One More Reason Why Everyone Should Pay Attention to Bill Moyers (As If You Really Needed One More Reason)

When i was a kid, journalist (and former LBJ Press Secretary) Bill Moyers released a hugely popular series of interviews with aging scholar Joseph Campbell centered on Campbell’s specialty: the meanings and cultural traditions of myth and how those meanings and traditions apply to the modern world.  I watched those specials for three reasons.  Firstly, because i was a nerd, and one of my nerdly obsessions, even as a wee lad, was ancient mythology.  Secondly, i watched those interviews because, as a nerd, i loved PBS and watched it regularly (Nova was like mother’s milk to me, and, come to think of it, it still is).  The third (and most important) reason why i watched those interviews was because a large part of Campbell’s discussion on the modern relevance of mythology involved using the original Star Wars trilogy as a prime example of the classic mythological archetypes still being ever present in the 20th century (I told you i was a nerd), and the fact is that i would’ve watched damn near anything that had to do with Star Wars.

I didn’t know who Bill Moyers was, nor did i care.  To my unfocused kiddy brain, he was just another old guy with glasses rambling on about godknowswhat while all i wanted to hear was Campbell talk about why Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi were important figures in modern America.  Yet a foundation was being laid there without my knowing it; a foundation that would allow me, decades later, to be able to fully appreciate quality academic programming.  Now, at the age of 28, i am an unabashed fan and viewer of such criminally under-appreciated programs as The News Hour With Jim Lehrer, Charlie Rose, and, of course, Bill Moyers Journal.  Really, it should shock no one that all three of those shows are on PBS.

This is worth mentioning because out of my sizable circle of friends, all of whom are in their 20’s and many of whom are more well-educated (and flat-out more intelligent) than I, I am the only one who watches these kinds of shows with any real regularity.  There are one or two others in that group that may watch on occasion, and there are one or two that keep themselves properly informed about current affairs in other ways (Drudge, periodicals, BBC America, and whathaveyou), but i feel it’s safe to say that i’m the only one that would put a poster of Mr. Moyers on my wall if such a poster existed (i said on my wall, not over my bed, you dirty dirty sons of bitches).

That is not meant as a jab at my friends.  They are mostly a very bright lot; some of them are extremely well-read, some of them are very capable debaters and discussors of important whatnots, and I love them all.  My point is that there are a limited number of twenty-somethings who watch this kind of programming regularly and actually enjoy it, and i am a proud member of that minority.  I didn’t go to Harvard or Berkeley.  I do not hold a respectable job.   But jeebus be damned, i sure love me some enlightening and well-crafted journalism.

Getting back on point, when i was very young i watched those interviews, and then i watched them again, and again (lucky for me, VCRs had just become affordable enough for us to start recording our favorite shows and Charlie Brown Specials).  A few years later, i read Campbell’s most popular book, The Power of Myth, and it had an enormous influence on me in terms of my academic interests and direction (i ended up a history major and philosophy minor, after all, and even then i regret not taking more anthropology).  Still, even as a burgeoning thinker and ponderer, I didn’t care about Bill Moyers.  He was the just the guy who interviewed The Guy.  Who cared about journalists?  All i knew about journalism at that point was what i’d learned from watching Murphy Brown.

Flash forward another decade-plus, and now i find myself watching Bill Moyers Journal every single week, and if i miss it I make a point to watch the replays online.  There was no particular revelation in those intervening years that directly affected my interest in responsible media coverage.  Just a kid growing up to be a young(ish) man, that’s all.  I don’t remember the first time i watched an episode and was captivated, although i can certainly say that every episode i watch makes me feel like it’s the first time.  It’s always the same feeling.  In this ADD-riddled age of instant entertainment, where pleasure reading has nose dived, where newspapers are teetering on the precipice of antiquity, and where (astoundingly) even films and albums are too long for some people to absorb in one sitting, i find that i lose track of time entirely watching this man’s programming, and when the weekly show is wrapping up, i’m always hungry for more.  It’s not flashy.  It doesn’t yell at you.  The video clips don’t have cuts every 2 seconds.  It’s a dinosaur; a time capsule that refreshes itself on a weekly basis.  And every blessed week i am impressed and then impressed again with the clarity, research, humanity, and shining progressivism that comes through those segments, loud and clear to anyone that cares to watch.

Anyways, i don’t know exactly where i was going with this.  Only that i was inspired by this last week’s episode to try and convince however many people i can that this is a program worth watching.  If you can muster-up enough interest and excitement over pro sports to watch your favorite team every Sunday (Go Niners), then you owe it to yourself and to the people around you (your friends, your children, your better halves) to start watching this show with just as much interest.  I assure you will be rewarded handsomely with intelligent discussion and penetrating enlightenment, and you will come out the other side of each program a better, more motivated, and more well-informed human being.

Here is a link to the homepage of the show (where you can watch as much archived footage as you like), and a link to the PBS Youtube channel, followed by two segments from last week’s episode to give you an example of what to expect out of the show, and beneath them are a couple more segments from past shows (one from August and one an excerpt from last year’s incredible Moyers special report ‘Buying The War”, which i would highly recommend that you all watch in its entirety here: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html ) as well as a wonderful little clip of live video that should tell you all you need to know about the difference between a genuine journalist like Moyers and what passes for a human being over at Fixed News.  There is also an RSS/podcast feed available (found on the PBS homepage), if you’d prefer to keep up-to-date via that method (i find it quite useful, as it sits on the tippy top of my MyYahoo homepage).  This is what journalism is, folks.  This is what honesty is.  This is what “the news” has abandoned in its quest for ratings in this tabloid era of The 24 Hour News Cycle.  Enjoy.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html

http://www.youtube.com/user/PBS

more about “Bill Moyers Journal: Media Analysis“, posted with vodpod