Bill Moyers speaks his mind on Bush-brand environmental destruction and more
26 Aug 2003
Bill Moyers is best known as the broadcast journalist who, for more than 20 years, has brought the public frank, soul-searching, and sometimes frightening examinations of — well, of almost everything under the sun. On air, he’s equally comfortable discussing politics or poetry, scriptures or science.
Bill Moyers isn’t pulling punches.
Photo: PBS.
Born in Oklahoma in 1934 and raised in Texas, Moyers has had a highly celebrated and peripatetic career that has included stints as a Baptist minister, deputy director of the Peace Corps in the Kennedy administration, and press secretary to President Johnson. Moyers later became publisher of the New York daily Newsday, an analyst and commentator on CBS and NBC news, and a cofounder, with his wife Judith Davidson, of Public Affairs Television, where he produced series ranging from “God and Politics” to “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth.”
Having racked up more than 30 Emmy Awards during his television career, Moyers is now the host and producer of the Friday night PBS series “NOW with Bill Moyers.” He is also one of the few TV news and culture journalists who believe that there are still plenty of viewers who want to think and learn. At “NOW,” Moyers has focused with increasing intensity on the Bush administration’s environmental record. Since his show launched in January 2002, Moyers has produced more than 20 reports on environmental subjects ranging from mountaintop-removal mining to the industry backgrounds of Bush’s key political appointees. This Friday at 9 p.m. EST, he’ll put the Bush record in a larger context, airing an interview with award-winning scientist David Suzuki, who believes the global environment is in its final moments of sustainability.
Grist tracked Moyers down at his office to discuss environmental policy rollbacks, the ecological concerns that he says “burn in his consciousness,” and the world he wants to leave for his grandchildren.
In the year and a half since the launch of your PBS program “NOW,” you have done extensive reporting on the Bush administration’s environmental record. At a time when most news outlets have focused on war and recession, you and your team have been among the few journalists who’ve consistently taken a hard look at these policy rollbacks. What has been motivating you?
The facts on the ground. I’m a journalist, reporting the evidence, not an environmentalist pressing an agenda. The Earth is sending us a message and you don’t have to be an environmentalist to read it. The Arctic ice is melting. The Arctic winds are balmy. The Arctic Ocean is rising. Scientists say that in the year 2002 — the second-hottest on record — they saw the Arctic ice coverage shrink more than at any time since they started measuring it. Every credible scientific study in the world says human activity is creating global warming. In the face of this evidence, the government in Washington has declared war on nature. They have placed religious and political dogma over the facts.
Recent Comments