One of America's great journalists and commentators turns a year older...er, more seasoned...today.
Moyers. Bill Moyers.
Besides having an impeccable first name, he also has a sterling reputation as a straight shooter, a passionate advocate for truth and the best qualities of democracy, and---shameless plug here---donor of some autographed, must-have items for the next YearlyKos auction.
But, my goodness, what an awards hog the birthday boy is:
Recipient of the 2006 Lifetime Emmy, "Bill Moyers has devoted his lifetime to the exploration of the major issues and ideas of our time and our country, giving television viewers an informed perspective on political and societal concerns," according to the official announcement, which also noted, "the scope of and quality of his broadcasts have been honored time and again. It is fitting that the National Television Academy honor him with our highest honor – the Lifetime Achievement Award." He has received well over thirty Emmys and virtually every other major television journalism prize, including a gold baton from the Dupont Journalism awards, a lifetime Peabody award, and a George Polk Career Award (his third George Polk Award) for contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been the recipient of numerous honorary degrees.
I'll reserve the extended copy section for some of Moyers' wisdom. I couldn't let the day go by without a diary to pay tribute to a man who makes Fox News look very...
Very...
Very...
Small.
Happy 73rd Birthday, Bill. And, as I always say in C&J: Many blessings on your camels.
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Some good quotes from ThinkExist.com:
"Democracy may not prove in the long run to be as efficient as other forms of government, but it has one saving grace: it allows us to know and say that it isn't."
"There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. Free Press is at the heart of that struggle."
"In one way or another, this is the oldest story in America: the struggle to determine whether "we, the people" is a spiritual idea embedded in a political reality -- one nation, indivisible -- or merely a charade masquerading as piety and manipulated by the powerful and privileged to sustain their own way of life at the expense of others."
"Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of"
"War, except in self-defense, is a failure of moral imagination."
And from a 2005 speech to the National Conference on Media Reform:
But the real hope "lies within the Internet with its 2 billion or more Web sites providing a wealth of information drawn from almost unlimited resources that span the globe. ... If knowledge is power, one’s capacity to increase that power increases exponentially through navigation of the Internet for news and information."
Surely this is one issue that unites us as we leave here today. The fight to preserve the Web from corporate gatekeepers joins media, reformers, producers and educators — and it’s a fight that has only just begun.
And...
One reason I’m in hot water is because my colleagues and I at NOW didn’t play by the conventional rules of Beltway journalism. Those rules divide the world into Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, and allow journalists to pretend they have done their job if, instead of reporting the truth behind the news, they merely give each side an opportunity to spin the news.
Take your vitamins, kid. We need you to stick around a bit longer.
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