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Bill Moyers
Journalist
Live Web cast March 22, 2001 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT
 Listen to the event
The Shifting Relationship of Media, Politics and Industry
Bill Moyers is a broadcast journalist whose probing,
thoughtful coverage reaches for the highest common
denominator and assumes that viewing audiences will
make the intellectual effort to meet him there. In
doing so, he has spent decades enlightening Americans
about themselves, their culture and the complex world
around them.
Called one of the 10 journalists who most
significantly influenced television news by the
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences,
Moyers has produced more than 240 programming hours
since establishing Public Affairs Television in 1986.
His documentaries range from the hard-hitting (Moyers
on Addiction; Moyers on Dying in America; Facing the
Truth, the story of the aftermath of apartheid in
South Africa) and the marvelous (The Power of Myth;
Amazing Grace; Healing and the Mind) to the historical
and political (God and Politics; The Constitution in
Crisis; Minimum Wages).
Moyers combines a quick wit with deep reflection on
the human condition. In May 2000, he began a
commencement address at the University of Texas at
Austin with a promise to be brief. “I know you are
eager to get out of here because on Monday morning
each of you has to select a board of directors by
10:00, issue an IPO by noon, and open a bank account
by three with your first million,” he told the
graduates. More serious subjects followed the jokes:
the influence of money in politics, technology’s power
to do evil as well as good, and how millions of
hard-working Americans “play by the rules but still
get stiffed” by a system that – for example – leaves
so many without health insurance. His next
investigative report for PBS, part of a series on the
effect of corporate lobbying on democracy, looks at
what Americans don't know - and why - about the risks
that chemicals may pose to public health.
His 25-year career in broadcast journalism has been
recognized with many major awards, including over 30
Emmys; the Erik Barnouw Award from the Organization of
American Historians; the George Foster Peabody Award
for political reporting and international coverage;
and the Gold Baton, the highest honor of the Alfred I.
duPont/Columbia University Award. Five of the books
based on his television series, among them the 1971
work Listening to America have become bestsellers.
Born in Oklahoma on June 6, 1934 and raised in Texas,
Moyers began his journalism career at age 16 as a cub
reporter on the Marshall News Messenger. He earned his
B.A. in journalism with honors from the University of
Texas at Austin in 1956, and three years later
received his Bachelor of Divinity degree from
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at Fort
Worth, Texas. After serving as deputy director of the
Peace Corps during the Kennedy Administration, he
became the press secretary for former President Lyndon
B. Johnson. As the first presidential spokesperson to
make the transition to journalist, he has a unique
perspective on the forces effecting news coverage.
Moyers left the White House in 1967 to become
publisher of Newsday, served as editor-in-chief of
Bill Moyers' Journal an award-winning program on
public television, from 1970-76, and then moved on to
CBS. He has also served as president of The Florence
and John Schumann Foundation, and was a trustee of the
Rockefeller Foundation for 12 years.
He and his wife, Judith Davidson Moyers, have three
grown children.
Related Links:
Weapons of the Spirit
Yearning For Democracy
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