Bill Moyers addresses NCMR 2008

Thanks, Carolyn.
I've been sick with the flu bug and couldn't make the event. One of my bigger regrets.

The words Politicly Correct should not be an American past time. People should be able to speak without reprisal on any subject.

Donahue's comments were F'n awesome too.

thank god for current tv, and screw the main stream media

Thank God for Link TV, FSTV and current. Thank God for the Pacifica newtork which was established in 1945 to give people a media without any corporate sponsors and no government money. Link TV is part of the Pacifica network and works on the people support only. Media control has got to be stopped the Rupert Murdoch's must go.

“Extremes of poverty and wealth cannot be reconciled with a truly just society. Capitalism breeds great inequality that is destructive unless tempered by an intuition for equality which is the heart of Democracy.”

I just found my new favorite quote. Thanks Mr Moyers and thank you Caroyln for posting this speech.

Bill Moyers is an American Hero. Thank goodness for his candor.

Thanks Carolyn for putting his talk on Current. I know one thing for certain, we must take back the free press.

AS Robroy1 stated, "Media control has got to be stopped, Rubert Murdoch's must go....

I don't care for television news, I prefer to get my news off the net. I can filter out most of the garbage that way, but millions of Americans are dependent upon mainstream media, we must work harder to get unbiased new coverage to the masses.

Indeed, Bill Moyers embodies everything I aspire to as an American. Thanks.

My trust in American media was broken when the major networks began broadcasting from China before the Tiananmen uprising in 1989. I had been working in/with China and had some measure of inside understanding about politics and society there as well as direct experience with Chinese officials working hard for increased openness and relaxed relations with the outside world.
In 1989 in Bryant Gumbel's final morning broadcast from Shanghai, in an interview with two local children, he asked why their government had been making things difficult for he and his crew during their stay in China. I was shocked! What an arrogant and rude thing to do!

Of course, the children did not know how to respond and American audiences learned nothing of value about the behind the scenes experiences that had bothered Bryant. But the moment did grab attention.

It was so irresponsible. Whatever experiences he and his crew had behind the scenes could have been made into an informative program after return to the U.S. In fact, the experiences should have been included in follow up programs with input from "China hands" and/or other scholarly folks who could have put the experiences into a meaningful context and actually provided insights into the complexity of China's political system and in the lives of ordinary people. {At that time.}

But of course, China was meant only to be a trendy backdrop to Bryant's show. [That is how I felt about the China broadcasts after that show and the one that followed that evening.]

That same evening Brokaw's [was it he? I which journalist] introduced his final program - one about Tibet - with the boast that he had lied to the Chinese officials - promising not to air an interview with the Dalai Lama in conjuction with the program -in return for the privilege of making the program in China.

Of course, no-one taught the journalists about the fact that many good Chinese officials were working very hard under very difficult circumstances to facilitate greater opening up and cultural exchange, including the opportunity they were enjoying at the time. But such knowledge should not be necessary in order to realize how rude it was to impose an adult problem on children and to boast about a lie.]

Thus it was no surprise anymore when I found that - after the crack down in Tiananmen Square - the commercially correct view was to link the Tiananmen uprising to 1960's America - you know, the flower in the gun barrel picture. This revealed nothing about the actual situation and personalities involved in the events unfolding in 1989, not to mention the actual outcome of the crack down. [Which swept many good officials off the stage for ever. Probably even some of the people Bryant had no appreciation for.]

Americans learned nothing about China, but did have a good time seeing the world in their own image.

Well, China is in the news again and is still getting the tourist view treatment for the most part, even from some NPR staff whom I still like anyway.

Since my personal awakening to the unreliability of American media, the situation indeed has only gotten much, much worse.

Thank you so much for posting Moyer's speech and thanks to all of the supporters of the free pathways of the Internet whose sites and links brought me here at this time to be among like minded individuals. Thank you for the passion and the sense of hope you bring.

[Yes, we CAN.]

I would also like to put in a word in for the many, many families who cannot afford Internet access and whose members have little clue what they are missing (and needing to know).

We must fight not only for a free press and open Internet access, but also for affordable access to the Internet and the technologies that make it so powerful.

You can lobby your public access station to carry Democracy Now! for free.

http://www.democracynow.org/get_involved/bring_to_stati...

You've got to ask why this isn't front and centre on the front page. If this isn't at the heart of current then current doesn't have a heart.