His speech at the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform yesterday is burning up the Internets (though I have Joe to thank for directing me to it). In the speech Moyers says:
Edward R. Murrow told his generation of journalists, no one can eliminate their prejudices. Just recognize them.
Here is my bias.
Extremes of wealth and poverty 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.
When the state becomes the guardian of power and privilege to the neglect of the people who have neither power nor privilege we can no longer claim to have a representative government.
Read historian Gordon Wood’s landmark book “The Radicalism of the American Revolution.” America discovered its greatness, he writes, by creating a prosperous free society, belonging to obscure people with their work a day concerns, and pursuits of happiness, a democracy that changes the lives of hitherto neglected and despised masses of common, laboring people. […]
You will search the dominant media largely in vain for journalism that tells the truth about the fading of the American dream. As conglomerates swallow up newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, and broadcast outlets, news organizations are folded into entertainment divisions.
The news hole in the print media shrinks to make room for ads, celebrities, nonsense, and propaganda, and the news we need to know slips from sight. So it’s up to you to tell the truth about this country we love.
Of course, Moyers isn’t the only one concerned with the state of news today. The Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton hosted a two day workshop on the Future of News a couple weeks back. A full 8 hours of its sessions are available for download via podcast. I’m about half way through…