<![CDATA[With Bill Moyer's retirement, PBS becomes a liberal-free zone dominated by inane punditry. What’s unfortunate is not that PBS is shifting to the right, but that people committed to asking smart and penetrating questions have moved from endangered status to extinction. Note what Moyer’s replacement, the only-competent David Brancaccio, formerly of public radio’s Marketplace says:
Being on Now, he says, feels like “somebody stuck you in an episode of The West Wing, only it’s real. Everyone here is overly briefed, overly articulate, and—here’s the key—trying to change the world.” He pauses for breath before continuing. “I am trying to change the world, only with a note of irony.”
A note of irony is not change, it’s commentary without commitment to anything in particular. It’s “Well, look, that happened and who would have thought?” instead of “Here is why this happened.” No number of cameras in the field adequately replaces insight if they are delivering only ironic observation.]]>
One reply on “After the old guard, no guard”
Moyers’ inevitable retirement is a tremendous blow to the representation of critical perspective on our government, media and culture. He has built such an impressive record of telling the American story that no one else is near to being able to replace him. He will be sorely missed and we can only hope that someone with a fraction of his integrity steps forward soon to take up the torch.