One of the last effective voices of American Liberalism and of a more decent, gentle America, now 70, is retiring. The last show is in the can, and he is off, he says, to finish his biography of President Johnson (whose special assistant and press secretary he was).
This feels like the end of an Age – we are now to be left alone to fend off the squalling voices of a belligerent, manipulative and ill-informed conservative media monolith. Another milestone in the slow death of trust ….
A recent story in the NYT on his retirement had this to say:
He is a rigorous journalist, one whose documentaries and television news reports always point to the facts, but when he makes up his mind, he lands hard on his conclusions.
That’s what I loved most about him – he was not afraid of anything, it seemed; he would come to a considered view of the way things were, he would look you in the eye, and he would tell it to you straight. He knew that you were smart enough and had a strong enough stomach to take it.
In one of Moyers’ last shows he interviewed Charles Houston, and in the course of that conversation Houston spoke about the adventure of mountaineering – the interview, and what he pulled out of Houston, was vintage Moyers:
This was reaching beyond your grasp. Even pygmies standing on the shoulders of giants can reach, can see further than the giants can. Whatever you can do or think, you can begin it – boldness has power and magic and genius in it.
I’m going to miss Bill Moyers.