Moyers, Bill

Bill Moyers (1934–), a native of Hugo, Oklahoma, is best known for his work as a news commentator on television. A major theme of his career is to examine democratic society by engaging voices and ideas on virtually every aspect of American political, economic, and social life. He focuses on issues of race, class, and gender on his shows while examining challenges facing American democratic society. In 1990, Moyers became president of the Schumann Center for Media Democracy, working tirelessly to address questions of media ownership and consolidation.

Moyers had an interest in journalism early in life, serving as a cub reporter for the Marshall News Messenger when he was 16 years old. While attending North Texas State College, Moyers interned for then U.S. senator Lyndon B. Johnson. Moyers later transferred to the University of Austin, where he graduated in 1956 with a degree in journalism. In 1959, Moyers earned his master of divinity degree from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

When Johnson assumed the presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Moyers became a special assistant to Johnson, serving from 1963 to 1967. Moyers played a key role in organizing and supervising the 1964 Great Society legislative task force and was the chief architect of Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign. In the run-up to the 1964 election, Johnson ordered Moyers to request name checks from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on 15 members of Senator Barry Goldwater's staff and White House staff to find “derogatory” material on their personal lives.

Moyers has had a long and varied career in broadcast journalism. From 1967 to 1970, he served as publisher for the Long Island, New York, daily newspaper Newsday. The conservative publication was struggling to survive when Moyers joined as publisher. Moyers successfully led the paper in a progressive direction. Although circulation increased and the publication won major journalism awards, the owner of the paper was a conservative and was disappointed with the liberal direction the paper had taken. The paper was eventually sold to the Times-Mirror Company, resulting in Moyers's departure from the paper.

In 1976, Moyers worked as editor and chief correspondent for CBS Reports, and from 1980 to 1986 he was a senior news analyst and commentator for the CBS Evening News With Dan Rather. During his last year with CBS, Moyers made public statements about the declining news standard at the network. In 1995, Moyers briefly joined NBC News as a senior analyst and commentator. In 1996, he became the first host of MSNBC's program Insight.

U.S. Journalist and commentator Bill Moyers has examined issues of race, class, and gender and has explored nearly every aspect of American political, economic, and social life in his documentaries.

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Moyers returned to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 2007 with Bill Moyers' Journal. The show had first aired on PBS from 1971 to 1981, with a break between 1976 and 1977. Other programs on PBS hosted by Moyers were Now With Bill Moyers (2002–04), Faith and Reason (2006), and Bill Moyers in America (2006). In 2005, Moyers announced to PBS that he would be retiring soon to complete writing a biography on Lyndon B. Johnson.

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