where religion is salvation to many and poison to others?”
At one point in her reply, Gordon said that writers sometimes need to get into the heads of other people. Then she added a zinger: “I’m actually more comfortable thinking of (the inner life) of a suicide bomber… than I am of Donald Trump.”
You need to remember that in 2006 when Faith and Reason first aired, Trump was no more than a loud-mouthed businessman who had driven several businesses into bankruptcy and would bankrupt even more.
“Donald Trump –” she continued….
“The inner life of a suicide bomber?” Moyers responded.
“Yes –”
“– intrigues you more than the inner life of Donald Trump?” Moyers asked.
“I find it much more comprehensible,” Gordon said.
“What do you mean?” Moyers probed.
“I can very easily put myself in the imaginative place of believing that something is worth dying for and even worth killing for,” she explained. “And so, my imagination can understand somebody who would say, ‘this is a life-or-death thing. This is about the truth. And if I have to take lives in order to defend the truth, I will do it.’”
An Uncommon Journalist
Moyers worked on-and-off with PBS from 1971-2010 and was the recipient of 30 Emmys, 11 Peabody Awards, and the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Gold Baton Award for career excellence in broadcast journalism (twice). He also was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995.
He also played a key role in launching the Men’s Movement in the 1990s and profoundly impacting the medical community with his Healing of the Mind series in 1993, according to AP. He officially retired from his weekly PBS show in 2010.
His type of journalism was more common in the early years of his career and much less common now.
The journalist in me misses him.
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