MediaWatch: October 1991
Table of Contents:
Moyers' Boy Alter
NEWSWEEK KISSES UP
Writer Andrew Ferguson skewered PBS omnipresence Bill Moyers in a recent New Republic cover story. Ferguson detailed the dirty work done by "television's conscience" during his service to Lyndon Johnson, and pointed out how he makes millions merchandising his public TV appearances. Moyers' uncommon response, paying $9,000 for two pages of ad space, caused a story in Newsweek.
Media writer Jonathan Alter applauded how Moyers "attempts (often successfully) to parry practically every blow of the hatchet." The caption described Moyers as "Victim of a New Republic hatchet job." Alter called the Ferguson article "a vicious innuendo- filled cover story." He also dismissed Moyers' hypocrisy, that he can both do LBJ's dirty work and then be credible in pious documentaries on Watergate and Iran-Contra: "For The New Republic to suggest that this somehow discredits Moyers' thoughtful work as a journalist is absurd." Alter hoped viewers would not forget "Moyers' enormous contributions to television."
But according to Peter Boyer's book Who Killed CBS?, Alter has a reputation for going all soft over Moyers. When Moyers resigned from CBS in 1985, The New York Times and Alter "were particularly interested in getting Moyers's feelings about CBS News, knowing that they would make for good copy." But Moyers picked Alter because the Times, "would feel obliged to include a response from [CBS] management." Can we trust Boyer's account? Well, in the book's back-cover blurbs, Alter called it "The definitive story of how cynicism and pettiness nearly destroyed a great news organization."
