|
| Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Times | 
 enlarge | Author: Bill Moyers
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $1.19
You Save: $12.76 (91%)
New (26) Used (29) from $1.19
Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 184885
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 4.9 x 0.6
ISBN: 1400095360
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.931
EAN: 9781400095360
ASIN: 1400095360
Publication Date: June 14, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Read and pay attention to his words January 29, 2005
25 out of 29 found this review helpful
"Now" was a treasure possibly taken for granted for the years it was on PBS. I discovered it way too late and now Bill Moyers is gone and the show is only 1/2 hour. David B. is doing a good job, but apparently even had to find a new sponsor. Hopefully he can hold down the fort for a long time.
But at least Bill Moyer's words are available in this book. As was evident in the discussions on "Now", Moyers is not afraid to let his humaness shine through with all the struggles to follow the path of an ethical life. I loved the chapter on Lyndon Johnson, the goal to give everyone a hand up is a shining light compared to the everyone for himself tenor of today. Moyers lays out the success and failures of the Johnson years, but I came away feeling good that a president got into office and started out wanting to do what would be good for all the people in the country:to make a fresh start and say what are the highest goals we can reach for.
The last section of the book is on aging. Wise words here too. I hope as he ages Bill Moyers keeps writing and producing programs filled with his common sense and wisdom.
Thank you Mr. Moyers for all your work and keep on keeping on.
Moyers Speaks for All of Us August 25, 2004
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
Moyers, Bill, Moyers on America. New York: The New Press, 2004.
Subtitled, "A Journalist and His Times," the book consists of a series of TV columns and speeches worked into essay form. All of it is worth reading, but the parts I liked best were the fiery defense of the Constitution, the unmasking of reactionary politicians as inhumane and proudly mean-spirited--"they narrowly defined membership in democracy to include only people like them"--and the comparison of today's politics with the struggles of the Progressives in the 1900-1920 era, after which FDR denounced "economic royalists" for what they were. Moyers' point is that the rich have no right to buy democracy. The politicians of terror "win only if we let them, only if we become like them: vengeful, imperious, intolerant, paranoid, invoking a God of wrath." "Mencken got it right when he said, "Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it." He denounces the consolidation of the media into a handful of plutocratic oligarchies. A statement that has stayed with me, because he repeated it during a book-signing in June 2004, was "No man is fit to be a master."
"The fight between the human scale and the giant scale--between the master and the governed--left unresolved by the Progressive Era, is returning for some kind of epic confrontation." Today our liberties are threatened by the punishment of criticism and the distaste for variety or dissent. Our government is a study in bribery, conflicts of interest, corruption, and is awash in money from private interest groups.
The media has turned to celebrity journalism, speed over accuracy, opinion over reporting, and this in turn is the result of concentrated ownership. (A panel of anchormen at the Democratic 2004 Convention admitted that they hadn't asked enough questions before validating the Bush move for war against Iraq.) "The job of telling the truth about people whose job it is to hide the truth is almost as complicated and difficult as trying to hide it in the first place." A "deep and pervasive corruption has settled upon the republic." Moyers calls this a "cynical age."
The rest of the book relates episodes from Moyers' youth, a tribute to cultural literacy, liberal arts education, and contemplations about religion (he is an ordained minister).
In sum, the book is an eloquent denunciation of the imperial state now in the hands of
those with the Top Secret stamp all over government actions. It also includes a tribute to I.F. Stone, and a tip of the hat to poetry, which formed the basis for one of Moyers' PBS series. Describing an auto trip he made with his elderly father, he writes, "A later afternoon sun the size of a prospector's imagination was hanging in the sky as we drove out to their old farm." A nice postscript.
 Moyers in 30 years or less July 21, 2004
17 out of 39 found this review helpful
"The soul of democracy has been dying," writes Bill Moyers, "Drowning in a rising tide of big money contributed by a narrow, unrepresentative elite that has betrayed the faith of citizens ... where a relatively small handful of the rich decide, with their money, who will run, who will win, and how they will govern."
Great. Just what we needed, another irritating reminder of clouds looming on the horizon of our nation. But before we give up in frustration, let's let Mr. Moyers -- with his thirty years' experience in jouurnalism and politics -- encourage us, and point the way back to our democratic heritage.
"Moyers on America," is his latest collection of speeches and commentaries. Most engage general issues like institutional politics or integrity in media, then link these broader topics to more specific examples, such as the Bush administration's public policy concerning Iraq and 9/11. Other essays are more philosophical, and outline the high democratic ideals he calls "the soul of democracy." Like a scholar, Mr. Moyers presents ideas from history and philosophy as "dots", then connects those dots to form a "bigger picture." And he does so in plain and readable language that showcases his expertise as a communicator.
In "Which America Will We Be Now", he levels serious accusations against the Bush administration. "[In the wake of 9/11,] while everywhere Americans' cheeks were still stained with tears... the predators of Washington were up to their old tricks in the pursuit of private plunder at public expense." In a passage Michael Moore might envy for its dripping sarcasm, he lambastes the administration for using 9/11 to sneak shady legislation past a mourning public: the Bush administration opened the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge to drilling, gave General Electric a special tax break ("Don't worry about NBC, CNBC, or MSNBC reporting it; they're all in the GE family"), and relaxed pollution standards.
But Bill Moyers wants his readers to know that he does love his country. ("I even tuck a Valentine in my tax returns.") His critique, he writes, "is balanced by an enduring faith in the progressive promise of the nation," a faith that evokes the same youthful energy that tipfied the Democratic Party for a short but brilliant time in the 60's.
His ideas on the citizen's obligations to democracy -- participation and activism -- are also typical of that era. "Stannding up to your government," he writes, "Can mean standing up for your country ... The greatest sedition is silence." If this is as true today as it was in the Vietnam era, then Moyers is here right when we need him, bringing his experiences with Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam to bear on our war in Iraq. He outlines his views in a piece titled, "War Is War."
Moyers' credentials are hard to overlook when he talks tough about integrity in journalism and bias in the media. As he sees it, thanks to the mergers of media outlets, just "six companies dominate what America reads in books, magazines, and newspapers, or watches on television and at the movies." With the media having nearly Orwellian control of what we think about, we may end up living in a cocoon, where as the old adage goes, what we don't know won't hurt us. We'll be "consumers" of celebrity and entertainment "news" (geared towards box-office sales) and not citizen readers of the news that's important to our democracy. Trends in the newsroom back him up: "More than a quarter of journalists polled said that they had avoided some newsworthy stories that might conflict with the financial interests of their news organizations or advertisers." His words are even more forceful in the light of recent media controversies (eg, Nightline).
He also has a way with words. More than a few times, I marveled at how he was able to use pithy sound bites to make his points memorable. Due to bad editing, or maybe because each piece was written as a speech, sometimes whole sentences didn't seem to make sense, even as I reread them: "The important thing ... is to work it through yourself: commitment tempered by reason." Other sentences were too impressionistic and ended vaguely: "If character is destiny, choice is history." But these criticisms do not outweigh the work's patriotic value.
Moyers's distinct appeal is as an "everyman" familiar with the typical struggles of working-class people, who without his help, might not as easily concern themselves with the health of their democracy. Without Moyers, they might be limited to observing that their government seems -- with each passing moment -- more remote, out of touch, and most impoortantly, more outside of their control and influence. It's not hopeless, Moyers insists. Democracy is real. Let him talk you into it.
 Enjoyed very much July 16, 2004
16 out of 20 found this review helpful
Moyers seems to remain detached (in practice, not awareness) from the biased, slanted, and agenda-driven mass media of the mega newscorps. Refreshing to say the least. Fortunately, I believe the majority of us see through all the fluff on cable news, and can disprove the talking-heads (on TV and radio) who feel we need to be educated and are unable to decide for ourselves.
A wise and wonderful retrospective and perspective September 28, 2005
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
BILL MOYERS IS WAY TO THE LEFT OF MY POLITICAL VIEWS HOWEVER I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK AS A GIFT ON THE OCCASION OF MY BIRTHDAY BY MY MOTHER WHO HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE MOST LEFT LEANING IN THE FAMILY.
I USED TO WATCH BILL MOYERS 20 YEARS AGO OR SO ON PBS AND WAS FASCINATED BY A SERIES HE PUT ON CALLED "A WORLD OF IDEAS' IN WHICH HE HAD CONVERSATIONS WITH MANY FAMOUS WORLD FIGURES.
LATELY I HAVE NOT SEEN MUCH OF HIM AND WHAT I DID SEE I DID NOT ENJOY!
I MUST ADMIT THAT READING THIS BOOK HOWEVER OPENED MY EYES TO SOME OF THE REASONS THAT WHAT I HAD BEEN OBSERVING ON TV AND READING IN THE MEDIA IN GENERAL WAS MAKING ME MORE AND MORE UNCOMFORTABLE.
THE IDEA THAT MOYERS EXPRESSED WHEN HE SAID THE
"THE NEWS BUSINESS FINDS ITSELF AT WAR WITH JOURNALISM"
SUDDENLY MADE ME SIT UP AND THINK AND ALSO TO REALIZE THAT A FREE OPEN AND ENQUIRING PRESS AND MEDIA IS THE ONLY HOPE THAT WE AS CITIZENS HAVE OF EVER HAVING A MEANINGFUL DEBATE AND DISCLOSURE OF WHAT INDEED IS GOING ON AROUND US. WITHOUT IT WHATEVER ONE'S POLITICAL PERSUASION WE ARE DOOMED TO BECOME PROGRAMMED AUTOMOTONS.
THE BLOGOSPHERE MAY SAVE US YET BUT I DON'T QUITE SEE HOW.
EVEN DeTOCQUEVILLE THE FRENCHMAN WHO COMMENTED AND SEEMED TO UNDERSTAND AMERICA AND IT'S DEMOCRACY BETTER THAN MOST WAS IMPRESSED BY THE FREE PROLIFIC PRESS AND OVERALL LITERACY IN AMERICA.
He said , "......But although the press is limited to these resources, its influence in America is immense. It causes political life to circulate through all the parts of that vast territory. Its eye is constantly open to detect the secret springs of political designs and to summon the leaders of all parties in turn to the bar of public opinion. "
I HAVE NO REAL AGENDA EXCEPT THAT I HAVE BECOME FASCINATED WITH HISTORY OF THIS GREAT COUNTRY AND IT'S INSTITUTIONS.
I HAVE COME TO BELIEVE THAT THE VISION IS WHAT COUNTS - THE FOUNDING FATHERS HAD IT- AND WE THROUGH SELFISHNESS AND IGNORANCE COULD BE LOSING IT AND IT SCARES ME!
THE BOOK HOWEVER IS MUCH MORE THAN THIS!
I URGE YOU TO BITE YOUR TONGUE - SWALLOW HARD- AND READ THE BOOK!
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
