I think that we should pull back are troops from the war in Afganistan.

Die Seite schaut auch am Apple iPhone gut aus.

I am listening to the 8/2/09 broadcast on healthcare. I am an uninsured American who suffers from hypertension, who has a history of breast cancer, and family history of diabetes. Tick-tock, huh! I work in a medical office, and often have to contact insurance companies for clarification on coverage. Is anyone aware of the out-sourcing of those jobs? I often talk to people in the Phillipines or in India to discuss pre-certification of medically necessary procedures. It has gone from nurses making decisions doctors should be making, to people who barely speak the language, and read from check-lists making decisions about coverage! Just a side-comment, is there any risk to homeland security in this? ;)

I was watching the show this morning, Sunday August 2nd 2009. I am speechless.

We need profit taking regulation of the Health Care Industry.

A public option is a great idea. However without cost controls over the industry it will only result in higher costs to the taxpayer.

We arrest and Jail people for selling water for 5 dollars a gallon when there's a natural disaster but do nothing when the Pharmaceutical industry sells a pill which costs 5 cents to manufacture for 150 dollars.

We extend the copyrights but get nothing to lower the present costs of the drugs, which was the intent for extending the copyrights!

What’s going to happen is the public option will be overwhelmed with rejected people from the private insurance companies as well as private insurance companies will dictate to business who they should hire and fire because of the health care costs.

Another band-aid for and bullet wound.

We need the insurance companies to pay all the costs no deductibles or co-pays.
We need consumer protection to stop collections from the insured by the doctors for care not covered by the insurance industry.
We need the costs of insurance premiums to go down.
We need the costs for services to be regulated.
We need the profit margins to be regulated to stop over night profit taking and price gouging.
We need an affordable public option (honestly I could care less whom my doctor is as they change all the time because of insurance company affiliations anyway).
The public option should be premium based as well to help control the costs to the taxpayer.

All these options have been taken off the table by congress that has sold us, the people, out for 13.1 million dollars in lobbing interests.

Great to have you back on
a regular basis. Have always enjoyed Bill Moyer.

It's really interested.
Ad all comens is good. Please write more.

Good luck

Well what do all you liberal tree huggers think now.Obama wants to use our tax bailout cash to save GM,FORD& DODGE!! The 1st will be big cash for ceo,s& big bosses.The 2nd will be the trip around the world (hunting,surfing,etc,etc,). The 3rd will be our watch dog politicians getting big pork(money contributions)and us getting royally screwed again!!! Wheres all the money the big three saved on cheap labor and not dealing with the EPA when they sold the american worker out moving plants to CHINA,MEXICO etc,etc,.Now all those displaced workers and all of us hard working americans can bail them out.I like that just like I liked the service I got on my GM,FORD&DODGE NONE!!!! Kind of makes you wonder whatever happened to all that OIL MONEY in IRAQ so us americans would not have to use ours?

There was some speculation on your 11/7 program of the meaning for the theme of the inauguration "A New Birth of Freedom".
I'll be curious to see what this means and have to wonder if FDR's Four Freedoms will make an appearance.
I agree that recently the concept of freedom has been devalued.

In your last show, there was much spectulation over the impact of the Obama election. No one mentioned the impact on the black phyche. Does the election of a black man for president change the way blacks view the white populace?

10-24-08--Thanks to Bill Moyers for the most informative and inspiring TV I've seen in a long time. Bill Moyers IS a national treasure, to be sure.

I am extremely distraught on the many comments about Rev. Wright that have been filtered out (obviously those that are adverse). I am extremely dissapointed in you Mr. Moyers, even moreso b/c of this being "public" television....what a disgrace this is to my country and my freedoms.

I am extremely distraught on the many comments about Rev. Wright that have been filtered out (obviously those that are adverse). I am extremely dissapointed in you Mr. Moyers, even moreso b/c of this being "public" television....what a disgrace this is to my country and my freedoms.

I am extremely distraught on the many comments about Rev. Wright that have been filtered out (obviously those that are adverse). I am extremely dissapointed in you Mr. Moyers, even moreso b/c of this being "public" television....what a disgrace this is to my country and my freedoms.

I am extremely distraught on the many comments about Rev. Wright that have been filtered out (obviously those that are adverse). Why, to cater to the liberal media's agenda? I am extremely dissapointed in you Mr. Moyers, even moreso b/c of this being "public" television....what a disgrace this is to my country and my freedoms.

Mr. Moyers:

I watched Emma Coleman Jordan tonight, and I saw your interview with Kevin Phillips. OK, there are people who can see what's going on. There must be millions of us who are really POed about the "Financial Crisis".

If I grab a pitchfork and march to Washington, I won't be able to get on a plane. Surely there's something we can do? There needs to be a "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more" club.

1) If you turn off the volume to the VP debate and just watch, Sarah Palin looked constantly into the camera while Joe Biden answered the question to the moderator. To me, it looked like Sarah Palin was selling soap on TV, and Joe Biden was like a college professor answering to the student explaining the molecular stucture of soap. I didn't see any of your guests looking directly into the camera.
2)Bad words make bad cares (BOO-BAILOUT)
Americans are re-investing the United States through their own financial means, to be PAID BACK...this is a LOAN!..Wall Street must be accounted for 700 Billion+ dollars going back into the coffers of American pockets (say 10 years given positive market returns into the same place that it came out of.) Warren may be old, but like you say, he's investing for a return. Where is that return going to come from Wall Street, and where has it just been given to Wall Street from?
The problems of lender loans for deceptions that originated this MUST be re-written with specific launguage to say if you have $150,000, we will morgage your worth for a morgage at $75,000, not 300,000. It's the same principal loaning that Moneytree has. You can't be anymore than your worth and we're not guaranteeing you for more than it.
3)"Pork Chops and Applesauce", The House only passed the "Crisis Payout" with additional add on sweeteners (more earmarks for projects which were not originally in the original writing) so that they could get what they wanted. I'm not surprised because the House of Representitives is mainly a pork chop manufacturing factory for earmarks based on the republican party. Who has allways managed to sqeeze in a bridge to nowhere or a dam across the Pacific. My father taught me one lesson in life. You make a decision or you don't make a decision. Indecision IS a decision no matter how you look at it. If you make the wrong decision you change it, but you won't know unless you decide.
Now we need to see if the decision was right. We can change it later if we need to.

Emma Coleman Jordan's comments tonight were both illuminating and chilling. Thank you for having her as a guest. I've recommended her segment to everyone I know!

From the outset, every politician in Washington, and every national news reporter who is capable of tying his or her own shoes, knew that the the war in Iraq was started under false premises and pretenses.

However, few if any were willing to stand up to the incredible political correctness/mass hysteria which resulted from the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Take a look in the mirror, folks. Were you one of those who helped to give George W. Bush such a high approval rating in polls, or did you fly little American flags on your car (which, incidentally, decreased the national gas mileage and therefore required the importation of even more foreign oil)?

If so, the war is yours, as well as Cheney's and Bush's.

Is there a blog for the News Hour? I couldn't find one. But I'll post for Bill Moyer's thoughtful listeners.

Did anyone else notice the irony in tonight's (May 30) News Hour? The segment on the Internet in China highlighted how people in China self-censor themselves.

In another segment Jeff Brown interviewed Scott McClellan, who basically said, "I fed you reporters propaganda, and you didn't question me." While PBS reporters are right to ask Mr. McClellan why he only now feels guilty about feeding propaganda to reporters, how about some honest response to his charges about reporters OWN responsibility? PBS and other reporters were NOT very critical in the run up to the war. Why did it take the NY Times (just last month!) to find out that the military commentators employed by PBS and most other TV networks had been "coached" before appearing on TV. PBS reporters often could ask harder questions.

Come on PBS, take a closer look at your own failure to ask tough questions. Your job should be to provide accuracy, not tell the listeners what they want to hear.

Ed - who recently commented about Reverend Wright. NO, we cannot all agree, because what you hear in the media is very oversimplified. More important, it is an inaccurate portrayal of what goes on in that church. I have been to the Congregational Church in Chicago. Have you? You will find it much, much less extreme than the media portrays. Are you ever in Chicago? Go see for yourself.

Do you think that all Mormons should have quite their church 25 years ago when it taught that all black people came from Satan? Do you really think that people agree with everything their ministers say? Mr. Obama is way smarter than that; so am I.

Once Obama became a threat to Hillary Clinton's nomination for the presidency the hits on Obama came building on the racism in our country and analyzing every word so as to corrupt his message of bringing us all altogether.

But I haven't heard any questions put to Hillary about the Clinton Chronicles. WHY?

I recently sent e-mails to all the uncommitted superdelegate senators and congressmen I was permitted to e-mail which was the following:

I am an Independent/leaning Democrat, 62, white and a woman and this is the first I've heard and seen the CLINTON CHRONICLES on google.

These chronicles should be addressed now before Ms. Clinton uses any more of her racist digs on Barack Obama.

America needs to transcend their racist roots to survive and for the world to respect us once again. Obama is the cleanest and worthiest candidate and if nominated we can transcend the bigot voters in our country and beat McCain.

Without Obama, I'm with Nader/Gonzales.

I would like to get evryone's opiniomn of Reverend Wright now. Barack Obama has finally come out and cut Wright loose because of his controverial and racist remarks. Bill Moyers and all you who would support this reverse racism, how can you defend this man now? If you still defend him and his remarks then how do you reconcile your stance with that of Obama. Is Obama wrong when he states, "When I go church ....It’s not to hear things that violate my core beliefs". and I believe the next statement by Barack explains it best: "His comments [Reverend Wright] were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church" Thats right!!! His words "GIVE COMFORT TO THOSE WHO PREY ON HATE" Can we all agree now that what Wright has been bombarding his congregation and the public with is racist and hateful. When we as a people, of all races, can come together and condemn racism then we can truly live together as Americans.
Let me quote Martin Luther King, Jr. "In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline." Now I want you to ask yourself honestly. Do Reverend Wright's comments sound "bitter" and "hateful"? Does he try to stay on a "high plane of dignity and discipline"? If you were honest then you would have answered "YES". If not then please continue to look the other way while King's dreams are stepped on and racism continues to be spread like a cancer through America.

America at this moment in time, reminds me of a story that I saw recently on a popular television talk show where a family was dealing with the trauma of a grandfather who had molested his own granddaughter. Now the acts of the grandfather were willing to be ignored by the grandmother because after all this man was her husband and the man she had spent the majority of her life with. To deny him would mean the grandmother would have to deny, I’m sure, years of shared history and fond memories with this man. However, the daughter and the son-in-law just could not seem to get beyond what the grandfather had done to their young daughter and rightfully so. It was hard for them to recall good memories. To them even the good memories about their family were clouded by their pain.

Now here we are an American family with an ugly dirty secret called “racism” which has operated at the highest levels of our government and business. May we not forget Senator Strom Thurmond who was an admitted racist the entire time he was caring for his black daughter a story which, by the way, did not get nearly as much media coverage. America is in the exact same dilemma of this troubled family. Do we act like the grandmother and chose to forget our hurtful racial past by not confronting it and go on as if it never happened? Or, do we acknowledge the statements of Jeremiah Wright as being the family member who is unable to get beyond his pain, anger and disappointment because his American family refuses to acknowledge and deal with its ugly secret.

As I see it, we should all be grateful for Reverend Jeremiah Wright because whether you believe he’s wrong or right, it was his words that brought the American family to where we can finally have a real conversation about race and hopefully if we can all acknowledge the truth; however ugly it might be and embarrassing to hear and maybe, just maybe we can ultimately get to a place of healing and a truly “united” States of America.

I am responding to your broadcast with Rev. Wright, Trinity United Church of Christ. I am taken aback with his hypocrisy. Those tapes of his sermon showed the TRUTH of his hatred of white people and America---his home land(not Africa). His ancestors may have come to America as slaves, but he did not. The time of Martin L King has not existed in America for a long time. There are no laws telling blacks to ride in the back of the bus, etc. Any black child can attain any status he or she works hard to achieve in America TODAY!---Just like any white, yellow, or brown child. WORK for is the key word. I attend an Episcopal church where integration is real---white,black (Sudan,Africa), Spanish, oriental---I did not see one WHITE face in Rev. Wright's congregation. He does not preach the love that Jesus preached. Christ didn't point fingers or make excuses. I am a 60yr old white woman, who grew up in an extremely poor environment. I have made a success of my life, by working hard and not blaming anyone else for my problems. Tell Rev. Wright to start preaching that instead. Thanks for listening.

Mr. Moyers,

Hats off to you for conducting such an awesome interview with Rev. Wright! It was professional and I appreciated the fact that you allowed Rev Wright to speak w/o interruptions which are all too common in mainstream media. I really wish the uninformed would open up their minds and see who the real Rev. Wright is as defined by he himself! Kudos to you AND Rev. Wright for a JOB WELL DONE!!!

I will simply say thank you for a quality piece. All to often are we forced to hear people talking over one another trying to get gotcha points. Nice work.

I just wanted to fwd an interesting email i rec'd:

Rudy Giuliani's priest has been accused in grand jury proceedings of molesting several children and covering up the molestation of others. Giuliani would not disavow him on the campaign trail and still works with him.

Mitt Romney was part of a church that did not view black Americans as equals and actively discriminated against them. He stayed with that church all the way into his early thirties, until they were finally forced to change their policies to come into compliance with civil rights legislation. Romney never disavowed his church back then or now. He said he was proud of the faith of his fathers.

Jerry Falwell said America had 9/11 coming because we tolerated gays, feminists and liberals. It was our fault. Our chickens had come home to roost, if you will. John McCain proudly received his support and even spoke at his university's commencement.

Reverend John Hagee has called the Catholic Church the "Great Whore." He has said that the Anti-Christ will rise out of the European Union (of course, the Anti-Christ will also be Jewish). He has said all Muslims are trained to kill and will be part of the devil's army when Armageddon comes (which he hopes is soon). John McCain continues to say he is proud of Reverend Hagee's endorsement.

Reverend Rod Parsley believes America was founded to destroy Islam. Since this is such an outlandish claim, I have to add for the record, that he is not kidding. Reverend Parsley says Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" brought down from a "demon spirit." Of course, we are in a war against all Muslims, including presumably Muslim-Americans. Buts since Parsley believes this is a Christian nation and that it should be run as a theocracy, he is not very concerned what Muslim-Americans think.
John McCain says Reverend Rod Parsley is his "spiritual guide."

What separates all of these outrageous preachers from Barack Obama's?
You guessed it. They're white and Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not. If it's not racism that's causing the disparity in media treatment of these preachers, then what is it?

I'm willing to listen to other possible explanations. And I am inclined to believe that the people these preachers go after are more important than the race of the preacher. It's one thing to go after gays, liberals and Muslims - that seems to be perfectly acceptable in America - it's another to accuse white folks of not living up to their ideals.

I think there is another factor at play as well. The media is deathly afraid of calling out preachers of any stripe for insane propaganda from the pulpits for fear that they will be labeled as anti-Christian. But criticism of Rev. Wright falls into their comfort zone. It's easy to blame him for being anti-American because he criticizes American foreign and domestic policy.

If Rev. Wright had preached about discriminating against gay Americans or Muslims, there probably would not have been any outcry at all. That falls into the category of "respect their hateful opinions because they cloak themselves in the church."

But one thing is indisputable - the enormous disparity in how the media has covered these white preachers as opposed to Rev. Wright. Have you ever even heard of Rod Parsley? As you can see from what I listed above, all of these white preachers have said and done the most outlandish and offensive things you can imagine - and hardly a peep.

If the disparity in coverage isn't racist, then what is it?
© 2008 Huffington Post All rights reserved.

I just wanted to fwd an interesting email i rec'd:

Rudy Giuliani's priest has been accused in grand jury proceedings of molesting several children and covering up the molestation of others. Giuliani would not disavow him on the campaign trail and still works with him.

Mitt Romney was part of a church that did not view black Americans as equals and actively discriminated against them. He stayed with that church all the way into his early thirties, until they were finally forced to change their policies to come into compliance with civil rights legislation. Romney never disavowed his church back then or now. He said he was proud of the faith of his fathers.

Jerry Falwell said America had 9/11 coming because we tolerated gays, feminists and liberals. It was our fault. Our chickens had come home to roost, if you will. John McCain proudly received his support and even spoke at his university's commencement.

Reverend John Hagee has called the Catholic Church the "Great Whore." He has said that the Anti-Christ will rise out of the European Union (of course, the Anti-Christ will also be Jewish). He has said all Muslims are trained to kill and will be part of the devil's army when Armageddon comes (which he hopes is soon). John McCain continues to say he is proud of Reverend Hagee's endorsement.

Reverend Rod Parsley believes America was founded to destroy Islam. Since this is such an outlandish claim, I have to add for the record, that he is not kidding. Reverend Parsley says Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" brought down from a "demon spirit." Of course, we are in a war against all Muslims, including presumably Muslim-Americans. Buts since Parsley believes this is a Christian nation and that it should be run as a theocracy, he is not very concerned what Muslim-Americans think.
John McCain says Reverend Rod Parsley is his "spiritual guide."

What separates all of these outrageous preachers from Barack Obama's?
You guessed it. They're white and Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not. If it's not racism that's causing the disparity in media treatment of these preachers, then what is it?

I'm willing to listen to other possible explanations. And I am inclined to believe that the people these preachers go after are more important than the race of the preacher. It's one thing to go after gays, liberals and Muslims - that seems to be perfectly acceptable in America - it's another to accuse white folks of not living up to their ideals.

I think there is another factor at play as well. The media is deathly afraid of calling out preachers of any stripe for insane propaganda from the pulpits for fear that they will be labeled as anti-Christian. But criticism of Rev. Wright falls into their comfort zone. It's easy to blame him for being anti-American because he criticizes American foreign and domestic policy.

If Rev. Wright had preached about discriminating against gay Americans or Muslims, there probably would not have been any outcry at all. That falls into the category of "respect their hateful opinions because they cloak themselves in the church."

But one thing is indisputable - the enormous disparity in how the media has covered these white preachers as opposed to Rev. Wright. Have you ever even heard of Rod Parsley? As you can see from what I listed above, all of these white preachers have said and done the most outlandish and offensive things you can imagine - and hardly a peep.

If the disparity in coverage isn't racist, then what is it?
© 2008 Huffington Post All rights reserved.

Dear Mr. Moyers;

Thank you for your interview of Rev. Wright. So often we form misinformed (or "disinformed")opinions of people based on what the mainstream media pumps into our living rooms nightly.
Rev. Wright obviously loves his country and is doing what he can, the only way he knows how, to make this country a better place.
I don't really care for the way he goes about his business on the pulpit, but he can hardly be accused of hating the United States.

Mr. Moyers you are the BEST!!!
I edited some of your questions into my paper. used some of the blogs (gave everybody credit and anonymity of course) but I patterned the conlcusion of my paper Saturday night after you and this morning my professor email to tell me that I GOT AN A!!!!! YEAH!!!!!! My paper was balanced and insightful.
Thank-you so much! don't mind the haters, they're just jealous!!

I just wanted to fwd an interesting email i rec'd:

Rudy Giuliani's priest has been accused in grand jury proceedings of molesting several children and covering up the molestation of others. Giuliani would not disavow him on the campaign trail and still works with him.

Mitt Romney was part of a church that did not view black Americans as equals and actively discriminated against them. He stayed with that church all the way into his early thirties, until they were finally forced to change their policies to come into compliance with civil rights legislation. Romney never disavowed his church back then or now. He said he was proud of the faith of his fathers.

Jerry Falwell said America had 9/11 coming because we tolerated gays, feminists and liberals. It was our fault. Our chickens had come home to roost, if you will. John McCain proudly received his support and even spoke at his university's commencement.

Reverend John Hagee has called the Catholic Church the "Great Whore." He has said that the Anti-Christ will rise out of the European Union (of course, the Anti-Christ will also be Jewish). He has said all Muslims are trained to kill and will be part of the devil's army when Armageddon comes (which he hopes is soon). John McCain continues to say he is proud of Reverend Hagee's endorsement.

Reverend Rod Parsley believes America was founded to destroy Islam. Since this is such an outlandish claim, I have to add for the record, that he is not kidding. Reverend Parsley says Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" brought down from a "demon spirit." Of course, we are in a war against all Muslims, including presumably Muslim-Americans. Buts since Parsley believes this is a Christian nation and that it should be run as a theocracy, he is not very concerned what Muslim-Americans think.
John McCain says Reverend Rod Parsley is his "spiritual guide."

What separates all of these outrageous preachers from Barack Obama's?
You guessed it. They're white and Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not. If it's not racism that's causing the disparity in media treatment of these preachers, then what is it?

I'm willing to listen to other possible explanations. And I am inclined to believe that the people these preachers go after are more important than the race of the preacher. It's one thing to go after gays, liberals and Muslims - that seems to be perfectly acceptable in America - it's another to accuse white folks of not living up to their ideals.

I think there is another factor at play as well. The media is deathly afraid of calling out preachers of any stripe for insane propaganda from the pulpits for fear that they will be labeled as anti-Christian. But criticism of Rev. Wright falls into their comfort zone. It's easy to blame him for being anti-American because he criticizes American foreign and domestic policy.

If Rev. Wright had preached about discriminating against gay Americans or Muslims, there probably would not have been any outcry at all. That falls into the category of "respect their hateful opinions because they cloak themselves in the church."

But one thing is indisputable - the enormous disparity in how the media has covered these white preachers as opposed to Rev. Wright. Have you ever even heard of Rod Parsley? As you can see from what I listed above, all of these white preachers have said and done the most outlandish and offensive things you can imagine - and hardly a peep.

If the disparity in coverage isn't racist, then what is it?
© 2008 Huffington Post All rights reserved.

Bill, you call that an interview? In case you have forgotten what interview means, watch the O'Reilly show. He has interviews.

Finally, real journalism!

Bye, bye CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC and the infamous FAUX NEWS. I will never watch or listen to your lies again. I prefer the truth, so it'll be PBS for me -- forever!!!

You know it says in the Bible that not all will be able to see or hear the truth and that those who can are aligned with God and WILL be prosecuted in all ways. Those who are doing the prosecuting against Rev. Wright or anyone else for that matter, I guess we know who you're aligned with, don't we?

I am not clear why the stopobama people are being allowed to use the blog for their personal purposes with this number of posts. I don't think everyone has to praise the interview, but the number of posts from this groups is extreme. I guess it is an issue of free speech.

This was a beautiful interview. More of this and maybe more of us will believe the press. It was not judgmental it was insightful. Thank you for one mature journalist or reporter. I hope this is a lesson to many that its not only lies that sells truth can sell to. You just got yourself a new donor to your station.
Thanks you.

Thank you Bill Moyers for providing a platform for Rev. Jeramiah Wright, Jr. to tell his story. He is more of a patriot than Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, George Bush and a few others in that he honorably served this country and a president as well. America, can you stand to hear the truth? The time is now for healing.

Lovely Jeremiah Wright interview! Thank you so much, Mr. Moyers! I don't know why the naysayers think you should've pummeled the man- I thought you did a brilliant job at showing what this man is about. And by the way, has everyone forgotten that it was pretty common after 9-11 to wonder what in the world we had done to have factions hate us so much that they would perform acts that happened on 9-11? Um, we might be the "greatest nation in the world" for many reasons but our hands are not completely clean. (Note: Any educated person will take note that I am not saying that 3000+ people deserved to die in the towers because of this- anyone that disagrees with me will twist my words to intimate that I am saying we deserved it- I am not).

I can only hope that the clips that make MSM are not taken out of context and twisted and fabricated into whatever will support the McCain and Clinton camps. Why can't we just look at the facts without projecting our own meaning into it? I don't have to agree with Rev. Wright to see that he is a wonderful man that could teach many valuable lessons to people. The most important mentor in my life, my grandfather, who is a hardworking, devoted family man and Christian, thinks the Holocaust was perhaps "embellished" or fabricated. Do I agree with him? NO!!!!! Would I write him off and never speak to him again because of this? No! I love him with all my heart and he has taught me so much in life. I also realize that he looks at life through his own set of lenses that were formed by his own experiences in life. As an educated woman, I am capable of pulling from him what works for me and leaving with him what doesn't. I do not adopt every view from every person that touches my life and I trust Senator Obama to do the same, as a responsible, educated, balanced leader. Why is this so difficult for everyone to grasp? If everyone looked at their mentors in life, they would find tons of beliefs that they do not adopt- and that does not take away from what those mentors added to their lives. It really isn't that hard of a concept to grasp. I wish we could open our hearts and minds a bit more. If people do not want to vote for Obama, fine- but make it a vote FOR something of substance as opposed to a vote AGAINST something of absurdity.

I have to admit once I heard the sound bites of Rev. Wright I thought who is this crazy man and why would anybody with any agenda those things this in public, but after this interview I would vote Rev. Wright for president. I think a lot of people reputations, at least in my eyes, will never be creditably again.

Lovely Jeremiah Wright interview! Thank you so much, Mr. Moyers! I don't know why the naysayers think you should've pummeled the man- I thought you did a brilliant job at showing what this man is about. And by the way, has everyone forgotten that it was pretty common after 9-11 to wonder what in the world we had done to have factions hate us so much that they would perform acts that happened on 9-11? Um, we might be the "greatest nation in the world" for many reasons but our hands are not completely clean. (Note: Any educated person will take note that I am not saying that 3000+ people deserved to die in the towers because of this- anyone that disagrees with me will twist my words to intimate that I am saying we deserved it- I am not).

I can only hope that the clips that make MSM are not taken out of context and twisted and fabricated into whatever will support the McCain and Clinton camps. Why can't we just look at the facts without projecting our own meaning into it? I don't have to agree with Rev. Wright to see that he is a wonderful man that could teach many valuable lessons to people. The most important mentor in my life, my grandfather, who is a hardworking, devoted family man and Christian, thinks the Holocaust was perhaps "embellished" or fabricated. Do I agree with him? NO!!!!! Would I write him off and never speak to him again because of this? No! I love him with all my heart and he has taught me so much in life. I also realize that he looks at life through his own set of lenses that were formed by his own experiences in life. As an educated woman, I am capable of pulling from him what works for me and leaving with him what doesn't. I do not adopt every view from every person that touches my life and I trust Senator Obama to do the same, as a responsible, educated, balanced leader. Why is this so difficult for everyone to grasp? If everyone looked at their mentors in life, they would find tons of beliefs that they do not adopt- and that does not take away from what those mentors added to their lives. It really isn't that hard of a concept to grasp. I wish we could open our hearts and minds a bit more. If people do not want to vote for Obama, fine- but make it a vote FOR something of substance as opposed to a vote AGAINST something of absurdity.

Anyone who judges Obama based on his association with this man should at least hear what he has to say. It seems to me that Wright's biggest sin is hyperbole. His words about God damning America and America's chickens coming home to roost are merely colorful ways to illustrate one of the Bible's most important themes: that God brings judgment on nations that oppress their most vulnerable people.

Bill: You forgot one thing in your interview with the good Rev Wright --- the smooch.
Thats right, you forgot to have him bend over your desk and plant one on his big fat butt. You did this in every other sense of the term, so why not in fact? Pucker up butter cup!

Mr Moyers:
Well---- you missed one thing sir; the smooch. Thats right, you did everything else to defer to the good Rev, but you forgot to ask him to bend over the desk and to plant a kiss on his big fat butt! You did this in every other sense of the phrase - so why not in fact? Pucker up butter cup.

In reference to sub-Herr Wright: When you are given another escaped terrorist slave to interrogate, Bill Moyers, he should be softened up first by
CACI experts (waterboard, extended wakeful stress, nudity and sexual degradation, threats to loved ones, sodomy, hood, shocks, extreme temperatures, holy texts ground in excrement, stress positions, etc.). Let him be informed in no uncertain terms the atrocities and perversions he surely must have committed, else we would never have been forced to bring him in. Then you should get Brancaccio in for a good anchor/bad anchor routine of slaps, shocks, bright lights, confession writing and mock bargaining. It is only in this way a that high value renderee will come clean with the strategic information necessary to keep the public disinformed and manipulated, and elections safe for elitist, classist, racist manipulating Supermen, like myself. If you follow my recommendations I shall remain syncophantic to your cult forever (even renewing my WNET card), or at least until my Luger discharges in my mouth and my body is cremated by my underlings.

WOW. THANKYOU SOOOOO MUCH FOR DOING THAT INTERVIEW MR. MOYERS. I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO WATCHING THIS INTERVIEW, BUT I WAS TAKEN BY COMPLETE SURPRISE AT WHAT KIND OF INTELLECTUAL MAN REV. WRIGHT IS. QUOTING THE BABLYONIAN TALMUD? HELPING PRESIDENT JOHNSON RECOVER IN THE HOSPITAL? THIS MAN HAS HAD AN INCREDIBLE LIFE AND HAS INCREDIBLE WISDOM, INTELLECT AND INSIGHT.

I DON'T HAVE MUCH USE FOR CHRISTIANITY OR CHRISTIANS BUT THIS MAN ISN'T A CHRISTIAN. HE IS A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST, HIS TEACHINGS AS WELL AS OTHER FAITHS AND BELIEFS. HE IS THE EMBODIMENT OF WHAT EVERY BLACK MAN AND BLACK WOMAN IS AND SHOULD BE.

IF EVERY PERSON WOULD BE MADE TO WATCH THIS INTERVIEW, PRESIDENT OBAMA WOULD WIN IN A REAGAN-ESQUE LANDSLIDE ELECTION TOMORROW.

TRULY GREAT! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST HIGH, JAH!

RASTAFARI!

Well, well well. Some of these comments are disgusting. I now have a new look at Rev. Wright. Perhaps some of those questions could have been more penetrating.
Rev. Wright’s comments about how shameful our country is regarding Iraq, Katrina, Viet Nam and the like really hit home.
I find the Bill Moyer’s interviews to be very forthright. Each week he gives us a different look at how messed up our country really is.
I just hope that many people saw this interview. I heard about it on CNN Friday morning.
Obama has nothing to worry about. But to thing that the Republicans would stoop that low to a political campaign add in North Carolina denouncing Obama is ridiculous.
Just think, if Hilary gets elected, 36 years of Bush and Clinton.
Steve Zimmett, St. Marys, PA

Thank you Mr. Moyer for your in depth interview with Rev. Wright. Thank you for showing the sermons in more of the real context in which he preached. This man has been crucified wrongly!! We may not believe everything he believes in, but I'm sure he IS NOT a racist or unpatriotic! The truth hurts!

I was impressed with the skillfulness of the interviewer, Bill Moyers. It struck me, in a very positive way, that not only did we not hear about Barack Obama until the last ten minutes or so, but that the interview was very focused on the man himself, Rev. Wright. I’ve be waiting for a response from him ever since this happened. I found Rev. Wright to be compelling, likeable, and profound as a thinker.

Amazing. There are two sides to every story. A couple of the comments here show that some are too narrow-minded to realize this, and do ignorant things, such as labeling the interview a PR campaign. It shows how firm a grip the cable news channels have on the minds of the masses. No other source is credible, and anything that gets airtime outside these "news channels" is radical propaganda. That is preposterous and indicates a latent fanaticism in the minds of those who gave credence to those five second clips and loops taken out of context from Wright's sermons.

I have no doubt in my mind that everyone here has said something that would be called "abrasive" or "hateful" if it were taken out of context and looped over and over again for emphasis. That doesn't mean you should be castrated for it.

The ignorance in some of these inflammatory comments is just overwhelming.

Great piece though.

I commend you, Mr. Moyers, for the courage to give Dr. Wright a chance to present himself to the American public.

In reading the postings that criticize you for this, I am reminded of how polarized we have become since Cable TV has locked viewers into their corners of the ring, where they rarely listen to anyone who doesn't agree with them anymore.

Those of us who admire both Senator Obama and Rev. Wright have been subjected to literally hundreds of minutes of those sounds bites on every station for the last 5 weeks, taking Rev. Wright's remarks out of context, but you are criticized for giving him one hour to speak in context! Those who castigate you show their own narrowmindedness and bigotry.

Instead of reasoned discourse between the right and the left, between black and white, shouting and scoring points in argument seem to be the norm. We should note that this type of behavior is often a preamble to violent, civil conflict. Those who keep their radios tuned to the likes of Rush Limbaugh harden their views and descend into the fascist mindset that is always in the shadows. I hope those who posted those angry remarks do not represent a sizable portion of the US population. I hope there are fewer of them than there are of those who agree with Rev. Wright's analysis - because we certainly number in the millions.

Clearly, the range of views in America can span a great chasm. Barack Obama is a voice for dialogue, encouraging us to listen to each other, and seek common ground. Those who want to deny Rev. Wright and those who agree with him a platform to be heard fairly need to understand that they do not have an exclusive claim on American patriotism. Rev Wright has every bit a right to claim to be a patriot, having fought for this country and having stood in the surgical suite with a sitting US President, with the power of life and death in his hands. He cannot be denied the right to speak, and those who would try to do so need to get a grip on their sanity and open their minds to the possibility that people who look like him have something to say to which they need to listen.

Mr. Moyers, thank you for being a bridge over these troubled waters that are the American public discourse today. I hope yours will be the first of many opportunities for dialogue across this widening racial, cultural, and political divide.

Thank you, Mr. Moyer, for trying to help generate more light than heat on the Rev Wright and his preachings. I believe, though, that you have only begun to scratch the surface maybe for lack of time, or for whatever reason. It was disappointing for example, for you not to have followed up on the Reverend's dismissal of Sen Obama's public utterances on the nature of their pastor-parishioner relationship by saying this is how one (Sen Obama) speaks as a politician and the other (Rev Wright) as a pastor. What happened to truth in all these then? Is this an example of how religion and politics are being shamelessly mixed together these days to gather votes? Whatever happened to separation of Church and State? What does this say of the intrusiveness of the Bible, and the glib use of its passages, as a handy tool for justifying this and that cause?

Another question I did not see tackled in the interview was: Where does the maligning of the Clintons in the Reverend's sermons, from the pulpit no less, to promote Sen Obama enter the picture? Is this what he meant when he said he speaks as a pastor?

In the end, I feel that Sen Obama and his pastor need to show more candor and sincerity to win the trust of the people.

Thank you. My spirits needed a lift from the drag of dreck accumulated from watching Facist Fox and other news hitlerites. Unfortunately, even intelligent people of my acquaintance have been repeating what the networks have been spewing out, and now I have something I can counter them with, if, of course, they will listen. Thank you again!

Mr. Moyers,

Thank you so much for this illuminating interview with Reverend Wright. Although I am not a Christian, I was deeply moved by Rev. Wright's message of social justice, love, peace and humility (what I've always felt true Christianity is, but has been so often ignored). I feel such outrage at the way in which his words were twisted by the mainstream media - it's a disservice to all of us when the public dialogue is manipulated.

Thanks again and welcome back!

WOW! Lot's of people really show a high level of negativity. I was disappointed to read the other comments, but the comments are insightful. I was captured during the show with Rev. Wright. We have become so angry and vengeful. He may say a lot of things, but he does speak truths of the Old Testament. I am Catholic and a product of Catholic schools. He definitely does understand the Old Testament. He recognizes the trends and is able to say that this too shall pass, in reference to the trend of our times. I am hopeful also, but sad. He may not be perfect, but he is as human as all of us are. I hope we survive US. Thank you Bill Moyers for your contribution to public television.

Thank God for PBS and their boldness and kindness in letting Rev. Jeremiah Wright voice his feelings, showing his remarks in context -- that the news media blew out of context and played over and over again to incite racial hatred and to cast expersions upon Senator Obama for not denoucing him.

Thank God he didn't! He knew the truth about the matter and stood firm on his belief.

The news media tried to show comments -- again out of context-- of the things he said in the interview before it was aired -- they put their usual negative spin on it to prejudice people against it before it even came on.

Shame on the news media! Everyone was exposed and Rev. Wright and Senator Obama were exonerated. I trust that this will be enough to stop the negative effect of the ads that the Republicans are going to run next week.

The news media says that it was bad timing for Senator Obama, when in fact it was great timing. I trust that the Obama campaign will pay money to run the entire interview on national tv before every primary.

The news media is still taking the interview out of context and putting a negative spin on it even after it aired.

Hopefully the American people will not take what the media showed in advance of the interview, and will form their own opinion about the matter.

I hope everyone will get to view the complete interview.

Thank God for answering the prayers of His people in bringing out the truth.

Thank you very much PBS and Mr. Bill Moyer for this insightful piece. Although, this program should have answered any and all questions concerning the context of Rev. Wright's sermons, ignorant people who have been poisoned by the biased and racist media will continue to feel the same way they felt before the program. The reason for this is that hate and racism is still pervasive and permeate the very fabric of America. It is attached to America like a parasite attaches itself to a host. By not having meaningful, intelligent, and constructive conversations about race, America's racial infirmity will continue to exist.

Thank you, Mr. Moyer, for this phenomenal interview. It allowed Rev. Wright the opportunity to fill in the blanks surrounding the words of his that have been blasted all over the news of late. Rev. Wright showed himself to be a man of great character and loyalty, loyalty to a country who's society has oppressed him and those of his race for centuries. Every word he said rang true and his life of caring for the overall well being of his parishioners speaks volumes. He is the true Christian, not one of the flag waving zealots we usually have put in front of us by the (anything but) Christian right.

Dear Mr. Moyers, Thank you so much for this sensitive and illuminating piece, and for all of your work for so many years. If we had more journalists of your caliber, our nation would be a vastly better place.

Sincerely,
Ben Silverman
New York, NY

Dear Mr. Moyers,
I would like to thank you for this wonderful piece. It was helpful to find out more about Rev. Wright, I was so impressed with his message and demeanor.
The mainstream media, the Republicans, and Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of themselves for their portrayal of him. The race-based fear that they are trying to instill are precisely why we need true change in this country.

Bill Moyers, YOU ROCK!!!!!
peeps...
If you like PBS..pony up...put your money where your mouth is..
Buy the video, $29.95.. show it to your kids, your classes, your groups.
Show your support,click on
the 'digg' icon and let them know

Thank you, Thank you!
The interview allowed whole thoughts to be expressed and fleshed out, an interview for adults! What a refreshing change.
Rev. Wright may have said things we do not want to face, but what he said was true. Thank you again.

Dr. Wright seems to preach wholly from the Old Testament where he exudes pride in Joseph's life in Egypt. Where Wright differs from my ministers is their sermons come mainly from the New Testament and Jesus Christ's ministry. I find Dr Wright preaches black theology, but it isn't rooted in Christ's life and work, which took place in all of 30 miles in Israel (Middle East). The 2000 year old story is one of love, truth, and forgiveness.

The Reverend Wright piece was excellent, it gave basically an hour to someone who has been in the news frequently of late. To try to make Reverend Wright a bad guy is ridiculous. Any pictures you saw of him in his life he was trying to do the right thing. I mean, c'mon, he is a pastor and before that he was a medical technician trying to help save a president's life. It's gotten ridiculous that all people are judging is what philosophy a person has or whether they are liberal or conservative. What they do when they wake up and do the rest of the day should be the criteria if you ask me. I

Reverend Wright, Obama and the media can spin it any way they want with the now sweet, soft-spoken but still lying Reverend. It's still HATRED, RACIST and ANTI-AMERICAN.

Nothing can justify God **** America. Nothing.

Let's ask the Reverend about dry humping the air in front of the congregation, including children, while saying we did black people like Bill Clinton did Monica Lewinsky.

I'm not stupid and know what "ridin dirty" is. And in front of children, shame, shame Mr. Wright.

Wow, it's sad to see that you're one of the only rational voices in the media. Everywhere else, it's just been a clamor to rip his sound bites out of context and do as much damage to Obama's campaign as they possibly can to keep this Democratic nomination process going. They don't care that in the process, they're deceitfully defaming an entire community on false premises. Anyway, digg it if you liked it.

This won't change reality--
Obama will lose in November because of this association, among other things.

Obama said on the view that Wright was sorry for his comments, and that's why he hasn't left the church. Another bending of the truth?

Rev. Wright doesn't represent the "black church" anymore than the "Rev" Jacksons or Sharptons. This is strictly hate speach which only serves to hold down the black community and has no true spirituality/Christianity. Blacks, whites, Hispanics all should turn their back on him. Barack's membership in this man's church says he flushed his morals long ago, in choosing politics. He is betraying his black brothers.

Mr. Moyers:
I usually am very impressed with your program and the people you have on even if I don't always agree with them. I think you do a great sevice to the American discouse. However, I was very disappointed with the Rev. Wright inteview. I thought it was very much a softball interview. I wanted to hear why it was appropiate for Wright to say the things he said about Bill Clinton "doing the dirty" to the AA community like he did to Monica and his comments about Hillary never being called a n***er etc. First, the Clintons have done a great deal for the AA community over the years and brought many AA's into government posts during the Clinton years. Second, any woman from Hillary's generation knows what women went through to break into many jobs in the male dominated society. AA's are not the only ones that have had to be smarter and work harder to compete in the male dominated world. And women may not be passed up by a cab but they have to worry if the guy giving them a ride is going to try to rape them. Where were the questions to address these issues?

Being raised in Kansas a Lutheran in a Catholic neighborhood, I had exposure to many different religous teachings. I never heard the anger, the hate spewed by Wright. I heard love thy neighbor, do unto others..... I learned about hard work and an obligation to help those who couldn't help themselves. Not about the government. Do I think our government has done some terrible things? Absolutely. And it is up to me to follow MLK to PEACEFULLY try to change that injustice. Just calling it out with hate and anger is not productive.

Rev. Wright is trying to clean up his image but I am not buying. If it was my pastor I would have walked out. That is not the spirituality I was tought.

Thanks for the helpful and revealing Jeremiah Wright interview. HOW TRAGIC!

Rev. Wright is likable and his words compelling in so many ways. But he also deceives himself with a sense of his own righteousness and right-ness. Rev. Wright is apparently incapable of apology.

Any pastor--ANYONE, for that matter--who advocates cross-cultural understanding, but offends massive portions of another cultural group, who despises the mass media for "miscommunicating" his own words, but claims to have successfully communicated with those same offensive words, who embraces his role as a citizen of and minister in the only major non-sectarian democracy in the world, but condemns "THEM" (not "US") for America's mistakes and sins, who defends what a reasonable interviewer calls "indefensible," who sings the righteous blues of self-pity for having outraged the sensibilities of caring, conscientious people in all walks of life, ought to have some sense of humility. Rev. Wright showed none. Mr. Obama, on the other hand, responded masterfully well in his Philadelphia speech. And he wasn't doing "what politicians do"--he did what a thoughtful humanitarian would do.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright's failure is not that he is "unashamedly Black," but that he is also "unapologetically self-righteous." How contrary to the very spirit and "mind of Christ."

Dear Mr. Moyers,

I am rather disappointed that you did not ask more pressing questions. This man's racist, divisive preaching is not to be tolerated particularly when he capitalizes on this hate speak to buy himself a $10 million dollar home.

Why did you not ask him about this?

How about his sexually gyrating in church and insulting the Clintons -- or making the horrible comment in a sermon, no less, that Hillary Clinton doesn't know what it's like to struggle because she has never been called a n*gg*r. Can you imagine. Never mind the horrible mysogyny she faces every day at the hands of people like him and media thugs. Why didn't you question him about this.

I can understand treading gently with the Rev. to get him to open up, but to let him off the hook like this does a disservice to your reputation -- and to your viewers. When you read all of his remarks "in context" they do not get any better. They are still horribly paranoid, racist and divisive and do nothing to move the debate toward unity forward in this country.

We do not need to see an interview that is little more than an effort by his press people to clean up his image.

Thank you for the Jeremiah Wright story! Thank you! I wish everyone in the country could see this and appreciate Mr. Wright for what he is- without having to agree with his views. Thank you so much for airing this- I have never watched your show before and am glad to have discovered it through this. Thank you for this interview! I hope it helps the critics put this whole story in context and see what a wonderful man he is. Thank you!

I am so glad that you did this program. I found Rev. Wright to be very articulate and a deep man of God. As the catholic priest says on the video circulating, if you took the words of Jesus and did small sounds bites, he would sound like a mad man. I have listened to the entire sermons in controversy and found to be true what i saw tonight - he is earnest, patriotic, and a great man of faith. And his words are really no different than other great ministers, such as billy graham, who has said, God will punish America, or he will have to apologize to sodom and gomorrah. thanks for the great show!

Terrific Bill and I was worried going in following todays sound bites. I so more understand and I hope others do to. There is no doubt that Rev Wright is a brilliant man and patriot. I only wish that every American watched it. We (USA) have a lot of work to do and I hope that we take on the challenge.
Saying any more would just be rhetoric and God knows we have more then enough of that going on these days. I hope this hits UTube ASAP and as I said I hope the people read and digest.
Thanks again Bill - wonderful work.

that is it words out of context where is the hard questioning of moyers sorry I guess Bill has lost his journalist touch and would rather be a vehicle for the absurd no one including "pastors" have the answers

Oh.

Flag Pins...Made in China.

Oh.

Flag Pins...Made in China.

If this video excerpt on Wright is representative, I'm disappointed that you gave him a podium, but failed to ask any pressing questions.

Far from misrepresenting his views, the news networks actually cleaned up Wright sermons. Much longer videos online are far worse.

For example, go to YouTube and if you want, you can see Wright on the podium in front of a congregation of 8,000 including young children, imitating sexual intercourse while he says, "Blacks don't owe the Clintons nothin'. The Clintons did to us blacks what they did to Monica Lewinski."

Here are some questions I would like to have seen asked: 1) "If you claim the excerpts mis-represent you, in what context is it acceptable for a Reverend to imitate sexual intercourse on the pulpit in front of children?" 2) "What evidence do you have that the U.S. government created AIDS to kill blacks?" 3) "Given that violence is a plague destroying the lives of inner-city poor, do you feel your hate speech helps lessen or contributes to violence?" 4) "It is illegal for non-profit churches to endorse political candidates. Conservative churches have been pursued in court by the IRS for doing so. Why shouldn't the IRS go after Trinity for your open endorsement of Sen. Obama?"

Why is it that some Americans have an aggressive stance to any views contrary to their own?

In the land of the free, freedom of speech is still a problem; comments are twisted to denounce those, whose views you don't agree with. The issue really is not why Bill did not conduct an inquisition of Rev. Wright but why were Wright's sentences and speeches edited to make them even more extreme?

Dirty politics that is reminiscent of football hooliganism has become standard fare in America (to the point where senior American politicians draw analogy to knife fights) and the mainstream media are politicised and sensationalist.

Some of the comments on this blog reflect that unthinking, quickness to action that leads to blunder i.e. Iraq war. Racism is mostly endemic in America and Wright is just another facet.

However hypocrisy is what makes it all ridiculous. It is laughable to hear comments denouncing one racist by others who probably still have issues with voting for a non-white or feel uncomfortable engaging with blacks.

Has any one of those discourteous respondents heard the quote: "I detest what you say, but I'll give my life to defend your right to say it"?

Wright's comments are extreme, but isn't that a very American thing?

I am glad that there are so many questions that some of the writers to this blog would ask Rev. Wright, I also hope these people would ask there government officials about the spread of aids and the world trade center and many other poorly explained events in our history. I also hope they have asked about hurricane katrina efforts, about the war in Iraq, about the de-regulation of financial institutions such as hedge funds, the buildup of private military interest that now fight in wars without oversight of the people of the U.S. I hope the questions never stop coming but I also hope some reasonable proofs will be established and then new questions can be asked.
If Rev. Wrights words offend you consider how the words of G.W. offend me, how day after day I see a person lie to the public and a V.P. say "so what" when questioned about what a two thirds majority of Americans think.
You object to garlic noses but not to thick lips under the guise of it being descriptive as opposed to thin or non existent lips. I admit I don't exactly know what a garlic nose is but niether can I accept that you know what thick lips are, for I do not accept your standards.
To somehow believe that you understand more about America than Dr. Wright who has lived many years of America, has served America, has prayed for America, has toiled for America, has seen the cruelty of America, has watched the treachery of America, has embraced America, has corrected America and has represented America makes you a vile individual with no sense of moral appitude as well as a decietful person.

I just watched the interview you had with Rev Wright and I found it to be completely devoid of any relevant content. The Nazis and the KKK did lots of charitable things for thier own people but they were still racists and filled with hate. Of course Rev Wright's comments are being used as a political weapon but if Obama has really been mentored by a man who may have a heart filled with hatred toward anyone who is not black then we need to know that. Your interview did not bring us any closer to finding out what type of mentor Obama had.

Uhhhh..How about asking him the very simple question " do you really beleive the CIA gave black americans the Aids virus"

That one question would show what a crack pot that guy really is....oh yeah...how does he justify buying a 10,000 sq foot house in an all white neighborhood, when he preaches that black americans are abondoning thier neighborhoods ? What a lame interview...my dog would have done a better job.

Bill

You are a real Liberal lapdog. What a lame, limp wristed attempt at an interview.Why bother to ask Rev. Wright any questions at all? He didn't need to explain anything. You did all the apologizing for him. What a liberal loser you are.

Mr. Moyers, you are one of my journalistic heroes. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your voice of reason, clarity, and integrity.
Thank you.

These comments are predictably vulgar. I weep for the future.

Bill: "What did you think when you saw those very brief soundbytes circulating as they did?"

Very brief? They seemed pretty long to me! And there are MANY of them! Did you ask him about his obscene, racist rant(s) about Hillary? It's LONG and cannot be called a "byte": Jeremiah Wright - Hillary Clinton attack, and white guilt. What about when Wright pumped his body pumps back and forth to emphasize his nasty "ridin' dirty" message out? Ridin' Dirty Did you ask Wright about that? Did you ask him about his understanding of the sexism brought against WOMEN?

What about his comments against Italians ("with their garlic noses"), "rich white Europeans", and the rest of the "white" people?

Did you ask him whether he'll "come out of retirement" once the election is over?

And why did Obama appoint Rev. Wright to his official presidential campaign religious advisory committee AFTER KNOWING ABOUT HIS INCITEFUL COMMENTS?

Also, why has no other candidate emerged with an influencial person close to them spewing, yelling and distributing (some are on a dvd) the type of devisive predjudice that Wright does?

This is why Wright presents himself as being so soft-spoken in this interview: to counteract what we already know about his aggressive, angry "style".

The pieces of the puzzle are obvious: Obama believes in the "typical white person", he doesn't put his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is played, he won't wear a flag pin (looking very irritated when asked about it), is praised by Farakan and Aljazeera, his wife verbally states she has not been proud of America...there is more but I think most of us get the picture. He made some points about racial tension in the US, but he is NOT presidential material!

Obama is free-falling as people begin to see through him. Bill Moyers, why are you defending him & Wright? Why can't these men be held to their words and deeds??

RE: Israels New Best Friend

I was surprised that you would interview 2 men who deride conservative evangelical theology without inviting a conservative to the table to bring some balance to the discussion. It was clear to me that neither you Bill, or your 2 guests understand or accurately portray conservative evangelical theology (lets call it CET). You certainly do not understand dispensationalism. Rabbi Lerner is far off the mark when he states that the CET view of end times will have Jews convert to Christianity and lose their "jewishness". This simply is not the case. CET understands that there will come a day when all people will see the Christ or Messiah. The nation of Israel will at last meet the long awaited Messiah. This does not make them Christian - this will make them completed Jews.

Regarding CET and the dispensational view of end times scenario... they do not teach that they can cause "any events" to take place by being Israel's friend as described on your show. A dispensational view believes future events will take place, regardless of what anyone does or believes.

Regarding fear that CETs are stirring Arab world hatred toward Israel, this is not the case. The Arab world has never had a desire to accept an independent Jewish state. Ancient arab ancesters were against Israel returning to their historic homeland when Cyrus King of Persia released Israel from (the Babylonian/Medo-Persian) capitivity to return to Jerusalem. History records that bands of armed locals fought against Nehemiah's men while they tried to rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. Likewise, many modern Arabs are equally against Israel being in the land as evidenced by the 6 Day War of 1967 and other recent backlashes. These things happened previously without the aid of CET support (early events pre-date CET existence) and would happen even if all CETs were silent.

In my opinion, the portrayal of CETs by all parties on this show were nothing short of a "Neronian-like phobia" of the conservative Evangelical Christian movement. History proved that Emperor Nero played a crazy, delusional tune while he harbored (even fabricated) and communicated unfounded fears about the Christian movement. It seems to me Bill, that you and your 2 guests may be motivated by good intentions, however all of you appear to be harboring and communicating "unfounded fears about CET. So much so you could easily play a background trio for a Neronian serenade.

If you want to understand a correct dispensational view of the Bible and its relationship to the world... talk to a real dispensationalist. Inviting one to this show's panel of guests would have helped to balance the discussion.

Such a breath of fresh air every time I watch your program, it seems the truth is now a pocket in the news that is PBS/OPB.
During late 2002, when this was all going down, I used to yell at my tv, but did not know where to go to make my voice heard to anyone else. I watched all the news pundits, the "real" journalists and they all said the same thing. What scared me most back then was that no one was even offering an opposite view. The "American People" went with what they were told by the newspeople they trusted. It was definately not fashionable to be against the buildup; and if you did, well, you couldn't be a commie any more, so you were either un-american or against the troops. I had few listeners among the people I knew, and even lost some long time friends. Because I questioned official policy. And now it comes full circle. Missed it the first time you aired this program, but boy am I glad I caught it this time.
We are still in the woods on this, as we have a congress which bends with the tides at best, and does nothing but double speak at worst.
Sure would be nice to have a politician who 1)voted what his heart told him was right and just; 2)was in office to do the right thing; 3)did not care if he was re-elected or not, and didn't succumb to the money; 4)really wanted to make a substsantial change for the better; 5) and stuck to their beliefs no matter what the political wind was blowing at them.
Here in Oregon, we have Ron Wyden; I no longer have the faith in him when he first went off to Washington, but I think he started out for all the right reasons.
So there it is, sorry I spoke so much. Didn't know about Knight Ridder, I will investigate further.
I still don't feel I have a voice that I would like so others can hear what I feel, but THANK GOD that there is a Bill Moyers, a Fareed Zakaria, and Mr. Batachio (hope I spelled that one right) still telling us the truth. Remember, follow the money.
Bill Scott, Portland, OR.

Great to have you back Bill!
Keep up the good work.
Please do whatever it takes
to move toward the impeachment of the leaders of this country that ignore the laws of this country.
we want our country BACK!!

please do whatever is required to continue processes to impeachment the true evil doers.
i want our country back.
thank you bill

Your last program on impeachment was great. The duo in the White House should have been impeached in 2004,when the N.Y. Daily Times first advocated it. Pelosi's oversight is failing, since 80% of congress still represent corporate America and the administration. Either the Republicans squash a good bill or it passes and the President vetoes it. The public is between a rock and a hard place with a imperial-military gov't, an autocrat in the White House and only 30% of congress to represent them. Because of this an impeachment willnever happen. We the people are in a sound-proofed room screaming unheard.

Bill, thank you for your show, as infuriating as it sometimes can be. People have answers and want new direction, but I am always amazed that the powers that be just can't see it. This is not why I'm writing though...

There needs to be a refresher course in cause and effect, especially in the arena of politics.

I was shocked and dismayed by how early the mechanisms of the 2008 presidential campaign kicked in. Our main campaigners were already set by Christmas 2006. We're into debates now, not next year when electoral concerns and current events could actually sync up in some synergistic fashion - long story short, they'd be more relevant next year than at this particular moment.

How so? Well, unlikely as it may seem, the demeanor of the public could change. What happens if, God forbid, more terrorist attacks and near attacks happen in the U.K.? The current administration becomes more insular and, oddly enough, the public agrees. The Republicans who have been punching the fear 'hot-button' pretty hard would seem to reap the benefit, but also-ran John McCain suddenly sees his alignment with George Bush as asset, not detriment. Meanwhile, all the candidates who distanced themselves from Bush look soft on terrorism, weak, not patriotic. And the Democrats? They're crushed beneath the weight of this year's scorn, branded 'flip-floppers' and are generally regarded untrustworthy. Look, I said this was the unlikliest of scenarios.

But if there is a drastic reversal of fortunes, this extra year of gum-flapping could only be more harmful than helpful. But what is worse is the quality of our current debates. Rather than being moderated by impartial, credible parties, we are seeing these candidates boxed into corners by special interests. Am I saying that Melissa Ethridge shouldn't be concerned whether or not our next president will carefully consider the rights of gays and lesbians, or whether they should or shouldn't be legally allowed to marry? No, Of course she should. Should scientists have the right to ask candidates if they will stand up for stem-cell research? Should women's activists be allowed to ask if abortion rights will be upheld? Should right-to-lifers have a chance to ask if the candidates should consider opposing it?

In all these cases, Americans deserve to be heard, but through an unbiased and credible moderator; certainly not through some of those ridiculous YouTube questions presented by citizens more interested in their fifteen seconds of fame than in their country's future. When someone actually stepped up with a clear purpose, (I'm thinking of the woman with the wig, asking about healthcare and cancer research), they stood toe-to-toe with show-offs, sarcastics and snowmen. I'm not opining for some lost sense of political dignity here. I just expect all viewpoints to be channelled through a single entity, this way all ideas can be addressed fairly and not with all the mugging, antics and "communication bling".

Another downside of having these debates so early, and having the campaigns start so early, is yet more showing off, this time with each state rescheduling their primaries to sync up with a single "Super Tuesday Super-Primary". Whereas before when elections were confined to a proper year, now there's so much time to expand, like an oilslick on a lake, that every state wants to move up just because they can. There is no real incentive to do this beyond showing off to the original heavy political arenas like Iowa and New Hampshire. NH begged off of the controversy yesterday by insisting they'd keep their ballot where it has been. Iowa, on the other hand, inferred their primary would be moved to December... That's December of this year.

I, as much as anyone, desire change in the way our country is being steered, but this trend in state and social self-aggrandizement not only sullies the process but has a real chance of backfiring on those most committed to that change. I'd hate to think that our country could slide even farther away from reform simply because we couldn't show the tiniest bit of self-control.

Please look into the terrible racist situation in Jena, LA. Talk to Alan Bean, bean@cebridge.net, head of Friends of Justice. He's been involved from the first and knows the story best. Thanks and keep doing your good, great work

Bill I enjoyed your documentary but I think you owe Oprah a huge apology.

The only mainstream media voice who ended up joining the antiwar movement before the war took place was Oprah (Donahue was not mainstream).

Oprah did a whole series of antiwar shows in the few months before the war. Michael Moore even endorsed her for president and praised her on page 87 of DUDE WHERE'S MY COUNTRY for showing footage of Donald Rumsfeld embracing Saddam no other major media would dare show. Here's an excellent article about a two-day antiwar show she did from Academics for Justice:

Understanding What Just Happened on The Oprah Winfrey Show :

Today, Oprah Winfrey started a two-part series focusing on the impending U.S. war on Iraq. About halfway through the show the broadcast was pre-empted by coverage of Pres. George Bush, with Colin Powell at his side, reading a prepared statement on Iraq. The coincidental timing of this pre-emptive press statement raised immediate questions about the motives of the White House war strategists. Students of the Civil Rights Movement will recall an incident in 1964 when activist Fannie Lou Hamer sat before a live television audience and gave a riveting account of the oppression she and other Blacks faced in the South. President Lyndon Johnson was so convinced of the power of her appeal to undermine his own political/racial agenda, that he hastily called a press conference to pull cameras away from Hamer’s impassioned revelations. Though the networks pre- empted Hamer’s testimony to cover the president, the newscasts later showed her entire presentation.
The pre-emption of Winfrey’s show today should be seen in the same light. Oprah’s audience is a vast and powerful—but largely apolitical—force of middle-class white women. It is likely that most did not watch Colin Powell’s live testimony at the U.N. yesterday. In fact, it is likely that this huge audience was being oriented to the issues of the Iraq war for the first time. It is unlikely that they treated this show with anything but intense propaganda interest.
The first 30 minutes of the show was decidedly anti-war and highlighted not only worldwide unanimity in opposition to the war but presented many of the heretofore unheard voices of ordinary people speaking forcefully against Bush’s motives. CNN assisted the Oprah Show by presenting overseas confirmation of this from Great Britain and Iraq. For instance, the British correspondent said at one point that it was hard to find anyone in Britain EXCEPT TONY BLAIR that supported the war. Other voices repeated their conclusion that the war is “for oil,” not “against terrorism.” Those familiar with the Bush administration’s network cheerleaders at ABC, NBC, and CBS would, no doubt, view this expose’ with raised eyebrows. Then, without warning or introduction, Bush is seen at the podium reiterating Powell’s statement at the U.N. yesterday! One immediately had to assume that Bush was actually declaring war on Iraq, given the urgency of this interruption. Soon, however, it became clear that OPRAH herself was the target of this sabre-rattling and not Saddam Hussein. Bush simply summarized Powell’s presentation for Oprah’s audience, hitting key emotional points for this afternoon women’s gathering. He said nothing more of any import at all. Returning to the show, 15 or so minutes later, found still more impassioned, but reasoned, anti-war input from members of Oprah’s audience. There was indeed a balance of pro-war input but the net effect of the show—in spite of Bush’s strategic Johnsonian interruption—was to embolden the anti-war voices and to make opposition to the war as “patriotic” a position as that of the warmongers. What we just saw was a replay of an old propaganda ploy of an ol’ Texas politician, Lyndon Baines Johnson, against the scarecropper’s daughter from Mississippi, Fannie Lou Hamer. In 1964, enough of Hamer’s message was heard to force Johnson into acting against his own political desires. Bush’s ploy in 2003 may have backfired as well.

Here's an article about a second antiwar show Oprah did right before the war:

The Oprah schnook club
By Ben Shapiro
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/BenShapiro/2003/03/19/the_oprah_schnook_club

Oprah Winfrey is the most powerful woman in America. She decides what makes the New York Times best-seller lists. Her touchy-feely style sucks in audiences at the rate of 14 million viewers per day. But Oprah is far more than a cultural force -- she's a dangerous political force as well, a woman with unpredictable and mercurial attitudes toward the major issues of the day. Her ignorant views and wacky reasoning shape the views of millions.
Oprah's latest target: the war in Iraq. In what previews described as an eye-opening hour, Oprah used her bully pulpit on March 18 to slam the United States and George W. Bush. Her guests were anti-war Fawaz Gergez, a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College, and "pro-war" New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Of course, both Gergez and Friedman were anti-Bush.
Oprah also showed part of Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," which lambastes American foreign policy. "It resonated with a lot of people, me included," she sweetly informed. When Friedman (remember, he's supposed to provide balance) stated that "the Bush administration is going to have to have an attitude lobotomy," Oprah laughed out loud. After showing a clip of young Muslim man ripping America, Oprah noted: "What he said sounded like what I've heard from people of color all over the world."

gung ho american attitude took this country to war .
thanks bill for the shows some like the dutch slagging off islam are pretty offensive though.
I am a christian educated agnostic but from the moment 9/11 happened all you americans have been racist war mongerers. i say all because the USA has treated the whole middle east as one terrorist group rather than getting real.
Islam says this and that ..so do christians have you never watched that hate and lye promoting show the 700 club..
watch it you will soon see that we call for war against nations that say they will defend themselves.America says it is an offence to defend yourself unless you are american or israeli.

How come Bill, you make references to Osama bin Laden "MASTERMINDING" the attacks on September 11, 2001?

DO YOU HAVE A SHRED OF PROOF?

DO YOU HAVE A SHRED OF PROOF?

Or do you just buy into the Cheney Bush Crime Syndicate's lies?

Journalistic integrity needs to be applied here.

I read the transcript of your interview with Jerry Miller. I'd like to have seen commentary from any who defended his wrongful incarceration. So often, the focus on victims seems like we're applauding those who flee from (or perish in) a burning building...without turning our attention apporiately to spolight the arsonists.

Mr. Moyers, your penetrating insights and tireless efforts to communicate the momentous truth are priceless treasures to this nation. You are truly venerated by people who need to understand and want to take personal corrective action.

Myself, after watching "Buying the War", I am motivated to pass on my discovery to some of the 18-20 year old marines who are the direct victims and enablers of this monstrous perversity perpetrated in our name. It will be a humbling and cleansing experience.

Bill I am a great fan of your work but was deeply disappointed in the lack of research you did in "Buying the War". Specifically you accuse Oprah of buying into the propoganda, but neglect to inform your viewers that Oprah was so disturbed by her audience member's comments that she quickly followed up with several of the most antiwar shows of anyone in mainstream media. Townhall.com's Ben Shapiro even blasts Oprah for an antiwar show in an article tiled Oprah's Schnook Club . In fact Michael Moore even appeared on Oprah right before the war and in his book "Dude, Where's my country?" he endorses Oprah for president for being the only mainstream media to show a clip of Rumsfeld shaking Sadam Hussein's hand no one else would show. I just thought it was incredibly unfair the way you took one show of hers out of context and ignored all the other shows she did leading up to the war. That kind of selective presentation of information is the very sloppy reporting you despise and we expect so much more from you. Please correct the record!

We were shocked to learn the extent of the prevarication of the Bush administration in its rush to war in Iraq and the willingness most of the print media to allow itself to be duped and thorougly used by this most inept and corrupt adminisrations. Only the Knight-Ritter group acted as true journalists and investigated the claims of the neocons that Saddam Hussein was a danger to the United States.

Dear Bill,
Many people welcomed you back to pbs. When and why did you leave? I am glad you came back?
Please tell me about this.

thanks,
aster

Mr. Moyers, Thank you Thank you for the report on the MSM's complicity in the run-up to the invasion.

I was well aware of this complicity while listening to the MSM before the invasion and was in shock. Because on the Diane Rehm show, BBC, Talk of the Nation, and on the internet there were interviews with General Zinni, retired CIA analyst, Scott Ritter, Zbingniew Brezinski and so many more questioning the validity of the intelligence and the wisdom of an invasion of a country that had not attacked us. Thank you for that over view!

Here is my concern NOW. The same "cakewalk in Iraq" zealots have been able to repeat inflammatory and unsubstantiated claims about Iran's "alleged" nuclear weapons program repeatedly in the MSM. Polls now report that 70% of Americans now believe that Iraq posesses nuclear weapons. The one mainstreamer that seems to have learned his lesson is MSNBC's Chris Matthews. I have heard him seriously challenge these repeated claims about Iran during the last four years. He is obviously pissed that he was duped about Iraq!

The most recent example of the MSM's complicity in allowing these unsubstantiated claims to be repeated is NPR'S NEIL CONANS' MAY 1 PROGRAM WITH JOHN BOLTON ON. CONAN ALLOWED BOLTON TO REPEAT THESE CLAIMS ABOUT IRAN OVER AND OVER AGAIN. YOU CAN GO TO TOTN'S ARCHIVES AND LISTEN FOR YOURSELF. I CAN SHARE OTHER EXAMPLLES OF THIS, THIS IS THE LATEST.

PLEASE DO A REPORT ON THE MSM'S COMPLICITY ON IRAN NOW! SO THAT IN TWO YEARS YOU ARE NOT DOING A REPORT ON THE MSM'S COMPLICITY IN THE RUN-UP TO A PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE ON IRAN!

DEJA VU
HINSIGHT IS DEADLY!

Dear Mr. Moyers--

Thank you for returning to television to cut through the BS and the POFL (Plain Old Fashioned Lies)--and for doing so just in time to remind me why I dropped everything to go to law school "at my age" as I gird my loins for 1L finals!

Thank you!

Lisa

George Orwell called it years ago:

"One of the most extraordinary things about England is that there is almost no official censorship, yet nothing that is actually offensive to the governing classes gets into print, at least in any place where large numbers of people are likely to read it. If it is "not done" to mention something or other, it just doesn�t get mentioned. The position is summed up by (I think) Hillaire Belloc:

You cannot hope to bribe or twist
Thank God! The British journalist:
But seeing what the man will do
Unbribed, there is no reason to."

Cited in ON BENDED KNEE THE PRESS AND THE REAGAN PRESIDENCY, by Mark Hertsgaard. Schocken, 1989. P. 2.

I just wanted to add a postscript to Patricia Gracian's post of yesterday. While I could not agree with her more regarding the 2000 and 2004 elections, she neglected to mention an important resource: Mark Crispin Miller's recent book "Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them).

This excellent and exhaustively researched book is a must read for any American interested in this subject. And, in my opinion, this should include ALL AMERICAN's. For if you're not concerned about the integrity of perhaps THE most basic pillar of our society, then you need to question your right to truly call yourself an American.

Of course, if you've read Howard Zinn's "A Peoples History of the United States", you know that many of the things that we were taught about the founding principles of our nation (including our system of "free" and "open" elections) were, and are, mostly just artifice used by the monied elites to gain the support of and to maintain control over the rest of us.

It's kind of scary because nothing has changed. All the information was in the open for anyone to see, yet the "journalists" and elected officials who conspired to sell us this pig-in-a-poke disaster, remain. Very few were held accountable. It's as if their true jobs are as Colbert described it.

Anyway, thanks Bill for keeping it alive. Thank the good Lord for the internet!

Dear Bill...

Thanks for programs #1 and #2.

Jon Stewart and his gang may be the most innovative thing that's ever happened (in my 65 years, anyway) to what we used to call Journalism.

Jon and his team have led the crowd in journalistic breakthroughs, such as looking back through the clippings (remember when we used to do that as newspaper editors and writers?) while reporting or editing a "piece." But they're using video clips from the past.

They first used the technique maybe three years ago with the piece "Conventional Wisdom," with Jon asking the question, "Well, we wondered, 'How does conventional wisdom become conventional wisdom?' "

And then they proceeded to show maybe a dozen clips, starting w/ one of Lynn Cheney on a talk show, saying "They're just not in the main stream," and then the rest of all the various players, saying "out of the mainstream," "not in the mainstream, not in the mainstream, just not in the mainstream." Etc.

Back to Jon: Ahh, so that's how. Repetition. (I guess he could have quoted Goebbels then, but didn't.) And there was a graphic of a "white paper" entitled "Republican Talking Points" or he had a mock-up, or the real thing, in his hands.

That technique was adopted then by others. The one I remember recently was used (maybe by Keith Olberman?) as a counter to Bush's statement that "I've never been a 'stay-the-course' guy," and Tony Snow's statement in support, that the acting President "only used the phrase once or twice" in the past year. Then the clips- "tape" was rolled, with a running count. I think they stopped the roll, or file, when the count reached 29. But the "presenter" did not say Liar, liar, pants on fire (or the appropriate MSM equivalent, "not entirely accurate." (I do think it's really sad that the 3-letter Anglo-Saxon word "lie" has been dropped from the reportorial lexicon in this country, at least insofar as the federal government is concerned. "So, we see, Bush is lying when he says he's "never been a 'stay-the-course' guy.") But then, this is only a "non-lethal" lie, I suppose, though it is a phrase Bush and others in his administration used to prolong the war and savage the "cut-and-run" majority of the US and world populations. Bush just didn't want to be held responsible for his words--as ever.

The best analysis of the press/government relationship I've heard to date was Stephen Colbert's, which he delivered at the White House Correspondents' annual dinner--gads, it's almost a year to the day:

"But, listen, let�s review the rules. Here�s how it works. The president makes decisions, he�s the decider.

"The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down.

" Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home.

"Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know......fiction."

No wonder the White House press corps tried to ignore the whole thing.

Until the internet reporters (f k a "bloggers") picked it up--within hours of it's delivery, I think--and acknowledged it for the brass-balled speech it was.

The boys and girls inside the "Beltway" have become polluted--career before country.

If they had any courage, they would boycott the daily propaganda sessions called "the morning gaggle" (I guess they accept that they're a congregation of silly geese, after all). And then the "cameras rolling" propaganda session in the afternoon.
They have clearly lost any capacity for outrage they may have once had--and entirely lost their collective journalistic, and perhaps moral, compass.

Dear Mr. Moyers

Thank you and your staff for doing such a great reporting job! I knew little about Iraq before the war. In hindsight I could have read more then. On the other hand the national news appeared to be echoing nearly all that the President had to say on the subject; Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was ready and willing to use them. Who was I to question the Press and the President? The funny thing is I didn't believe a word of it. I waited for a ring of truth to come to light from all of the reporting. Instead reporters' regurgitated the President's story without corroborating it with facts. Take the White House firing of Hans Blix and then kicking out all of the U.N. weapons inspectors from Iraq. This had supposedly been done on the premise that Saddam had not been complying with U.N. Sanctions. If that were entirely true then the inspector's would not have been on the ground in Iraq in the first place. I remember thinking at the time that a little compliance was preferable to a lot of bloodshed. I had observed Hans Blix being interviewed on TV and he'd impressed me as someone who had been single-mindedly and methodically carrying out his assignment. I believed that if Hussein had something to hide Hans Blix would find it. But no, as day after day, week after week Blix and his team came up empty handed he was fired. Fired? Now it is well established that no weapons of mass destruction existed in the first place. They'd mostly been destroyed after the first Gulf War. That ring of truth I was waiting for never came. Five years later I am finally hearing a bit of it. Thanks again.

Dear Mr. Moyers,

Thank you so much for your show and this website. I am deeply appreciative of your insight and willingness to ask the questions that few journalists are willing to ask.

In addition, I am especially appreciative of this website, as my wife and I do not own a television, because we do not want our kids sitting in front of it. So I am glad to be able to see your show online.

Deepest regards,

-paul

p.s. I'd vote for you for president in a heartbeat.

Thanks for coming back with "Selling the War", one of the greatest programs since Murrow punctured Joe McCarthy's balloon.

Thanks also for PBS finally showing some guts.

I am surprised that no one quoted Joseph Goebbels - not only the famous first sentence, but also the remainder of the paragraph, which could have been written today:

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

This should be shouted from every qualified candidate's
speaking platform.

Arthur Freund

Try as hard as I might, I can't find an "R" in Washington. Bill, please stop saying, "Warshington".

Hi Bill.
I was moved to tears when I heard on Democracy Now that you were going to have your own show on PBS.
And yeah I cried in relief to see you with Amy before the premier of your show.
Thank you for replenishing my faith in the possibility of change.
If people knew the Truth, they would not stand for what is happening within the corrupt Bush Regime.
namaste'
Kellie

PS. Your Address to the National Conference for Media Reform this year was excellent..
"Life on the Plantation"
It should be required reading/listening for ALL Americans.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011807B.shtml

Dear Mr. Moyers,

Our household is glad to see you back on the air. This country needs to hear your voice more than ever.

"Buying the War" was indeed sobering. It confirmed our thoughts on media complacency during the period leading up to the invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

I wish however, that you chose to make the program a 2-hour report for the following reason: along with the Knight-Ridder people, much of the international media wasn't fooled by the Bush Administration.

My partner is a Canadian who has lived in the U.S. for 10 years. During this entire time, he has avidly followed Canadian news on the Internet. When news reporting on U.S. and international events during the prelude to the war in Canadian and other overseas media didn't match up almost immediately after 9-11, we took notice.

For a period of about 5 years, we were able to access TV news reports from a tiny internationally-focused digital cable news channel, Newsworld International (NWI). This network, operated by the CBC (Canada's public broadcaster) aired CBC's national nightly news program "The National", along with half-hour news broadcasts (in English) from NHK (Japan), Deutsche Welle (Germany) and ITV (Britain). It also carried reports from Britain's Channel 4 News, China's CCTV and Australia's ABC networks.

We heard about the existence of the Project for the New American Century - and of the roles of various high Bush administration officials in this group - on a CBC report roughly 6 weeks before similar stories about it appeared in U.S. print media. During the period between 9-11 and the invasion of Iraq, it became commonplace to find a time gap of 3 to 6 weeks or longer between the time facts related to faulty intelligence gathering, WMDs, false links between al-Qaida and Iraq, yellowcake uranium, et al, appeared in overseas broadcasts and U.S. broadcast media.

Throughout this time, we developed a habit of channel surfing for news on U.S. channels. Invariably, we would hear a breaking report on one of these topics, then ask each other if the topic was old news. It always was.

Never had it occurred to me to construct a database comparing sources and times that events were reported by various news sources.

I would have loved to have seen such examples dovetailed neatly into "Buying the News". It would have gone a long way toward illustrating why the massive protests overseas were more than the knee-jerk anti-Americanism portrayed by the mainstream media. Such dovetailing, along with the Knight-Ritter reports, would also have helped explain why those critical of the mainstream media weren't simply a bunch of unpatriotic turncoat cranks or avowed enemies of Bush and Co.

Is it any surprise that the majority of states carried by George W. Bush's opponents in the 2000 and 2004 elections were places where access to Canada's CBC News was readily available, or where substantial numbers of digital cable/satellite TV subscribers were served by carriers of NWI?

As for NWI, that tiny network no longer exists. It didn't own its channel spot on the digital tier, though the CBC retained ownership and operation of the network. In 2004, the channel was sold to a consortium led by former Vice President Al Gore. Ironically, the guy critical of U.S. news reports and analysis of his failed presidential bid kicked off the air one of the few networks that gave him more balanced coverage. NWI went black on August 1, 2005. It was replaced by Current TV.

According to an April 2005 CBC news report on its website, the CBC had a 10 year contract to operate and procure programming for NWI - a contract that was binding on successive owners of the network's channel space. The Gore group gave the CBC about 4 months notice that their services would not be needed. CBC executives scrambled to procure another channel on the cable/satellite dial for NWI. They were rebuffed by their three biggest carriers - Time Warner, Comcast and DirecTV. The reason was that channel space, even on the digital tier, is a scarce commodity, and that the market for news/information channels is saturated.

One of those carriers, Time Warner, owns CNN. DirecTV is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which owns FOX News.

They don't want the competition.

And, in its annual white paper on the State of the Media, the Project for Excellence in Journalism at Columbia University reported that the BBC was rebuffed by these same companies in its efforts to bring a 24-hour international news channel to the American cable airwaves for the same reasons. Al Jazeera's English-language news channel faces the same obsticles, plus political pressures because of its Arabic channel's unflattering reporting on the U.S role in the Middle East.

Yet, when our cable service was transferred from Time Warner to Comcast, our new carrier saw fit to add two new shopping channels, five new music channels, FOX Reality TV, and at least one new Christian channel. Gone are the only true arts channel we had (Ovation), and the C-SPAN3 U.S. history and public affairs channel, among others. We didn't lose a single shopping or Christian channel.

Subscribers to standard Comcast cable in Seattle can watch Free Speech TV. But we can't in our part of the Midwest.

Today, we get our news mostly from the Internet from sources outside the U.S., with the steady exception of five programs: Real Time with Bill Mahre, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, NOW and now Bill Moyers' Journal. It's pretty sad that we rely on two shows that deliver "fake news" as opposed to those supposedly airing the real thing.

We do not rely on mainstream U.S. news sources. Whatever we see is taken with a hearty grain of salt. The mainstream media has lost all credibility with us - that includes some news programs on PBS, which increasingly sound like the Republican echo chamber - and, Knight-Ridder excepted, they will never get it back. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I just wanted to say that the show tonight with Stewart was amazing. He truly is someone to be inspired by. I think his approach, attitude, and sincerity is something very rare these days.

I don't admire many people... but he tops my list. I wish I was so damn funny.

Keep giving us hope and more laughs Jon.

Bill, I can't believe you're back on the air! I was happy for you when you retired your post on PBS to enjoy a long and healthy retirement, and to provide an opportunity for young aspiring journalists to build new careers with fresh viewpoints. But alas, you returned today with your same ole unbalanced liberal bias. Examples: No mention of Clinton's firing of US Attorneys, no mention of the anti-pornography goals pursued by the AG and the connection to the firings. You didn't even press your liberal guest when you asked if he could provide balanced journalism, and he responded about posting stories of "...republican corruption, as well as 'alleged' democrat corruption..." For shame! Bill, you've had a long and successful career, please make your retirement permanent -- the sooner the better!

This Viet Nam era vet has these two questions for Bill Moyers, consummate journalist to explore:

When will we the citizenry expose the bad pun of a "free" press and undertake our responsibility for paying for it as durning Ben Franklin's time.

AND

When will we do a good civics course on what the US Constituion means when it states: { Only} the Congress shall have the power to decare war ...... or grant letters of marque and reprisal (pirate's liscenses) to privateers such as Blackwater.

Glad you are back. We need dozens of you with independent funding, spiritual depth and a functioning BS meter.

Thanks Bill, I wish there were more peoplelike you. we need them now more then ever!!...keep up the great work you do!

Regards
Ernesto

Thank you for coming back to TV.

There are 2 television shows that changed my life. I've always wanted to tell you.

As a child I watched in awe at Carl Sagan's Cosmos in my parents room because no one else in the house wanted to watch.

The second was your interviews with Joseph Campbell.

Thank you for that incredible program.

Tell it like it is, brother.

On March 4, 2003, I gave a talk, "Bush’s Dream of a Democratic Middle-East," at the Plea for Peace Teach-in, held on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Green Bay.

I told a large audience of students and professors that what the Bush administration was telling the world about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and Saddam's ties to al Qaeda was more than error - it was a pack of lies.

I had no special access to classified materials. I had worked neither with government organizations nor with media operations. All my information was gathered from reports and news stories, and my conclusions were the result of putting my training as a social scientist to work analyzing facts, studying history, and checking logic.

I am saying this to make the point that nobody who was in a position to know then can now legitimately claim to have been ignorant of the facts in the run-up to the war.

I knew the Bush administration was lying. So did the major media figures who sold the war to you. So when people who should have known tell you that they didn't know, you know what to tell them.

There is no substitute in a democracy for a vigorous press in pursuit of the truth, and an informed citizenry is the only way to prevent tyranny.

"The most effectual engines for [pacifying a nation] are the public papers... [A despotic] government always [keeps] a kind of standing army of newswriters who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, [invent] and put into the papers whatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper." --Thomas Jefferson

Thank you, Bill Moyers, for your courage in speaking the truth to power, for educating us, for getting as close to the source of the truth as is possible, and promoting that truth despite the wickedness and ignorance produced on the cheap by a partisan corporate press which would sooner sell a son or daughter for the cause of partisanship and war, than to save our democracy.

In common with other posters who protested the Iraq invasion before it took place - hundreds of millions worldwide - I have trouble with politicos, journalists and newsreaders saying they didn't know. Why didn't they know? They were in a much better position than most of us to know. I was one of half a million on the streets of Sydney, Australia - the largest protest rally ever seen in that city - on 13 Feb, 2003. We were just ordinary people, and we knew. I met my boss and her family there by surprise. They are not a very political family.

Have we dumbed down the media whilst they were dumbing us down? It seems they did a better job on themselves. Or have they been corrupted by the "newsroom culture" that exists - the moguls and CEOs who suck up to power, middle management who kiss up to upper management, reporters who go unrecognised unless what they write pleases their editors and on up, and those breaking with the herd who are shunned by their peers and colleagues.

When Seymour Hersh was recently asked about what he thought could be done to fix the situation, he replied, after a long pause, "You'd have to fire or execute ninety percent of the editors and executives. You'd actually have to start promoting people from the newsrooms to be editors who you didn't think you could control. And they're not going to do that."

And that is the sad state of the media. "Buying The War" broke new ground for a mainstream program. Activists know there is a great deal more that needs to be said - about the role played by the corporate-financial and Israel lobby agendas in selling what the media bought. Is Bill's Journal up to that or have we hit a PBS glass ceiling? Hell, Bill, you've gone this far, what do you have to lose? There are many, many people behind you. Chomsky writes, in his book "Hegemony or Survival", that there are two super powers, the one we all know about, with its culture of death and destruction, and the other - ordinary people and what they want and need to live happily and in a state of well being. The time for empowering the latter is long overdue.

Thank you for an informative
and much needed expose of a tyrannical attempt to control the American Public through the press.

If we as a nation do not follow through with the full force of balances and safeguards against the terror that has engulfed us then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

This terror is not from the outside but a cancer that grows from within. The harm we have wrought upon another
sovereign nation is unforgivable. We are experiencing one of the worst horrors ever unleashed upon humanity. The sad part has to be the fact that we have fallen into the deep pit of hell by perpetuating "the big lie," page one of the administrations handbook. What their idea of a future is might just be anyone's guess. (go ahead google "the big lie")

Citizens of the world rise and unite! Purge this evil from our midst. There is nothing to fear except fear itself. We have fallen victim to lies, deceit, and unparalleled hubris. We must demand accountability and retribution. If only we were still standing on the edge of the precipice with a chance to turn and run, but we have already fallen and are looking up at the long, hard and perilous climb given that we are not already dead.

I spent three years in Iran arriving just a short time before the war with Iraq began. I saw Iraq's army up close and it was a rag tag group then. That war went on for eight years! Iraq was subjected to ten years of trade sanctions. When the case for weapons of mass destruction was being made I could only argue against it. They're was no logical reason that this tiny post war, sanction ridden country that had been inspected for so long could possibly have the money, or brain power to pursue nuclear weapons, or other weapons of mass destruction. Then Colin Powel said he was going to present the administration's case to the UN. For a moment I thought maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Saddam does have weapons of mass destuction. I remember Powel's evidence as a single phone call which had been intercepted. It was laughable and it was now clear to me that there was no connection to Al Qieda and no weapons. I always thought that what helped with my certainty was living "outside of the beltway," Mr. Moyer's show confirms it.

I am appalled that the news media, years later, when it's obvious what we Americans have known for a long time, use the excuses and just went along for the ride.

Thanks Bill. Welcome back. Thanks to Knight Ridder, Scott Ritter, and millions of others who refused to be silent. One segement you showed speaks for the mood of the times beyond words. The one where Oprah Winfry silenced her audience member for having doubts about the coming war (how dare she). Many people just remember the right-wing attackers and apologists, but the war drums were played by many from all spectrums as your show exposed. Thanks.

Thanks Bill. Welcome back. Thanks to Knight Ridder, Scott Ritter, and millions of others who refused to be silent. One segement you showed speaks for the mood of the times beyond words. The one where Oprah Winfry silenced her audience member for having doubts about the coming war (how dare she). Many people just remember the right-wing attackers and apologists, but the war drums were played by many from all spectrums as your show exposed. Thanks.

Thank you for putting "Buying the War" on the Internet. I don't have cable (can't afford it) or TV reception, and it was a blessing to finally see and hear what I'd been wondering about all along.

Meredith

"Buying the War" explained how it happened, the media falling into the position of nothing more than the governmental propaganda machine, but I doubt the journalists who provided us with their respective apologies realize what an ugly situation they have helped to create. If the way to war was built upon lies, as everyone now knows (some of us knew from the beginning) this is the case, then America has become the largest and most dangerous terrorist organization on earth (one could argue we have been this for many decades). The civilian body count resulting directly from our actions or indirectly due to our reckless destruction of a sovereign nation is of a magnitude only dreamed of by our "terrorist" foes. There is good reason that the American people and military cling to their idea of "freeing" Iraq, to think otherwise results in an uncomfortable identity crisis. If we destroyed a nation without an ounce of truth in the reason to do so then we are terrorists. While journalists may now apologize for their past misdeeds I have not heard any journalist publicly coming to grips with our new identity, much less how to change it.

I demand 9/11 Truth now! There is way too much evidence contrary to the official story. I have questions and I want answers - the REAL answers.

First, PBS needs to air the show again -- it's a must see. It should be mandatory watching for students at journalism and public policy schools.

Second, Bill Moyers should win an award for his hard-hitting, clearly reported piece. It's the capstone to a long and distinguished career. Maybe it will help prevent needless deaths from a fiction-based war in the future.

Bill,

Your piece, "Buying the War," was a stunning piece of journalism. I wrote an entire piece inspired by your special. I'm always heartened to see fearless critics do battle with the entrenched powers that be. Well done.

Here's a link to my commentary:
http://www.nowpublic.com/citizen_journalism_the_last_bastion_of_skepticism

Welcome back, Bill... You started out with a bang. "Buying the War", featuring those TRULY heroic Knight-Ridder reporters and their daring publisher, was
bittersweet, in that it validated what many of us had known all along...and indicted even more strongly the pandering Congress and Media that forgot there is such a thing as fact-checking. And not prostituting oneself!

Your piece was a milestone. It's time PBS departed from its overly-republican leanings and gave some air time to the left and to the truth.

Thank you for being that lone voice in the wilderness of neocon doublespeak. We have missed you and have needed you so badly to do what you did last night, shed a light on the corruption, lies and deceit of the current administration and the failure of the press to do its job. The press is still doing a miserable job.

You are a true patriot.

Now, they will come after you with all their bile and their ferocity. The people will back you up, Mr. Moyers. God bless you for having the courage to speak the truth. Could you possibly teach that quality to your peers in the press?

Raspberry Graham

Thank you, Bill for a Great show. Excellent as always in your research & reporting.

If you have not already, Please investigate the collapse of WTC7 (aka, Building 7) at 5:20p on 9/11/01.

WTC7 was 47-stories tall, heavily overbuilt, & heavily fortified to be the Mayor's Emergency Bunker; yet it fell straight down in 6.6 seconds! supposedly due to some damage on 1 side & some minimal fires.

It is bizarre that it fell--& even more strange that it fell so fast, but did not tilt/fall over considering the building is long & narrow and all the damage & fires were on 1 side.

Nearly 6 years later & there's still no official explanation. NIST continues to postpone their findings.

WTC7 housed, among others, the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, & SEC. Lots of SEC documents pertaining to major corporate fraud & corruption were lost--or should we say 'destroyed'?

Mr. Moyers--America needs You to investigate this. Thank you for all you do.

Dave

My wife an i sat there and shook our heads over what has been done to our country.

But our questions are-
what happens now?
all this was done, far worse than has been done before

impeach? jail?

or live with it, since we are in such a pickle now.

If this was Serbia and not the United States, Bush, Cheny,Rumsfeld,and several others others would be on trial before the World Court for war crimes. The closest comparison to this in U.S. History is the Spanish American War.
When I see what we have done, I recall those lines by W.B. Yeats in "The Second Coming":
"The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity."

I have been greatly shocked over the last several years by the direction in which the country has been led, the dismantling of its checks and balances, but never was I more dismayed than last night.

I found Tim Russert to be close to utterly reprehensible in failing to take any responsibility for how he allowed the adminstration to use Meet the Press basically unchallenged to trumpet their agenda (and wondered if his father would have been proud of such behavior). NBC should fire him forthwith.

I'd also note that respectable alternative sources of media and governmental critics have long documented Colin Powell's rise through the military as a go to cover up guy for military atrocities. A simple internet search would have turned up those critiques, and viewed through that prism, maybe his speech at the UN would not have led so many to believe the lies he again ably sold (though I miss Dan Rather at CBS, I would have thought him more informed on the point).

After watching the program, I turned to Hardball, an almost textbook example of the failures of journalism I had just seen so well discussed, and again witnessed McCain positioned overall as a maverick independent when a glance at his voting record, freely available on the internet, overwhelmingly evidences him as far to the right on a number of positions (and note here that I do not mean this as an attack on those positions, though I disagree with most of them), but as further evidence of mainstream journalism's failure to accurately relay information.

Thank you again for an illuminating and thought provoking, if heartbreaking analysis and discussion.

Hi Bill

Great program. Just a few questions.

The program reviews all the skeptical intelligence put together before the war. It details how American journalists bought the package and helped sell the public. Did the Bush administration buy it as well or did they just want to get rid of Sadam since he was no longer their boy? Did they believe an ecstatic Iraqi populace would hand over their oil as this new democracy flourished?

With the current situation it is hard to believe that the administration did not foresee the sectarian strife. Did they hope to foment a bloodbath that would engulf the whole Middle East? Certainly this keeps Islamic terrorists busy in local conflicts.

Maybe I am being too cynical but it is hard to believe that the Bush administration could be this ignorant of the situation in the Middle East.

Look what happened in Indo China, just a massive bloodbath in Cambodia after the US left Viet Nam. Hardly Nixon’s fault.

Mr. Moyer
I just saw your show titled "Buying the War" It may be the start of the media recovering credibility once again. Our politicians have given their credibility away over the years and this current administration seems to have put the final nail in the coffin.
Whether our political leaders will ever get it back is doubtful and hopefully the press will seize on the opportunity you have presented them and work hard to regain what they seem hell bent to throw away.

In 2000, the Yakima Herald Republic, small-city newspaper, initiated a weekly "teen writer" section called "Unleashed." In the paper's archives, you will find a column by Ian Callaghan called "Iraqi War Shouldn't Be a Valid Option" from November 2002. In it, a 17-year-old high school student makes nearly all the arguments against the war cited in "Buying the War." If a high school student could find and write about these arguments, shame on Tim Russert, whom I generally admire, for needing someone to "give [him] a call" and shame on Dan Rather for being more caught up in so called patriotic war-fever than a teenager. When he wrote it, I was afraid his tires would get slashed--I'm his mom.

Mr. Moyers,

"Buying the War" is the best, most important hour and a half on TV right now. I've read Bamford's "Pretext for War" twice and am currently working on "Lapdogs." The fact that these aren't the #1 and #2 best selling books in the USA is troubling. Thanks for doing your part to shed some light on this urgent threat to our democracy. I hope you do a follow-up piece on how the corporatization of the news media is fundamentally driving this laziness (or in the KR reporter's words "lack of skepticism.") Great, great journal. Thank you.

great report, it seems many who were yelling to go to war had never been. i read several great columns by joe leonardi you may want to read
here are links to 2 of them

http://joeleonardi.wordpress.com/2007/03/31/the-taunts-of-a-coward/

http://joeleonardi.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/a-challenge/

Welcome back from retirement, Bill, not that you were retiring during same.

Yes, the media was duped, but we who bought it or didn't buy it and remained silent are culpable.

While the media are responsible for fair and balanced reporting (although they don't always perform as they profess), we public are supposed to think, not buy what is served without question.

I look forward to your forthcoming Journals and hope you will find the time to guide your viewers to those credible sources they can tap for solid information and opinions.

Yeah, we bought it all right: hook, line, and sinker. Whatever happened to objectivity? Healthy skepticism? Fact checking? The Knight-Ridder boys deserve a better country than the one whose integrity and democratic ideals we have so brazenly flushed down the toilet. To the poster signed Walt: just as it was wrong to go to war in Iraq, it was wrong to put a "hit" on Saddam Hussein, and make no mistake about it, hunting him down then extraditing him back to face an inevitable execution is the lowest form of cowardice. This country shook that man's hand through three administrations - we have no more right to "take him out" than we do Fidel Castro, Misolevic, Sung or any other despot whose policies we disagree with, no matter how 'morally righteous' we believe ourselves to be. It's exactly that kind of atavistic mentality that allowed Bush to commence with his "blood feud" against the Hussein family, complete with financial and military intervention from our own government. I don't know how Phil Donahue could sit there so calmly when Moyers revealed the 'memo' that prefaced his dismissal from MSNBC - George Orwell couldn't paint a scarier scenario than what is going on in this country right now. I even have my doubts now about what really went down on 911, and why shouldn't I?
I should trust the White House? The New York Times? 60 Minutes? Frontline? Where do we get off "exporting" democracy anywhere, when we seem so preoccupied with importing the tenets of fascism on our own soil? Yes, we have seen the enemy - and it is us.

Dear Mr. Bill Moyers,
It's great to have you back. We need your voice to battle the main stream media news of sensationalism and deception.
Your ethical and truthful insight is a breath of fresh air. Keep them honest Bill!
Thank You

Great show. I am stunned. I realize now that I have now lived through my own McCarthy era. Where fear is the weapon against the truth and real Patriotism. I never thought this could happen again…

I was wrong.

--Jeff Ryan

Bill:

Thank you for a thought-provoking, incisive, and critical examination of what went wrong in late 02 and early 03 here in the USA. Those were indeed dark days in the history of our country. I was one of the hundreds of thousands who took to the streets to protest the imminent invasion of Iraq. So I have been against this whole enterprise 100% from the beginning. I never had any doubt that the Bush administration was lying to us about EVERYTHING. It still stirs very painful feelings to watch Colin Powell deliver the “evidence” for WMD at the UN in the weeks before the invasion. Whatever credibility he had built up with me up to that point in time was completely extinguished when I witnessed that embarrassing performance.

As others have commented on this blog – it was equally painful to watch last night some of our most well-known journalists (Dan Rather, Tim Russert, et al) take virtually no responsibility for their culpability in “selling” the Iraq war to the American people. They were basically mouthpieces for an administration that was peddling lies. Even I knew that then – that the emperor had no clothes! How could these experienced and knowledgeable and well-paid journalists not know it as well? What that all says to me is that my healthy skepticism about the media and the government needs to be sharpened and deepened.

Perhaps more than anything however your show last night revealed the way the vast majority of the American public has become nothing more than uncritical “sheeple”. And this in an age where there is no end to the ways in which one can access news and facts – from the Internet, podcasts, television, print, etc. I think the Obama 08 campaign is giving us a healthy and hopeful dose of what’s to come in the future. Most of the millions of dollars in donations to his campaign have been made online – and he also elicits ideas and comments on policies from anyone willing to share their thoughts with him on his campaign website. His is not some monolithic barricade that prevents reason and justice from getting in.

The Iraq War will no doubt be remembered as one of the most shameful and irresponsible periods in American history – and at this point it appears far from over. Thank you again for shedding light on the mainstream media’s role in allowing such an international disaster to occur.

If the folks who produced this show carry no hidden agenda, except to bring the truth to an otherwise mislead American public, then God bless you all. You are a breath of fresh air, a beacon of genuine intelligence.

Although it is a shame that this caliber of reporting airs years later after the fact, please do continue to report truly unbiased, quality news and, just as crucial, continue to report that news out to the mainstream in anyway possible.

I would like to use a small example to explain how I feel about everything that is going on in our country right now. Knowing what the truth is and actually doing something about it can be two very different things, I think.

For example, lets say that everyone who posted a comment on this blog lives in the same city, lets call the city City-A. The population of City-A is 500 and each of us owns an automobile. Our automobiles are designed so that if they break they can only be repaired by a certified auto mechanic. In City-A, there is only one auto mechanic to fix all of our automobiles, and she does a quality job too. One day the auto mechanic decides to double the price of an auto repair, what used to cost $1,000 now costs $2,000. The citizens of City-A can find no reason as to why the auto mechanic decided to double her prices. The citizens of City-A feel helpless, outraged, and frustrated about not only the amount of money they now have to pay to have their automobile repaired, but also because the auto mechanic cannot give them a logical explanation as to why she doubled her prices. Finally, the citizens of City-A realize that together they outnumber the auto mechanic 500 to 1. 500 outraged customers to one greedy auto mechanic. One day all 500 citizens march down to the auto mechanics shop and close down her business, replacing her with a more responsible mechanic.

Knowing what the truth is and actually doing something about it can be two very different things. Last nights episode was a fine example of doing something about the truth -- getting the word out into the mainstream via television. But it should not stop as soon as the television is turned off. Mainstream media providers need to carry this type of quality reporting to their viewers. The front pages of every newspaper need to carry a balanced view of what is going on in this country. When I have to go to great lengths to find an unbiased news source, well, something is very very wrong. When did this country get so lost?

As a young man in his mid twenties, I hope that my generation will question what is thrown at them on the television, internet, newspapers, and all other forms of media distribution. And I hope that those who have not been tainted in the media, government, and corporations use their power to fight to return this nation to its roots -- a nation founded on the truth.

One of my favorite quotes is by Gandhi, who said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

Thanks,

Nick Kline

Bless you for giving us the truth.
It feels like manna from heaven.
However, you are too kind and forgiving about the reasons behind the propaganda put out by our media parading as "news".
We no longer have journalists in our mass media. These people are little more than actors and yes-men.
They know full-well what they have done.
Put them under oath and dredge up their emails.
They are traitors and cowards.

How do I know this?

I, along with many more activists, at various times since before the 2004 election, sent them carefully researched items of great importance to our nation- including links with very specific incontrovertible evidence - begging them to air these items on national news. Never did they act on these- when these items were very obviously verifiable and accessible, and when contact information to all of the witnesses was included in my letters.

In that vein, I am herewith including more truths that the media refuses to cover for the benefit of our nation. It is in fact treasonous to neglect to cover the theft of the presidency by installation by the Supreme Court in 2000 and by overwhelming fraud and disenfranchisement that occurred in 2004 at the very time that the Ukrainian election was overturned with all hypocrites in our government waxing eloquent about the importance of the voice "of the people"- except only when it occurred in the Ukraine- not when it occurred right here in the "cradle of democracy". and we the American citizens became beggars in our own government.

We DO indeed have real journalists in our country- just not on our nation's accepted mass media news. I am including a link that leads to a multitude of links that will lead you to the truth and to citizen eyewitnesses whose reporting is ten times more valuable than the so-called news put out by our corporate treasonous media.

PLEASE deal with the stealing of our elections. Don't be such traitors, wussies, cowards, and liars. The American people can see through the limited and twisted reporting. We are sick and fed up with the lying traitorous ways of the MSM. Face the truth. Acknowledge the truth. TELL THE PEOPLE EXACTLY HOW THEIR ELECTIONS WERE STOLEN, allowing an unelected immoral administration and unelected Decider to destroy our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our Writ of Habeas Corpus, our treasury, our jobs, our honor, our morality.

We the people of the United States of America deserve a REAL election transparent and verifiable in every state and every county of this nation. We deserve an open, honest election on real paper ballots counted in public at the polls. We deserve to see the guilty led away in shackles and rot in jail- people who openly and brazenly break the law- like Kenneth Blackwell and Michael Vu from Ohio and Bruce McPherson and Mikel Haas from California. There are many more.

Just go to this link and follow your nose if you're really an American:
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1383

The topic of the stealing of elections in the good ol' USA deserves a whole raft of specials. The volume and amount of detail already documented by activists like Bev Harris, Bob Fitrakis, John Bonifaz, Brad Friedman and Congressman Conyers would BOWL the country over if dealt with honestly and thoroughly.

I am not holding my breath.
Indeed I would have expired for lack of oxygen, if I had attempted at any time to hold my breath for truth and justice in this country.

Sincerely,
An American unafraid of the Truth

Your excellent inquiry into the actions and mentality of journalists during the prewar Iraq period, is instructive(hopefully, to today's journalists) for an even more serious development currently taking place-the transformation of America into a form of Fascist state.
I do not see any evidence of journalists describing certain actions and statements of the Administration as those that are more characteristic of Fascism than democracy.
As one example, there was extensive coverage of the President's authorization of NSA to gather information about everyday citizens without any provocation or jusicial review. I did not see in any of this reporting any mention of the fact that such actions are more an attribute of a Fascist state than a democracy.
A plethora of other examples may be found.
I am providing a list prepared by Laurence W. Britt, of early warning signs of Fascism. I hope that you and others will bring these to the attention of journalists throughout the U.S.
They are:
Powerful and continuing nationalism. Disdain for Human Rights. Identification of enemies as a unifyng cause. Supremacy of the military. Rampant sexism. Controlled mass media. (Note efforts of FCC to give control of media outlets to a few owners,). Obsession with national security, Religion and government intertwined. Corporate power protected. Labor power surpressed. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts. Obsession with crime and punishment.Rampant cronyism and corruption. Fraudulent elections(Too true!).
The American people need to wake up to the possibility of their docratic institutions eroding, gradually, but surely. Hopefully, journalists will be the ones to wake them up. If they don't I do not know who will.(PS I encourage everyone to read Sinclair Lewis' novel, "It Can't Happen Here")

Mercy! Woe! I missed the show. Is there going to be a repeat broadcast? Please!

Posted by: rese questioner

much as i hate to succumb to paranoia & so shy away from conspiracy theories - it's also been very frustrating that there was clearly something wrong with the warren commission report, and the lack of any attempt to investigate that murder.

this picture does seem to hold some real consistency with our recent history...

this is interesting enough to follow for a bit, thank you for providing links

Mr. Moyers,

I once had respect for you. I now have come to the conclusion you are a disinformation agent.

Sure, you point out crimes of the White House concerning the war. I feel this is an effort to demoralize the american people. The underlying message in your documentaries. The Cryptocracy is above the law, above the constitution, and we the people are impotent to do anything about it.

Mr. Moyers 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB. YOU ARE COMPLICIT IN HIDING THAT FACT!!! OUR GOVERNMENT KILLS ITS OWN CITIZENS FOR A POLITICIAL AGENDA. THE NAZIFICATION OF AMERICA IS UNDERWAY!

Mr Moyer document that fact.

Please people Video Google.
"Committee of 300" watch the presentation by Dr. John Coleman.

Mr. Moyers job is to lead you down the path away from the important issues.

I see Mr. Moyers as an agent for the NWO.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!
Gary Allen

Mr. Moyers, you are a national treasure; God bless you. You got this so right. When you run for President, I want to be your speechwriter. Here's a sample:

Iraq…all I can say is f-ed up is as f-ed up does. Though I am glad that the Dems are now in a position to at least provide some oversight, it appears that Bush Jr didn’t get our November message; or just doesn’t care. Unfortunately our boys and girls in Iraq are caught in the middle, no way to win, no way out. If Iraq is so damned important why doesn’t Jr. order a draft and flood the place with trigger-happy Bubbas and Zekes until we’re building Wal-Mart’s on top of Mosques? Why? Did you watch his 60 minutes interview? His idea of citizen sacrifice is, “having to cope with the terrible events on TV.” He won’t even increase the taxes on billionaires to pay for this mess. For Bush and Cheney, drafts are to be dodged, not ordered. Well, we’ll surge then…20,000 troops more in a country of 25 million. That increases the ratio of Iraqi to US from 192 to 1 to a whopping 167 to 1. Oooo. We’ll surely get control now.

And then there’s Dick, “Pelosi and Murtha are handing victory to the terrorists.” Please let me point out the fundamental fallacy of the Vice President’s incessant argument. His attacks on Mrs. Pelosi’s judgment, patriotism or whatever are a bit like an arsonist who starts a building on fire in far-away Iraqitown. He only intended to burn down the mayor Sadaam’s office, but he didn’t listen when the fire marshal told him that the entire town is tinder-dry with straw roofs, and so the fire quickly spreads out of control. In an effort to save money, Mr Cheney then fails to send enough firemen from USAville to put out the blaze or prevent its rapid spread, getting many of them killed over four years of fire fighting. He now scolds the USAville city council for wanting to begin withdraw of their tired firemen, attacking the council’s courage, judgment, and patriotism and musters the gall to further lambaste USAville’s citizens for not having the stomach to continue the fire fight. He often does so in front of a USAville flag and a polite, compliant, prop-like audience of young firefighters. Quite ironic isn’t it? Furthermore, he now says the city council will ultimately be accountable for the destruction of Iraqitown. Now, who do you think is really to blame for the firestorm in Iraqitown? Mr. Cheney knows we will withdraw troops soon and doesn’t really care if we do. He just wants to make sure Democrats take the full blame for the carnage already underway in Iraq after we finally leave. He is bellicosely baiting Speaker Pelosi and daring other Democrats to withdraw so he can blame them for a failed Iraq. Failure is not an option, it is a foregone conclusion. Success is no longer an option either.

The truth is that Iraq is a civil war. Humans die in larger numbers in civil wars than any other form of warfare; look at the toll of our own civil war. Remember Rwanda? There are not only deaths, but some 2.5 million Iraqi refugees in Jordan, Syria, and other countries that can ill afford and have no desire to absorb them. 2 million more are internally displaced. We are not responsible for creating the ancient inter-sectarian and ethnic hatred that now fuels this conflict; that was the work of Sadaam’s brutal regime and a millennia-old religious feud. We did spark the fire by invading Iraq, threw gasoline on it by failing to provide security, and catalyzed the violence by forming a largely Shia government bent on leaving the Sunni minority powerless and penniless. We toppled Iraq’s Tito, and the fracture of this Mideast Yugoslavia has begun, replete with little Milosevics all vying for power. Which one should we support? We cannot hope to close Pandora’s Box, but we may be able to manage the inevitable subdivision of the Iraqi people in less genocidal way. Senator Biden’s plan for creating a Dayton Accord like separation of the warring sects has the best hope of carrying this out. I wish more Congressmen, from all political walks, would get behind his plan and shove it down this Administration’s throat. Can we afford to wait out this Presidency? How many more of our boys and girls will be lost between now and Jan 09? How many more Iraqis? How many Mohammad Attahs will we spawn?

How did we get here?

First, there was no intelligence failure; it was a gross manipulation of the intelligence community…Congress keep digging, the truth is there. The National Intelligence Estimate did not represent an objective assessment. It was not written or edited by those most qualified within the US intelligence community; it avoided and undercut them. It was, in fact, a self-serving, reasonless prospective designed to achieve a political sales job. Drafts were personally edited by the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, and their single-minded henchmen with particular attention paid to massaging the executive summary and the accompanying briefings, beyond which very few Congressmen were compelled or had the means to explore. When Mr. Snow incessantly reminds us all that Congress voted in 2002 to authorize the war, he forgets to mention that it was (and remains) this Administration who provided executive oversight of the entire US intelligence community (IC) and directly manipulated it to sell Congress the Iraqi WMD snake oil. Citizens of these United States must be shown how the IC was prostituted to perpetrate this outright fraud which has already cost the lives of more young servicemen and women than were lost on September 11, 2001, not to mention an accrual of one trillion in unsecured debts.

Second, a Republican-Led Congress did pass the Iraq Resolution of 2002 supporting Bush, and many Democrats voted for it; a key point now in the presidential primary races. But we cannot take those votes on 10 and 11 Oct 02 out of context. It was just over 12 months hence 9-11 and a month prior to the 02 elections while the President bathed in an epitome of public popularity. Given the public and private intelligence promulgated by the executive branch at the time, few Congressmen had any means to check the spoon-fed NIE or the political clout to challenge the President’s trustworthiness.

Third, this war was pursued and executed in complete violation of Weinberger and Powell doctrine. No vital national security interest was threatened, no legitimate Iraq-initiated mushroom clouds loomed; Saadam was in a No-Fly-Zone encased fishbowl. We never had a clear or attainable objective and we did not fully and frankly analyze the risks and costs; we assumed the best (total cost under $20B) and were not prepared for the worst that happened. We did not exhaust non-violent policy means; we kicked out the UN weapons inspectors, why? There was no plausible exit strategy; Rumsfeld threatened to fire anyone who mentioned the post-war phase of the operation, leading us into this endless entanglement. We did not consider the consequences of our actions and we did not have genuine broad international support (sans the token Brits and Mongolians). All we had at the time was the support of the American people, but that was based on a fraudulent sales-job. At best, this fraud was a zealous, moronic, and “faith-based” attempt to sew the seeds of liberal democracy within a region and state whose well-known and ancient inter-sectarian and ethnic conflagration doomed it to failure. At worst, this Administration’s motive to launch OIF was an unforgivable, unconscionable, and yet deliberate partisan political act to secure another four years of power. At least in the latter case, it can be seen as a success. Take heart; God will doubtlessly offer only a microgram of pity upon their souls.

This is supposed to be about the war on terror. We have been the victim of a number of incidents conducted upon us by Islamic extremists. But who are they really? While all these actions were executed under the guise of Islamic beliefs, the groups who conducted them are from many different sects and with wholly different motivations - most of them having nothing to do at all with a religion and everything to do with the common depravities of man – namely, lust for power, greed, jealousy, hatred, and indifference to fellow men. As Hitler did in Germany, the leaders of these groups, UBL, Khomeini, and others, play upon the ignorance and poor circumstance within their societies and find someone to blame, focusing the frustrations of those who follow them into seething hatred upon us. Once their peers place value on such beliefs, idle young men are drawn like moths to a flame and their commitment is reinforced with brainwashing promises of glory on Earth and riches in heaven. Only the most twisted and contrary versions of Islam provide the justification and reward for the depraved, unholy (any religion), and cowardly acts of terrorism. Terrorism is just dramatic murder, those that orchestrate and conduct it are criminals - period. They are only interested in grabbing power; we can’t buy into their con. Is it fair to stereotype Christians by claiming them all to follow Jim Jones or David Koresh; nor should we stereotype the world’s Muslims based on radical teachings of extremists and terrorists. I am not blind to the growing scourge of radical Islam, but a declaration of war on the whole religion will not bring about and end to terrorism. Islamists are not the only inventors and perpetrators of terrorism. The Columbian FARC, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the Bask separatists in Spain, the IRA in Ireland, amongst many other non-Muslim groups, have also practiced terrorism. They are all criminal. The first major domestic terror attack was not in Manhattan, but in Oklahoma City conducted by Timothy McVeigh in the name of “liberty.”

War is usually between states, and with the exception of Iran, none of the terrorist attacks on the US has been sponsored or launched by a state. So maybe war with Iran it is, should we maybe finish in Afghanistan or Iraq first? No, okay lets have a draft again and put the economy into full wartime production; I'm sure all those $5,000 per plate donors at the President's last campaign fund-raiser won't mind their children being drafted, their gas being rationed, and their taxes being mightily raised - "Oh no bother honey, cut him another check and he'll make sure someone else's constituent makes those sacrifices - I hear he has a good line on a Texas ANG job for Thirstin and we can buy Gerald another deferment for Christmas - he has 'other priorities.'"

...Once we've buried a few thousand more young brothers and sisters in arms in the conquest of Iran at the further expense of our children (since we've already maxed out their VISA on Iraq, better put Iran on their MasterCard), we'll finally be safe right? No? Okay who's next Yemen, Pakistan, Syria? Maybe we can just put a lead shield over Israel and nuke the entire Islamic world. Brilliant idea.

Here's what we have to do if we are serious about reducing the threat of Islamic terrorism (we will probably never eliminate it):

1) Stop being the terrorist's straight man. Terrorists cannot terrorize without a willing audience. We cannot ignore a massive attack like 9-11, but we must stop pervading fear and regain some perspective. Yes, 3,000 innocent citizens were murdered on 9-11, but how many innocents have been lost to drunk drivers since? In 2005, some 17,000 Americans died in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes. President Bush has personal experience with this terrorism. UBL does not have a million-man army on the Canadian border waiting to attack...you're much more likely to be killed by a teenage driver talking on her cell phone than by one of UBL's henchmen. Every time our leaders pontificate about what a great threat UBL and his kind pose to our nation they serve only to glorify these bastards and help them recruit and raise more funds. Every AQ tape played on Al Jazzera gets heralded by every frigg'n US media source through every possible means - Tom Cruise couldn't get that kind of publicity if he grew antenna out of his ears. Katrina killed over 1,800 people and caused billions more in damage than the 9-11 attacks. Another big hurricane is certain to hit the US; perhaps we could practice for that eventuality, especially seeing as how we flunked the last test. Where's the fear mongering by the politicians about hurricanes? - where's the call to "stay the course" with the post-Katrina recovery? Want perspective? The AIDS epidemic kills 3 million people every year leaving 11 million orphans (so far) with up to 40 percent of the population of some countries infected and 90 percent of those afflicted unaware of their contagiousness. Not our problem, right? Well, okay but a small portion of the $1 trillion we've wasted in Iraq could have gone a long way to at least ease the human suffering caused by the AIDS terror - but alas, our "pro-life" leadership would rather see us fight our way to a "free and secure" Iraq. I guess pro-life doctrine ends at birth...I'm sure Jesus is in total agreement.

2) Get out of Iraq ASAP. No amount of time in "stay the course" or “new strategy” mode is going to garner the President's desired end state of a "free and secure" Iraq - even with 150,000 troops, we are pissing on a 3-alarm fire. There is a third alternative - get in it to win it...But no politician is willing to reinstate the draft and put another 2-300K troops on the ground to really "clear and hold" the Iraqi borders and Sunni triangle - that isn't going to happen, so let's get out now. “But if we leave, there’ll be chaos, civil war, and terrorists will declare victory.” Gee Dick, since you don’t have the “stomach” to order a draft, I guess the terrorists in Iraq have already won. Now it’s only a question of how many more of our soldiers are you going to let them kill and maim; it’s not one of your daughters, so I guess that’s okay. Our leaders do not have the moral courage to reinstate the draft. Why then should we send our brave volunteers to continue to die for nothing? No gain, no victory, just more of the same and worse (AKA stay the course).

If we leave, Iraq will be a mess, but it won't be a grand Islamist-extremist caliphate state...better even if it becomes one - states are easy for us to target and destroy; insurgents? not so much. “But if we don’t fight them there, they’ll follow us home.” How do you figure on that Dick? They gonna rent a boat, walk, what? Unless you fire the Army and the Police in the US like you did in Iraq, I’m guessing they aren’t going to find much freedom of maneuver or grass-roots support in the USA. Those that equate GWOT with Iraq often say "we're defeating terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them over here." Unfortunately that argument is wrong on at least 3 counts:

a) Terrorists can not fight us here (in the US) via an Iraq-style insurgency. Only 911 / London / Madrid type attacks are possible, but also difficult to prevent and will probably happen whether we are in Iraq or not. If preventing attacks at home is our priority, as it should be, we should be fully enacting the 9-11 Commission recommendations; none of which instructed us to attack Iraq; all of which have been prioritized behind continuing the "war." We all know we are vulnerable to terrorism, the 9-11 commission outlines all the problems…So why not implement or at least debate the solutions? Why do our first responders still not have a common communications network? Why are our ports still insecure? Why are our borders still largely un-patrolled? How many of these problems are resource constrained? How far could the 1 trillion we’ve wasted on Iraq gone to solve each of these problems? Furthermore, we don’t live in Israel. We live in the USA. The US is larger than Vermont. The countries on our border are Canada and Mexico, not Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories. The terrorism in Israel is only our problem because the same motivations resulted in the terrorism of 9-11. The solution is not more warfare – just ask the Israelis. War is forcing your enemy to submit to your will by force. Terrorists are at war with the US but I don’t think they can ever get us to submit to their will; especially if we are an unwilling participant. Without conquering the world, we will never get them to submit to our will either. We must remove the rationale and motivation they use to wage it.

b) 99.9 percent of the terrorists we fight in Iraq would not be terrorists had we not invaded and occupied Iraq. In truth, our being there provides the other 0.1 percent the basis, means, and environment to recruit and train new terrorists, fund their activities, and gain stature by killing Americans. In this way, OIF directly supports terrorists’ interests and actually works against our great "War on Terror." Where else can terrorists go to have free reign for 22 hours a day for over 95 percent of the terrain in order to prepare attacks against real-live Americans who come to patrol or traverse that terrain for the other 2 hours?...We can’t stay; there were never enough of us to actually "clear and hold" all terrain, but unfortunately we do occasionally have to drive through it . We might as well paint targets on our helmets.

c) Finally, this "over there vs here" concept is also a most grotesque and direct affront to the sacrifice of US men and women who die or lose limbs in Iraq every day. Most of those we lose never see the enemy, meet them, or engage them in any meaningful way. Most die from IED explosions, indirect fire on bases, suicide bombing attacks, or sniper fire. These are all unconventional means meant to inflict casualties, not to take or hold terrain…just murder and maim and strike fear in us – in other words, these are terror attacks not engagements. Those political pundits that confidently claim that we fight over there so we don’t have to at home should first be forced to explain to the wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, parents and grandparents of those who have died in such attacks AND those who’ve endured massive physical and/or mental trauma, that the terror “over there” is not felt and fought here at home. The bomb may have exploded in Ar Ramadi but the real pain is felt at home, the same as if it happened at First Avenue and Pine. The costs in the US are the same. For those with loved-ones alive and in harms way, the relentless fear also resides at home. For these patriots the war is right here; the effects of terrorism in Iraq are the same regardless of geographical technicalities.

3) Make terrorists into liars instead of prophets. Which of these actions accomplished more towards wining the war on terrorism? Attacking Iraq under fraudulently falsified pretences or raising billions of dollars and sending US military support to Indonesia after the tsunami? Holding teenage boys and 80 year-old men indefinitely in GITMO and encouraging the abusive behavior of Abu Graib or sending humanitarian aid and US military helicopters and medics to Pakistan after the earthquake? Which of these actions validate everything the terrorists espouse? Which actions undermine and contradict everything they declare? Which fills their coffers with gold and lines up suicidal volunteers? Which gives hope to the populace and vanquishes terrorists’ sanctuary? Which acts create and nurture those terrorists groups Dick most want us to see and fear?

The war on terror will not be won through military destruction, but it is certain to be lost if we continue to destroy our reputation in the world as we are now. Any step forward we take with an act of kindness, we give two back to the terrorists with every violent act we undertake in the name of war. The terrorists’ greatest victory in Iraq will not be our withdrawal; it was our invasion and continues with our half-baked occupation. OIF, Abu-Graib, secret CIA prisons, and GITMO confirm everything UBL and his kind ever said about the nature of the United States. But our humanitarian actions following the tsunami in Indonesia and to the earthquake in Pakistan left the Muslims there profoundly touched and forever changed. Every life we saved is a family removed from the terrorists' roster; yet every life we forcefully threaten, disrespect, or snuff out in Iraq is a family ready to fill the terrorists' ranks. We must also remove the terrorist's high ground by promoting mainstream Islam and challenge those who would twist the religion into a justification for murder by suicide. Terrorists are liars, heretics, and murderers - we must prove them so within the communities that support them. The greater ideology will win the war on terror, not the greater body count.

4) Bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians...Probably needs to wait for the second coming...but we could at least try to stay engaged; and for appearances sake, be a little more even handed in negotiations? This conflict and our uncompromising support for Israel provides 80 percent of the motivation and support Islamic terrorists need. I'm not saying we're wrong to support the Israelis, just that there is a price we pay for the lop-sided support.

The greatest tragedy of 9-11, as I reflect on it, was of great opportunity lost. We could have capitalized on the subsequent international good will and finished the job in Afghanistan. With investments amounting to only a small fraction of what we wasted in Iraq we could have secured and rebuilt that tormented land as the example of a free Islamic country. We could have enacted the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission fully without infringing on Americans' Constitutional rights. We could have maintained and improved our military instead of breaking it and burning it out leaving us with a much weakened instrument of power with which to reign in Iran's nuclear ambitions. We coulda, we shoulda, we didn't. The unity we Americans collectively felt after 9-11 has perished into the most polarized and fractured society we have known for at least 50 years. Who is to blame? If this is a Democracy, why are Dick and Jr. still in office?

Mr. Moyers,
Welcome back! I was just blown away by your show last night on the selling out of the media. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We need more journalists like you and a few others who arent' afraid to ask the hard questions. I myself became aware of how biased the TV news was in the past few years only because I started to go to the internet to find out what was really going on in this country. What about the people who only get their information from TV? Must be that 30%.

In response to rwbiles accusing Bill Moyers of being biased... Did you not pay attention to any of the show tonight? Do you actually think that any of the statements in your post are false? There was and will continue to be as long as the current administration is in power, a blatantly obvious conservative agenda and Mr. Moyers did an admirable job proving that tonight. Not only is this agenda shoved down the throats of the American public, but unfortunately the majority of mass media does nothing to question these tactics and ideals. My only hope is that before this presidency is over the media will have the guts to help broadcast the need for an impeachment. The lies were made even more blatant tonight and we as a country deserve better than that. Thank you Bill for your outstanding journalism.

Years ago I agreed to go on a giant roller coaster. The feeling I had last night watching your program was exactly the feeling I had as I rode. I was equally thrilled and frightened.

I am hopeful that other news organizations will follow your lead.

Thank you for doing your job as though lives depended on it because they do.

Karen

Mr. Moyers

Yesterday I saw the greatest piece of journalism in the last ten years. It was made by you Mr. Moyers. Thank you. Please do continue your job, we need this voice. I am totally outraged by the New York Times. They did not mention one word, in today’s issue, about your “Buying the war”. The NYT is no more in my bookmarks. Please podcast the program so I can send to my friends.

Nando

The News Media was not bamboozled. It for the most part is owned and controlled by the Zionist and Dual Citizens (Israeli Citizens). It is these same people who are in the highest levels of the United States government promoting the wars and other Zionist interests instead of the interests of the United States.

This is the same reason that the News Media and the United States government do not hold Israel responsible for its violations of International Law, United Nations resolutions, and the inhumane treatment of other people.

www.CitizenAmendments.org

I am happy to add my voice to the Moyers’ cheering section. This report did justice to what many people knew at the time – there was no credible evidence to provide a basis for an attack on Iraq. The timing couldn’t have been any better as this administration prepares us for another attack, this time on Iran. Hopefully and with the help of Bill Moyers, the American people will not stand for it.

For those who have been motivated to take action after seeing this broadcast, there’s a lot you can do. Write letters to the editor of your local paper, call, email or fax your members of Congress, get informed and stay that way by watching the Lehrer Nightly News, BBC News, Washington Week in Review, Now, Foreign Exchange, and now, Moyer’s Journal. Fire the mainstream media -- they clearly cannot be trusted – and seek information from the alternative media. Vote with your money by purchasing from local and like-minded independent merchants whenever possible -- stop feeding the corporate beast. Vote in elections on an absentee ballot. Talk to your friends and neighbors, roll up your sleeves and get involved with your local party or an issue group. Donate generously to groups and candidates that represent your beliefs.

As for Bush and Cheney et al, impeachment is too good for them. They should be imprisoned for the catastrophe they’ve caused – at Guantanamo.

Laura Bonham
Web Content Manager
www.pdamerica.org

Thank you for restoring our faith in journalism and for demonstrating what a professional journalist with a sense of responsibility for the truth can accomplish. At long last.

THANK YOU Bill Moyers.......

may America begin thinking freely again with help from genuine journalists like you....

vietnam vet

Thanks again Bill,
I was MORTIFIED to hear Walter Pincus of the Washington Post recall that 1981 was when the press allowed the Dems to take over THEIR truth seeking responsibilities. Because of this millions of people can even begin to fathom what kind of warped perception this set in motion for the next two decades? That’s sickening. Isn’t it incumbent on every real patriot in the media to put aside their fear and SHOUT from every rooftop EVERY DAY AND NIGHT, FROM THIS POINT ON, in order to sort out what has become a puzzle, wrapped in a riddle, rolled up in an enigma? I stress the importance of this because we’re talking about trying to peel off the layers of a two decade old propaganda onion! Won’t things only get worse if this deceptive and nightmarish pattern of behavior continues to be even slightly downplayed? I can only imagine how little time you have but I hope you can respond, Mr. Moyers, thank you.

Godspeed,
Albert E.

Excellent Documentary

But the Press was docile for so long!!!!
Mr. Moyers?
From the posted article above:

http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/the_critics/griffith/Press_and_assassinatio n.html

Not only did journalists, representing THE NY TIMES, ABC, NBC, CBS, Scripps Howard, UPI, AP, Hearst, Reuters, Bill Moyers, Paley, etc., "associate" with the CIA, they recruited for the CIA, gave CIA agents false credentials as journalists, and planted false information with foreign officials--and with the American public as well of course. Over 200 journalists had signed secrecy agreements with the CIA (THE NY TIMES "Sulzberger" for only one notable example), or had "employment contracts." (Aguilar, "The CIA and the Media," Journalism Forum, CompuServe, February 24, 1996)

If we had a press cooperating with the very people who wantedto"change foreign policy"in the JF Kennedy,Jr. assassination,

then what?

Evidence now is overwhelming certain people in and associated with the CIA did in fact kill the President.

Frank Sturgis admitted it. See

See the last testimony of Hunt to his son: The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13893143/the_last_confessions _of_e_howard_hunt/1

Regarding your story on Posada (CIA) These are excerpts from http://jfkmurdersolved.com/posada.htm He and Bosch(CIA) were both convicted of blowing up civilian aircraft and hotels.

Regarding Bosch= terrorist who Bush Sr,(CIA) Pardoned Bosch . He led the group in which Marita(CIA) testified Frank Sturgis (CIA)said we killed the President that day, Hunt, Ruby, Oswald (CIA)all present, together , "Very professional"

It was reported by the New York Times, a few weeks ago, the fact that "In May, Luis Posada Carriles, a militant anti-Castro fighter from the cold war era, was arrested here on charges of entering the country illegally and was imprisoned in El Paso, where he awaits federal trial. Barely anyone in Miami protested, even though many Cuban-Americans consider Mr. Posada, 77, to be a hero who deserves asylum. " I did a search on him and found more than the Media dare print.

The above website http://jfkmurdersolved.com/posada.htm has documents that shows Bush was in the CIA at that time. These assassins were in Dallas when Kennedy was murdered. Marita (became a CIA agent after being misstress to Castro) a testifies how she saw Oswald (now known CIA agent) and Ruby together, with two carloads of them at a motel the night before, armed with weapons. She got out. She testified that Frank Sturgis later boasted, "we killed Kennedy."Other witnesses said they saw Posada in the Square also that terrible day.

The website also has documents that show one of those who knew and encouraged Oswald was a friend of George Bush Senior. He has repeatedly said he never knew him. The website reveals that many of these witnesses were killed before they could testify to the conspiracy. Even Jack Ruby was said he was willing to testify but he claimed he was being given a cancer causing drug that eventually did kill him.

The website provides pictures of George Bush with the CIA agent Felix Rodriquez and George Bush, and Felix Rodriquez's capture of Che Gueierra, who later had his hands cut off after he was shot. These agents also participated in the removal of democratic leaders in South American countries. Apparently Nixon was a Protégé of Prescott Bush. Nixon brought in Henry Kissinger, ex Nazi, who brought over many Nazis to serve in the CIA.

The author shows the history of this group. Some were hand picked by ex-President George Bush himself from the CIA initially to assainate Castro and invade Cuba in the Bay of Pigs attack... He and other Texas oilmen financed some of their operations. A Dr. Orlando Bosch, convicted of blowing up a Cuban airliner, with the help of Posada was later PARDONED by Bush Senior as President. The author says Bosch was the leader of the group at the motel where this gang was in Dallas the night before the killing of President J.F. Kennedy, Jr.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlEqtaWpKEU&search=JFK%20on%20Secret%20So cieties JFK warned of excessive power of secret societies, CIA

JFK believed in conspiracies!He was assassinated by people in the CIA!!! He had fired it's boss, and wanted to dismantle it!

http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/posada.htm

http://universitypress.info/AmericaBetrayed.html...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlEqtaWpKEU&search=JFK%20on%20Secret... JFK identifies his killers, his own words about secret societies

http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/sibert.htm

James W. Sibert Interview To see it (Realplayer required) Click here. Special announcement for immediate and unrestricted release: Gerald Ford's motto: Attack is Best Defense. Gerald Ford, former President and last surviving member of the Warren Commission, has demonstrated his strategy again: Disguise your crimes by attacking the attacker. I am increasingly flabbergasted about what is possible in America. Why is the world and the History Channel swallowing his attack on the documentary "The guilty men"? For those who missed this headline news, it is the last episode of "The men who killed Kennedy" series, aired last November and originally scheduled for re-runs over the next nine years, which makes a case for Lyndon Johnson as a main conspirator in JFK's murder. Ford's coordinated protest with former Johnson cronies like Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti and Johnson's widow, has now even resulted in complete cancellation of all three new episodes, including those which were not attacked, like "The Love Affair" with Judyth Vary Baker, who makes a credible case for having been Lee Harvey Oswald's girlfriend, exonerating him from the Government's THEORY that he was the lone assassin. To my knowledge, this is an unprecedented form of censorship in the United States.

In all the heated discussions and controversy about the History Channel's documentary, whether LBJ had a role in the JFK assassination or not, it seems that one thing is overlooked : In this case, Lyndon Baines Johnson and his next door neighbor and close buddy J. Edgar Hoover are guilty of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, not because we can prove they ordered it or because we can prove they had any direct connection to the killing, but because we can prove beyond any reasonable doubt that those two men took steps and took actions that covered up the truth of the crime. Washing out and refurbishing the President's limousine is just one of many examples of destroying crucial evidence. This makes them AT LEAST accessories after the fact. And was it not to Bill Moyers that Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach sent the infamous memo: "The public should be satisfied that Oswald was the lone assassin"?

But what's more, Ford himself is guilty! Not only was it learned that he was secretly reporting on the Commission to FBI Director Hoover, but also, forced by declassified files, he has admitted that he instructed the Warren Commission to move Kennedy's backwound up by several inches !!! The significance of this cannot be overstated! For with a wound in the original location, there cannot be a single bullet theory and without a single bullet theory there cannot be a lone gunman. Last time I looked, this was called "tampering with evidence", which is a federal crime and in such an important case as the death of a president, it is also TREASON. Raised with my naive and Dutch set of values on freedom and democracy, I believe the man should be in jail, despite his rehearsed repetitions that the Commission "found no evidence of a conspiracy, foreign or domestic". Instead, he is allowed to bury essentially good documentaries. What is happening to America?

All three men, Johnson, Hoover AND Ford, took steps that altered, destroyed and hid evidence, ...... and this, by the way, is what changes what otherwise would have been a Texas homicide, to a national coup d'etat!

http://prisonplanet.com/ http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2006/300806jfk.htm

LBJ Night Before JFK Assassination: "Those SOB's Will Never Embarrass Me Again" Outside the debate of magic bullets, multiple shooters and grassy knoll theories - an astounding deposition of a deliberately planned criminal conspiracy straight from the horse's mouth

Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | August 30 2006

The night before the Kennedy assassination, Lyndon Baines Johnson met with Dallas tycoons, FBI moguls and organized crime kingpins - emerging from the conference to tell his mistress Madeleine Duncan Brown that "those SOB's" would never embarrass him again. It's a jaw-dropping deposition and it's the biggest JFK smoking gun there is - despite the fact that it has received little media attention.

Before her death on June 22 2002, prolific author and lecturer Robert Gaylon Ross had the opportunity to conduct an 80 minute sit-down interview with Madeleine Duncan Brown and from that lengthy discussion the truth about exactly who was behind the assassination of JFK was exposed.

Though Brown first went public on her 21-year relationship with Johnson in the early 80's, to this day her shocking revelations about how he had told her the Kennedy's "would never embarrass me again" the night before the assassination are often ignored by the media who prefer to keep the debate focused on issues which can't definitively be proven either way (or at least can be spinned and whitewashed).

it is important to note that before her death Brown carried no hostility towards Lyndon Johnson and in fact was just as smitten with him as on the first day they met.

Brown said that the plan to kill JFK had its origins in the 1960 Democratic Convention, at which John F. Kennedy was elected as presidential candidate with Johnson as his running mate, where H.L. Hunt, an American oil tycoon, and Lyndon Johnson hatched the assassination plot.

"When they met in California Joe Kennedy, John Kennedy's father, and H.L. Hunt met met three days prior to the election - they finally cut a deal according to John Currington (an aide to H.L. Hunt) and H.L. finally agreed that Lyndon would go as the vice president....this came from the horse's mouth way back in 1960 - when H.L. came back to Dallas I was walking....with him....and he made the remark, 'we may have lost a battle but we're going to win a war,' and then the day of the assassination he said 'well, we won the war'," said Brown.

Brown said that in the immediate aftermath of the convention Hunt and Johnson.....

Great program, I am still suprised that the news programs still give time for Cheney to spread his lies about Iraq. Fair and unbiased seems to mean that news networks give same time to lies as they do the truth. Find out what the truth is and stand behind it.

Mr. Moyers:
Welcome back. Your intellectual honesty, integrity, and search for truth is refreshing and welcomed by a populace too uninformed sadly surrendering of critical thought. Your program on Iraq was exceptional in exposing the self perserving and cowardly herd mentality of the media that is reflected in our populace. We've become a nation of intellectually convenient single issues driven by special interests. Our conglomerate media has become our Oracle Delphi formulating our national conversations of superficiality, not substance.

Mr. Moyers, what you exposed in your program of a complicit media applies to a larger extent to the Israeli Palestinian issue as you well know.

Would you perhaps take the next and more courageously required step to highlight the role of our media in singling out the single Pro Israel narrative for our consumption thus impeding any hope of peace in the Holy Land?

You will be smeared, attacked, and perhaps fired by the Chairwoman of the CPB given her Pro Israel credentials, but at least you would leave honorably serving our national interests.

With much respect and gratitude for your illustrious work

I remain
Mohamed Khodr M.D.

Mr. Moyers,

An excellent show. Cathartic to some reporters, I'm sure, but one (just one?) issue was missed.
Yes, many were 'swept away' but some sold their soul to the devil. Armstrong Williams, among others, is most notable. Here is a man who wrote stories on the payroll (taxpayers money) to support the administration. That, plus the airing of (Rove produced) fake 'news stories' that were fed to us as real!?
WHERE is the FCC and where are the apologies from the networks. (Oh, for the days of a 'fairness doctrine'.)

Good work, thanks and please keep digging, (Both sides)

Reed Kalisher
Pembroke Pines, FL

Bill, this program was simply riveting and eye-opening. What became obvious to me as I watched deep into the program is that the mainstream TV network and cable news channels are ALL owned by large corporate conglomerates, whose CEOs et al are 99% heavy contributors to the Republican Party. Can you imagine the pressure brought to bear by them and large corporate advertisers to buy into the marketing of the war? Bravo to Dan Rather, Tim Russert, Phil Donahue, Walter Issacson and a few others who had the courage to appear and take their medicine. Shame on the many who declined to appear. George Will's comments made me sick to my stomach. Finally it was obvious that Colin Powell's credibility with the American people sealed the deal for the invasion. With the trillion plus spent on this debacle so far we could have funded national health care, rebuilt the public school system and fixed social security. This administration will go down as the absolute worst in American history. THANK YOU for having the courage to produce and present this extremely necessary program. I just hope there will be front page coverage in the Times, Post and other major news outlets.

Mr. Moyers,

I do so appreciate your work in general and specifically the piece on buying the war; however, I think that it tended to obfuscate the issue. The failure of the press vis-a-vis the invasion of Iraq was not the result of a great outbreak of patriotism or of the national fervor following 9/11.

That failure started and was set up long before 9/11 and was easily predictable. The failure of the “press” to inform the public (even modestly effectively) during the 2000 election is of similar magnitude to its “Iraq” failure. The fact that virtually none of our population has the slightest notion of the huge damage done to our country by the Reagan administration is an equivalent failure and goes back decades before 9/11.

The “hogs at the trough” frenzy during that idiotic Clinton impeachment further underlines the nature of the problem:

The “press” in this country is terribly, terribly dysfunctional. It is fatally infected with “celebrity” and the money and corporate greed that drive that engine.

Just seen your great report on buying the war. As a Brit who is in USA I have to say its the highest level report. British media did question the assumptions. There was a British WMD UN inspector who committed suicide because the British Gov't towed the US line, trashed the World respected scientist and brought the inspectors integrity into question.
Honour and integrity some editors lack.

Every morning I think the editors of the Post and NYT should stand up to their journalists and announce the number of Americans killed in Iraq because they did not have the courage to question or report the facts. Instead of paying for the smug suited experts, Fox and CBS should pay for every Mother or family of a dead soldier to be given a ticket to DC or NYC to ask the editors why they did not report the truth. The Knight Ridder boys can be called true reporters for their factual research. Shame on those professionals who were not brave enough to read and investigate and question the sham evidence. Good on you for reporting this. Should be shown in every high school, to every TV watching youngster that thinks TV/media is all reality. This will make them think. Great work

Wow Bill, what a breath of fresh air...someone out there who wants to truly report what is going on & present evidence that is factual and accurate. It was purely coincidental that I ended up watching your show last night but it restored my faith in human nature because I found someone out there brave enough to speak up & challenge government policy over the war in Iraq.
I have totally lost confidence in news media and the TV because of the continual garbage that gets pumped out but what saddens me more is the amount of intelligent, intellectual people out there that are prepared to just sit back and accept the party line although I guess I do have a glimmer of sympathy when I listen on PBS radio/TV to just how many of these challengers end up being black-balled in one way or another. I would not consider myself a political person just a normal everyday gal that can't understand why the general public has such an insatiable appetite for being swept along with the scare-mongering tactics that the politicians use to win public support for their dire actions however it might be said that we are always wiser after the event. Why is it then that few lessons are ever learned? How much political manoevering is going to go on before the general public decide enough is enough. In my view President Bush, Cheney, Rove & Co are manipulating the public into believing nonsense in much the same way as many of the dictators in the so called uncivilised world do....scarey or what. You might seem like a lone voice out there but I along with many others long for the day when we can trust to hear real news instead of stories created to increase the ratings & to line the pockets of the unscrupulous. I have at long last found a news media that I feel I can trust. Thank you PBS and please keep up the good work offering your ever increasing audience truly excellent viewing.

A sobering report, though it leaves me quite dismayed with our traditional media. I hope new media continue to gain access to larger audiences so when reporters such as Knight Ridder's rise above the manipulation of the political pundits and corporate greed then they can tell the true stories more loudly and give us all access to opposing perspectives. Kudos to the Knight Ridder's free thinking, investigative reporters. I hope we hear more from you in the future. I'm thankful my children are not of military age during the Bush war campaign. Bless our service men and women and I hope they all return home soon. Shame on the White House WIG cronies.

The most despicable thing I took away from tonight's program was the near unanimous refusal of most of these "journalists" to take responsibility for the part they played in all of this. I sensed no remorse let alone guilt for the role they played in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. On the contrary, those on the left seem intent on blaming it all on someone else while those on the right arrogantly and self-assuredly still languish in the delusional belief that the were right all along, all of them, as noted in the program, enjoying the "fruits" of their labor with new positions, promotions, and repeated TV appearances as experts. Even the editor from TNR just wasn't "getting it" in his admittance of his "tragic mistake" -- he made a lot of mistakes, and he sounded as though he felt he was wrong in part because things haven't worked out so well in Iraq, as if, in the attitude that many seem to harbor, had things turned out a little better, that would make this fiasco based on lies justifiable. It's disgraceful. Talk about a lack of accountability. Even Tim Russert, a supposedly respected newsman, didn't seem to want to acknowledge his complicity. All of which leaves those of us who were smart enough to see through this from the very beginning with the very real knowledge that it all could happen again.

The report was excellent -- the sort of TV that impels folks to send money to their local PBS station. But, alas, it reveals the sorry state of the Washington press corps(e). The scene at the Bush totally scripted press event was sickening -- with a "reporter" giggling as she tossed Bush some softball about "faith" or some such irrelevancy. What J school teaches that? It may be understandable that not all reporters are Iraq specialists, but it's not acceptable for them to participate in fakery such as Bush's press briefings.

And then there are papers across the country slashing their staffs and closing overseas bureaus, which only ensures that experienced specialists, such as Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel, are unlikely to be retained or replaced when they leave.

It's almost a shock to an American's system to come upon an English press conference and hear reporters challenging the BS their politicos are trying to dish out.

There is HOPE and Trust again in the 4th estate now that you're back on the air! You have been sorely missed and so much needed, Mr. Moyers! Your show of Wed 04/25 was outstanding - frightening but outstanding. Thank you thank you thank you for following your bliss and opening our eyes, minds, and hearts to the realities of the world in which we live.

Bill, thank you for your service to our country.

I think the biggest story of the new century is how the democracy of the United States was overruled by those that had vast global military ambitions, by use of the false flag attacks of 11 September 2001, where there were no suicide pilots, but a devastating military controlled demolition not just of the World Trade Center, and a missile attack on the Pentagon. Yet no credible investigation was allowed, yet no credible media outlet covered the fact; many covered up the facts.

Bill, thank you for your service to our country.

I think the biggest story of the new century is how the democracy of the United States was overruled by those that had vast global military ambitions, by use of the false flag attacks of 11 September 2001, where there were no suicide pilots, but a devastating military controlled demolition not just of the World Trade Center, and a missile attack on the Pentagon. Yet no credible investigation was allowed, yet no credible media outlet covered the fact; many covered up the facts.

Bill, thank you for your service to our country.

I think the biggest story of the new century is how the democracy of the United States was overruled by those that had vast global military ambitions, by use of the false flag attacks of 11 September 2001, where there were no suicide pilots, but a devastating military controlled demolition not just of the World Trade Center, and a missile attack on the Pentagon. Yet no credible investigation was allowed, yet no credible media outlet covered the fact; many covered up the facts.

I was amazed that the information presented on your program tonight, Mr. Moyers, was "allowed" to air. Why is it that we (my husband and I - both retired) did not trust any of the networks or cable "supposed" news sources during the war buildup time period? We live in a pretty liberal state and have access to Canadian TV - so we watched Canadian news, BBC news, listened to NPR and local affiliates constantly, read several papers and consulted the internet - also we read some books. (We also monitored the hearings concerning Media ownership which didn't seem to bother enough people.) But we did not trust the news sources on TV. As a former English and Journalism teacher, I am appalled that so many of our citizenry (and young people especially) do not know the difference between straight news reporting, feature pieces, opinion/editorial pieces, and propaganda. As to the "talking heads" on cable TV, I have no comments about their brand of "entertainment" that I dare make public. Only at the time of Katrina, did some of the cable sources finally "wake up" and actually begin to report the truth - and I began to watch occasionally just to find out if they were still "spinning" the news. My 2 sons (both college-educated) have been totally brainwashed by radio talk shows and any meaningful dialogue in our family with them has become impossible. I lament the loss of this generation - and I am in mourning for the country that my parents emigrated to in the 20's and 30's. I'm thankful they have passed on and have not witnessed the loss of freedoms in this country, especially since the 80's. We realized while traveling in Europe that the news reporting was so "different" abroad. CNN, for example, broadcast a more straightforward non-sensationalized news than it did in the States. Europeans would never stand for the sensationalized form of "spinning" that passes for news broadcasting in this country.
Enough for now - just thank you thank you for daring to bring this into the open, Mr. Moyers. I also loved your series on Religion - more should be done in this regard as well - as to the culpability of the "princes of the Church" and their stranglehold on their personal electorate - I consider myself a "recovering Catholic."
Again, thank you. Sonja Rossman

It is time to demand the IMPEACHMENT of Bu$h & Cheney. We must show the World that our Country still belongs to the people, by the people and for the people. Without IMPEACHMENT our Country will be lost and left to the Criminal Elites to plunge our nation into an Orwellian nightmare. It's not to late, yet. AMERICA CHANGE IT OR LOSE. IT.

I hope PBS is planning on having a REBROADCAST of this and all the other programs in your series. I am sick of all the worthless reruns on cable of unimportant topics. This information needs to get out on the airwaves more. O'Reilly is busy slamming you, Mr. Moyers, the last two nights. Also, let's get Phil Donahue back on the airwaves. Any possibility of that?

At a time when British rocker Brian Ferry finds himself apologizing for his comments on the "veritable historical success of Leni Riefenstahl's movies and Albert Speer's use of buildings, parades, flags, etc.", one should not be surprised as to the use of mass media in advancing one's cause. Moyer's piece efficaciously exposes (plames) the collective Fourth Estate for it's tacit complicity and the who's who of dupes it invariably represents. Nice job!

It has been painful to see press, congress, and those who should know better jump on the bandwagon of politically correct and stay there for so long.

How about a show with “Alternative Media”: Pacifica Group/ Democracy Now with Amie Goodman, Radio Nation/ Nation Magazine, FAIR /Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. These are among the very few voices in the media who have been standing up for the truth and democracy and therefore deserve recognition; the keepers of liberals’ moral.

I hope to see Dan Rather and Phil Donahue back on television (preferably at PBS).

Hi Bill,

After watching your program this evening, I was absolutely amazed at the premier American journalists that admitted getting caught up in patriotism when reporting the run up to the war against Iraq. I studied American Revolutionary history and I'm saddened by the hijacking of those great ideals. I assumed that these same journalists, many of whom I've admired through the years, would have been well schooled enough in the lessons from Nazi Germany and the fear mongering of McCarthyism of the 1950's to let this obvious charade ensnare them. Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists main goals are to topple secular despotic regimes like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq, not America. They were no friend of Saddam Hussein. Poorly paid journalists risk their lives and die horrific deaths around the world to stand up for the honor of their craft. In a society that venerates and protects the press, the journalists that skipped the hard questions to curry favor with the Bush administration should hang their heads in shame. They did nothing to serve their country.

Watched your show tonight. It was excellent work - but it really infuriated me. I wish Dan Rather, Tim Russert, and the rest of the so-called "Mainstream Media (MSM)" SOBs were in front of me so I could kick their collective rears! Now they feel remorse and think that they should have spoken up in 2002 about the BS that Bushco was feeding America and the world. Yeah right! These SOBs should be tried and imprisoned for disseminating the propaganda that has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people! Has the MSM changed its ways? I think not! Cheney is still lying about Iraq/Al-Qaida/WMD and no one challenges him. And now the MSM, Russert et al are selling the Neo-Cons next war - Iran.

Great job by the K-R folks. Welcome back and keep up the great work!

Selling the War was a very informative presentation. I somehow have been able to get the information straight, but have many contacts who still believe some of the fairy tales they were fed. Now the question is how do we make these people accountable for their action which has cost so many of our young people their lives. Maybe Dennis Kucinich is right, we need to impeach Cheney and put Nancy Pelosi in the White House to ride herd on George Bush. Thanks for a great article. It has inspired me to send in my donation to KCET.

To Mr. Moyers and PBS,

Thank you, Mr. Moyers, for your interest in truth and for speaking from a place of intelligence.
I'm also grateful to PBS for airing your show once again. The insight and journalistic professionalism offered in your work deserves a place where it can be heard.
I've just finished watching "Buying the War" It brought back so much of what I thought and felt during that time when this administration was selling us on the necessity of going into Iraq. The holes in the justification were enormous and the 'evidence' was so incredibly thin. As we approached the inevitable it made me weep to think of the loss of life and the terrible effects that this act would have on our country for years to come.
I'm also impressed and grateful for your willingness to show the media's collusion, intentional or not, and lack of journalistic integrity in not looking for or reporting the facts during that time.
I've worked for nearly 15 years as a journalist for four major daily news papers, operated by four different news organizations, and I was appauled as I watched the news media's absolute willingness to be led by it's nose when instead it should have been using it to sniff out the rat and its nest. My fear is that this trend continues.
For the moment, though, I'm just grateful for your report and have hope that a multitude of people were watching and listening.
Sincerely,
Cliff Vancura

Where to begin, where to begin.

Okay. Let's just ignore the horrible failure to report the facts about Iraq / 911 and Terrorists. War has happened. But I ASK YOU NOW...

When are you going to report the FACTS about electronic voting machines. and when will it hit the CMSM and when will these electronic voting machines be removed permanently?

Oh let's see, let's just let another TORNADO of MEDIA BLACKOUT happen again.

We've lost the Constitution, and we are losing Civil liberties nearly every day now.

Bradblog.org out or DIE.
(Die as in DEAD DEMOCRACY or more accuratly, DEAD CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC.)

(And no I don't mean the cancer suffers like on the Mike Malloy Board who seem to like to take me out of context..)

Finally you're back, and it's about time!! We missed you, Bill! Our gratitude goes out to the Knight Ridder reporters who did the right thing when it was not easy.

Posting by rwbiles implies bias because of Bill's November 2002 statement. --But that's a conclusion after nearly 3 years of Bush. There was plenty by then to support this kind of a conclusion. A conclusion based on a thorough review of the facts is not the same thing as preconcieved bias.

Thank you, Mr. Moyers and Knight-Ridder Journalists for having the integrity and the courage to present the facts to the public. It is very unfortunate for this country and for Iraq, that others in the media industry did not have the fortitude to insist on facts and to be objective. That is the basis of good journalism. It is sorely lacking in today's Mainstream Media. I long ago switched from corporate-sponsored news to alternative news sites. Yes, I still watch NBC Nightly News, but with a large grain of salt in hand. I have ignored my local paper, The Indianapolis Star, for years because of flagrant right-wing bias. Their readership numbers have slipped; and they now feature local news on the front page. This happened after it became readily apparent that the war in Iraq was a debacle of the first order. The truth hurts. Do you see this as a trend? Of course on TV, Fox News is nothing more than a propaganda arm of the RNC. Unless one aspires to a thorough brainwashing,Fox News must be avoided at all costs . Dan Rather and other journalists seem to hang on to the excuse that they were "bamboozled" by the White House. I am a retired R.N., a grandmother, and come from a small town in Indiana. I was never fooled for one moment by the White House spin. It was crystal clear that Bush, Inc. were lying through their teeth, cherry-picking the intelligence, and putting the fear of God into the Media. I can understand the fear. Karl Rove has made his life's work the Art of Smearing. The Bush White House will be remembered throughout history for its arrogance, corruption, insolence, and viciousness. GE, who owns NBC, did not want to lose juicy government contracts; nor have its reputation dragged through the mud. Ditto for the other networks. Nevertheless, the Media has or once had a position of public trust. It was supposed to be part and parcel of the system of checks and balances. Instead, it has become part of the spin machine, canned news, and news for hire. This is an American tragedy; and destructive to Democracy. In fact, it is anathaema to it.Your program helps to right the wrongs that have been inflicted upon us in the last 7 years. It offers a glimmer of hope that there are journalists who want to shine a light in dark places, that true investigative journalism still lives, and that "if you know the truth, the truth shall set you free."

Welcome back Bill,

I have been waiting for this day since you declined to continue your old series on PBS and have been following your words in the interim. I am one of those Americans who actually wrote letters, from the White House down, protesting our attack on Iraq clear back when the inspectors were turning up zeros. Making their fuss over aluminum tubing.

By the way, since I am on the subject, have you noticed the correlation between that much vaulted phrase "Shock and Awe" and Shekinah, same pronounciation. I found the phrase strange and somehow out of place. It is interesting to google what Shekinah, means. Something like the holy spirit of God, that will return.

I have watched as one by one, reporters turned their backs on their convictions, media giants created mouth pieces to destroy the truth of the situation. You give me hope for the future, in your return, that the media need not be a puppet in the hands of it's controllers. My kudos to all of those that have stepped forward in the making of this series, to their studying deeper into the truth and for having the courage of their convictions.

I am going to be spending my wednesdays with Moyers.

Rose

What a fine program tonight. I add my words here, also, because you deserve all the attention we can muster for your vital work.

All cheers to you.

Dear Mr. Moyers,
It is great to have you back. Well balanced (not in the Fox sense)fact based program with out the spin. I look forward to to many, many more programs. Thanks.

By the way did the
Knight Ridder (now McClatchy)stories have any influlence on the demise of Knight Ridder?

We need more journalists like those terrific guys at Knight-Ridder.

I'm so tired of "celebrity" journalists who care more about their careers and pay checks than their responsibilities to the public.

Kudos to Knight-Ridder. You guys are newsmen to be proud of.

Good show but you missed two very important people in this discussion. Hans Blix the top U.N. inspector who to announced to the world pre- war that there were NO weapons of mass destruction and Mohammed El Baradi the head of the atomic agency who discovered that the famous "16 WORDS" document was FABRICATED.

I am so grateful that you are back.

Now all we need to know is how to prevent big corporations, political power and unthinking reporters from doing this again.

I am so grateful that you are back.

Now all we need to know is how to prevent big corporations, political power and unthinking reporters from doing this again.

what a pleasure to hear some reporting instead of some regurgitating. consider me in front of my tv every time you're on. thank you. if i may be so bold, now how about a show that demonstrates how little this regime has done for new orleans? it looks like iraq down there. where is the leadership? where is the responsibility? where is the heart that beats in this country?

How good it is to have you back, Bill Moyers. We need your vision and your integrity more than ever. Thank you for all that you do.

How is it that the fact that two separate inspectors--one of whom was the Bush replacement in Iraq--said "nothing there," and that "sound bite" is so rarely reported (remembered?)?

"Buying the War" was true and good. Thank you. I hope it prompts the Democrats to hold endless public hearings on all the lies told by Bush Inc.

I am delighted that Jon Stewart will be joining Bill Moyers -- a dream team!

Thanks and welcome back!

Perhaps more folks will now just ignore the streaming lies whenever they make the mistake of watching the mad puppet or his puppetmaster on TV.

Amy Goodman recently asked Dennis K twice about the word "TREASON", but he would not bite.

At least he now has done HR333, which is just a little tiny start. And shame on and woe to his compatriots that drag their feet or even block what he is trying to do.

After this broadcast tonight, it should be blatantly obvious to everyone that what has been going on is so far from acceptable that impeachment should have started several years ago.

And we are not out of serious danger yet from those that brought us 911.

We are being set up and conditioned, and the press is not screaming bloody murder about what is happening.

Here are the drills going on NOW: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ABR20070420&articleId=5444

Here is Cheney setting us up for a small nuclear "event": http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704150326apr16,1,6049960.story

Watch this clip that puts it all together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyyOWBBvKj8

Realize that IRAN is not even close to being stupid enough to detonate a micro nuke like that over here. And they don't have them, anyway.

If it happens, see how fast the administration trots out their preprepared "proof" that Iran did it and watch them activate a preplanned trashing of totally innocent Iran.

I wonder if they will actually put us under martial law and fill the 6 million slots in the internment camps with those that object to their suspending the next elections to provide continuity of command to protect the sheeple.

Israel has the very clean backpack micro-nukes, we do, probably a few other "friendly" nations have them, but Iran does not.

Make laws to make it impossible for the oil companies involved with the administration to get obscene contracts that let them rape and rob Iraq's oil for the next 35 years, and, infact, limit their profit to 1/2 of what it normally might have been with out a war as a penalty and start of reparations for US the aggressors that have destroyed that country.

And do not allow any bases to be permanently kept there, and all of a sudden there is no further need to keep our troops over there.

But even your splendid broadcast fell far short of what it should have been. I have no idea what the real truth is about 911, but I am totally positive the official story was pure lie.

And by now, the majority of the people in the US suspect the same thing.

Being frustrated and not knowing how / where to vent their anger, they found an immediate target in a low-life show host. Glad it happened, but really did it help much? and it did distract from bigger issues.

Just talk to your fellow citizens, and you will find many many that know 911 was an inside false flag job, but don't dare say so.

Congress and the press need to "read mark learn, and inwardly digest" the meaning of one simple word: FECKLESS

--Bill Moyers’ commentary at the end of his PBS show Now on November 8,2002 the Friday after Republicans won control of the Senate in midterm elections

wow, thanks for that quote. not only is moyers a great journalist but he anticipated all those things a good 4 years in advance.

my question after seeing tonight's piece is this: would we have had a chance to avoid this tragic mistake if not for FOX news? I mean, was corporate ownership of the MSM (as mentioned by Rather) already enough to seal our doom?

Bill,

Bravo!!! What an informative, in depth RE-debute!

This is a timely, and incredibly revealing piece that will rivet anyone who has been seeking to glimpse the truth behind the scenes... beneath the horrible cloud that never lifted after 9-11...a glimpse at the real smoking gun!

At the end of his show this evening Lou Dobbs gave you a nice plug, for which I'm very thankful. Otherwise I would not have known you are back on the air.

Don't forget your old shows. A timely revisit of some of your classics would be quite enjoyable... one of my all time favorites is the two-part show you did with the American poet Robert Bly. And of course everyone remembers the 2 part Joseph Campbell show, both in 1981 if I am not mistaken... (chuckle).

In any case tonight you broke back into the broadcast news-magazine format with a Beethoven-esque symphonic crescendo ... I can't wait to see how the series progresses ... Thanks Bill!

I heard about tonight's show from a friend and I hope that many other friends also heard and watched. Just as lies can be repeated, echoed back and forth until they appear to be truth, so truths can be pursued. It all depends on the moral character of those speaking. I am deeply grateful, as always, for Bill Moyers' morality, and now, for the editor and reporters of Knight Ritter as well. It takes courage to pursue unpopular truths, over time, until it is at last time to be heard. May it now be time.

I heard about tonight's show from a friend and I hope that many other friends also heard and watched. Just as lies can be repeated, echoed back and forth until they appear to be truth, so truths can be pursued. It all depends on the moral character of those speaking. I am deeply grateful, as always, for Bill Moyers' morality, and now, for the editor and reporters of Knight Ritter as well. It takes courage to pursue unpopular truths, over time, until it is at last time to be heard. May it now be time.

Bill;

Thank you for an honest look into the folly of this war. I remember a conversation with a colleague of mine days before the invasion. I was against going to war, because the UN Inspectors found no WMDs, and on principal that it was illegal, immoral and unethical for the United States, Defender of Liberty, Beacon of Peace, to arbitrarily invade a sovereign country. My colleague likened me to Hitler. Yes, the media did a good job of making going to war a test of patriotism. I had an Uncle who died in Auschwitz during World War 11, so the comment about Hitler really stung hard. Watching the broadcast tonight I am reminded of the words of Henry Thoreau on Civil Disobedience…why does it [government] not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Thank you. I hope this is a lesson for all journalists.

Bill,

Bravo!!! What an informative, in depth RE-debute!

This is a timely, and incredibly revealing piece that will rivet anyone who has been seeking to glimpse the truth behind the scenes... beneath the horrible cloud that never lifted after 9-11...a glimpse at the real smoking gun!

At the end of his show this evening Lou Dobbs gave you a nice plug, for which I'm very thankful. Otherwise I would not have known you are back on the air.

Don't forget your old shows. A timely revisit of some of your classics would be quite enjoyable... one of my all time favorites is the two-part show you did with the American poet Robert Bly. And of course everyone remembers the 2 part Joseph Campbell show, both in 1981 if I am not mistaken... (chuckle).

In any case tonight you broke back into the broadcast news-magazine format with a Beethoven-esque symphonic crescendo ... I can't wait to see how the series progresses ... Thanks Bill!

Bill;

Thank you for an honest look into the folly of this war. I remember a conversation with a colleague of mine days before the invasion. I was against going to war, because the UN Inspectors found no WMDs, and on principal that it was illegal, immoral and unethical for the United States, Defender of Liberty, Beacon of Peace, to arbitrarily invade a sovereign country. My colleague likened me to Hitler. Yes, the media did a good job of making going to war a test of patriotism. I had an Uncle who died in Auschwitz during World War 11, so the comment about Hitler really stung hard. Watching the broadcast tonight I am reminded of the words of Henry Thoreau on Civil Disobedience…why does it [government] not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Thank you. I hope this is a lesson for all journalists.

WELCOME BACK BILL! THANK GOD YOUR BACK WITH THE TRUTH AND FACTS YOU GIVE ME HOPE THAT ALL THIS EVIL WILL BE DELT WITH.THANK YOU THANK YOU GUS G.

I am glad you are back. The truth about anything important is often hard to distinguish from opinon. You and your staff make that distinction better than anyone I know. Thank you. However, in light of the truth about going to war against Iraq, it is obvious that the war was no "blunder" by the political powers of the Bush administration and the recent past leadership of the Republican party. The Iraq war was in fact a deliberatly prepared agenda by those powers without consideration of the tradgic consequences in terms of death to tens of thousands, anguish and misery to even more, and the destruction of the promising futures of thousands of young people. And so, I ask for your people to help the people of our great nation find out what motives these "leaders" of our nation who are responsible for the tragic impact of this war had for perpetrating this abominal act. It appears to be that the motive was and is that the Iraq war would provide almost unlimited opportunities to create vast wealth and power (through orchestrated corruption, deceit, and "planned" mistakes) to the "network" of the Bush administration and the then Republican leaders and their major supporters so that they would be able to perpetuate their polictical positions and wealth and power without oversight. In bringing about this terrible act, they have disgraced the honor and integrity and morale fiber of our nation. If their is any other motive that can be discovered which would reveal that the one I have described is untrue, I would be gratful to learn the truth of it.
Sincerely, Carl Surber

Bush is a puppet. He, this administration and those in control create conflict, provoke mistrust, fear, hatred, etc., and have orchestrated this invasion & occupation (and most of the conflicts, 911, etc.) simply for the purpose of developing more mistrust, fear, hatred, war, death, destruction, chaos, etc.

To all: please see the video “The Money Masters” (probably the best of many other references) – can be downloaded from Google “Videos” in 2 or 3 segments, a total of about 3.5 hours – to learn how and who controls the money (trillions), and hence the politics, governments, the media, and most international relations, etc.

We need to get him / them out of there – beginning with Cheney (so he doesn’t become President), and we need to get out of Iraq NOW. Staying any longer will not make it any more right or justify anything. The sooner we leave, the more good lives and expense we will save, (and possibly regain some integrity if we simply admit we are in the wrong). Although, this does not mean that it was wrong to have taken out Saddam, but it would have been better to have simply watched & controlled him – as with Iran now.

Great to see Bill Moyers back and reporters with integrity.

Bush is a puppet. He, this administration and those in control create conflict, provoke mistrust, fear, hatred, etc., and have orchestrated this invasion & occupation (and most of the conflicts, 911, etc.) simply for the purpose of developing more mistrust, fear, hatred, war, death, destruction, chaos, etc.

To all: please see the video “The Money Masters” (probably the best of many other references) – can be downloaded from Google “Videos” in 2 or 3 segments, a total of about 3.5 hours – to learn how and who controls the money (trillions), and hence the politics, governments, the media, and most international relations, etc.

We need to get him / them out of there – beginning with Cheney (so he doesn’t become President), and we need to get out of Iraq NOW. Staying any longer will not make it any more right or justify anything. The sooner we leave, the more good lives and expense we will save, (and possibly regain some integrity if we simply admit we are in the wrong). Although, this does not mean that it was wrong to have taken out Saddam, but it would have been better to have simply watched & controlled him – as with Iran now.

You're report gives me some hope America is starting to recover from the most serious damage done by Bin Laden - the weakening of your democracy. If his goal was to make America less of a free and democratic place, where the truth used to come out - then regrettably, he succeeded beyond belief.
Donahue's comment hit, I think, the key causal link in the failure of American democracy, which enabled your government to start a popular unjust war, and untold slaughter in Iraq. He said questioning the government's war pitch "was bad for business". Telling an overwhelming majority of citizens about something of which they've been passionately convinced otherwise, is bad for ratings, and therefore, because of your media ownership structure - bad for business (except PBS thank god). So all your Government has to do is convince a strong majority to passionately believe in something ("911-Saddam-Al Queda","911-Saddam-Al Qaeda","911-Saddam-Al Qaeda"...), and then it appears your privately owned press is relatively (or spectacularly) unwilling to check it - and your democracy fails. It is unable to resist government corruption of truth.

Beyond the war in Iraq, it surprises me how many political issues get run up by the press, with no one stopping to think, or at least present opposing viewpoints. For example, the sales pitch for war in Iraq is quite similar to the sales pitch for the war on gobal warming. A lot of talk, glitz and glamour, but no real indepth reporting to see if the facts are really right. They just take the word of the people who's government jobs depend on them being right.

Just seen your great report on buying the war. As a Brit who is in USA I have to say its the highest level report. British media did question the assumptions. There was a British WMD UN inspector who committed suicide because the British Gov't towed the US line, trashed the World respected scientist and brought the inspectors integrity into question.
Honour and integrity you have but some editors lack.

Every morning I think the editors of the Post and NYT should stand up to their journalists and announce the number of Americans killed in Iraq because they did not have the courage to question or report the facts. Instead of paying for the smug suited experts, Fox and CBS should pay for every Mother or family of a dead soldier to be given a ticket to DC or NYC to ask the editors why they did not report the truth. The Knight Ridder boys can be called true reporters for their factual research. Shame on those professionals who were not brave enough to read and investigate and question the sham evidence. Good on you for reporting this. Should be shown in every high school, to every TV watching youngster that thinks TV/media is all reality. This will make them think. Great work

Thank you for doing an incredibly important job. What you two did as true journalists could only be highlighted and shown by another authentic journalist—Bill Moyers. Thank you Mr. Moyers for returning to us professional, reliable, objective and critical journalism. Where have you been? The nation has been turning its “lonely eyes to you.”

We tend to talk about the media’s “failure” to push and question the administration and their ludicrous and outright embarrassingly silly evidence, which they presented as infallible in order to sell their war. However, I don’t think that we can honestly speak of “media’s failure.” The media corporations successfully accomplished exactly what they set out to do, or should we ignore the powerful people who today own the mass communication organisms, and their marriage to politicians, particularly to those who embody this current government.

I personally never “bought” the war. I found the arguments for it farfetched and illogical. I also questioned the nation’s reaction to the tragic events of 9/11. I saw the xenophobia and belligerent rhetoric and actions as a sign of weakness—not of strength. In Spain, a nation who is familiar with terrorism, Spaniards showed strength when they did not allow President José María Aznar manipulate the intelligence on the attack by voting his party out of office.

Thank you for letting me know that I was not being contemptuous for not buying into the Bush Administration’s agenda, which had nothing to do with the nation’s welfare. By doubting and questioning them, many of us were
actually being judiciously patriotic.

Thank you for a fine job.

Marianella

Bush is a puppet. He, this administration and those in control create conflict, provoke mistrust, fear, hatred, etc., and have orchestrated this invasion & occupation (and most of the conflicts, 911, etc.) simply for the purpose of developing more mistrust, fear, hatred, war, death, destruction, chaos, etc.

To all: please see the video “The Money Masters” (probably the best of many other references) – can be downloaded from Google “Videos” in 2 or 3 segments, a total of about 3.5 hours – to learn how and who controls the money (trillions), and hence the politics, governments, the media, and most international relations, etc.

We need to get him / them out of there – beginning with Cheney (so he doesn’t become President), and we need to get out of Iraq NOW. Staying any longer will not make it any more right or justify anything. The sooner we leave, the more good lives and expense we will save, (and possibly regain some integrity if we simply admit we are in the wrong). Although, this does not mean that it was wrong to have taken out Saddam, but it would have been better to have simply watched & controlled him – as with Iran now.

Just seen your great report on buying the war. As a Brit who is in USA I have to say its the highest level report. British media did question the assumptions. There was a British WMD UN inspector who committed suicide because the British Gov't towed the US line, trashed the World respected scientist and brought the inspectors integrity into question.
Honour and integrity you have but some editors lack.

Every morning I think the editors of the Post and NYT should stand up to their journalists and announce the number of Americans killed in Iraq because they did not have the courage to question or report the facts. Instead of paying for the smug suited experts, Fox and CBS should pay for every Mother or family of a dead soldier to be given a ticket to DC or NYC to ask the editors why they did not report the truth. The Knight Ridder boys can be called true reporters for their factual research. Shame on those professionals who were not brave enough to read and investigate and question the sham evidence. Good on you for reporting this. Should be shown in every high school, to every TV watching youngster that thinks TV is all reality.

Thank you, Bill, for coming out of retirement to cast your unerring light on the Administration's hypocrisy and deception in the drumbeat for the invasion of Iraq.
We may never know all of the real reasons for this destructive travesty, but we can depend on you and your team to dig relentlessly for the truth.
The Knight Ridder reporters did a fine job of investigative reporting, but were obviously hampered by not having a national outlet...and by a "news industry" more interested in currying favor with the "usual sources" in Washington (and not putting their heads up to be smeared by the administration's slime machine) than in doing good old-fashioned reporting. Those who did try to get the truth out and listened to are to be admired and thanked. The others are to be despised.
The administration has betrayed our country and destroyed many citizens' faith in their government.

Emily Seate, it was a commentary...he presented it as such. Bill O. R. does it, Brinkley did it, and so on, what's the beef?

I am sad. You have embraced me as a policital refugee from a Coummunist regime many years ago, and now I doubt my trust in America and everything it represents. It is crystal clear that most Americans will wake up only when the Chinese will take over as the number 1 economic power. Only when physical pain will reach you will you wake up. Until then, you will rot in front of the TV because your lazy minds and buts don't want to move. You will be eaten by the mediocrity of your bosses, as you are now by the Bush crap hole. Some friends try to tell me that it's not quite like this, but I work with seemingly wise people that disregard anything that stands in the way of their ego. If your attitude is 'if I can get away with it, I'll do it,' then you are a Communist and a Nazi. Sure, you can't see it because you haven't really lived it, but I can. This is why the world is starting to see you as Imperialsts; because you are. What you are is INDEFERENT, which is the opposite of love. You guessed wrong, I am not a hippy, but you ceased to be a loving people a few years ago. This makes me sad. Really, really, sad.

Thanks for the reporting. It was outstanding and not like the fake news we get from FOX News.

I still think the resaons for the Iraq war are:

1. Bush wanted to kill Saddam because Saddam wanted to kill his daddy.

2. Cheney and Bush wanted the Iraq oil.

thank you bill.. job well done..keep it coming please..we must impeach the p. and v.p. we must impeach them...we have no other options...we always impeach liers...

thank you bill.. job well done..keep it coming please..we must impeach the p. and v.p. we must impeach them...we have no other options...we always impeach liers...

Thank you for your wonderful, insightful program. I emailed Mr. Bush the night before we invaded Iraq begging him to wait for the U.N. As far as I am concerned, the only issue was always the fact that we never had a right to pre-emptively strike a sovereign nation who had not first declared war on us. It did not matter to me what kind of WMDs or such people said Saddam had. It was just morally wrong to go into Iraq.

Frankly, several of us said before the 2000 election...If Bush gets in, we will have a war.

Glad you are back, Bill.

Is Bill Moyers' reporting without bias? Here is Bill's 'unbiased' position in November 2002...prior to the war. Is he unbiased?
You make the call:
"The entire federal government – the Congress, the executive, the courts – is united behind a right-wing agenda for which George W. Bush believes he now has a mandate. That agenda includes the power of the state to force pregnant women to surrender control over their own lives. It includes using the taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich. It includes giving corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment and control the regulatory agencies meant to hold them accountable. And it includes secrecy on a scale you cannot imagine.
“Above all, it means judges with a political agenda appointed for life. If you like the Supreme Court that put George W. Bush in the White House, you will swoon over what’s coming. And if you like God in government, get ready for the Rapture....
“So it’s a heady time in Washington, a heady time for piety, profits and military power, all joined at the hip by ideology and money. Don’t forget the money....Republicans out-raised Democrats by $184 million and they came up with the big prize: monopoly control of the American government and the power of the state to turn their radical ideology into the law of the land. Quite a bargain at any price.”
– Bill Moyers’ commentary at the end of his PBS show Now on November 8,2002 the Friday after Republicans won control of the Senate in midterm elections

May GOD bless you'I'm a vietnam vet, and it's sad we all wanted to impeach clinton over a sex scandal. And bush started a war on a [LIE]and nothing said. What dose that tell us as a people. IT'A SAD DAY IN AMERICA?

Thank You.

The critical intellect is sacred,
not money, titles or positions of power.

More elusive than even the bluebird of happiness it must for our own preservation & survival be our only quest.

You are one of several saving graces among a frighteningly failed American media.

Now i & each of us must go forth & respect & follow our animate intellects.

Just seen your great report on buying the war. Every morning I think the editors of the Post and NYT should stand up to their journalists and announce the number of Americans killed in Iraq because they did not have the courage to question or report the facts. Instead of paying for the smug suited experts, Fox and CBS should pay for every Mother or family of a dead soldier to be given a ticket to DC or NYC to ask the editors why they did not report the truth. The Knight ridder boys can be called true reporters for their factual research. Shame on those professionals who were not brave enough to read and investgate and question the sham evidence. Good on you for reporting this. Should be shown in every high school to every TV watching youngster that thinks TV is all reality.

I am still awed by the power of the beating war drum. Politicians of all stripes hopped on board and they all now hide behind the flimsy excuse of "we were all looking at the same flawed intelligence". No one would dare oppose the war train. I watched Colin Powell "making the case" and I was dismayed by the utter lack of hard evidence. But I viewed that presentation as if I were a juror deciding whether there was enough evidence to convict a person accused of a crime. There was not enough evidence to send someone to jail, let alone to invade a country. Who really beats that drum? And the answer is not "a right wing conspiracy", the right wing marches to the drum just like the left wing does, but someone else beats the drum...

Thank You.

The critical intellect is sacred,
not money, titles or positions of power.

More elusive than even the bluebird of happiness it must for our own preservation & survival be our only quest.

You are one of several saving graces among a frighteningly failed American media.

Now i & each of us must go forth & respect & follow our animate intellects.

Thanks to Bill Moyers and the unsung reporters from Knight Ridder (now McClatchy), whose work I've been following for the better part of quite some time. Keep wearing out that shoe leather and rattling those cages.

Just seen your great report on buying the war. Every morning I think the editors of the Post and NYT should stand up to their journalists and announce the number of Americans killed in Iraq because they did not have the courage too question or report the facts. The Knight ridder boys can be called true reporters for their factual research. Shame on those professionals who did were not brave enough to read and investgate and question the sham evidence. Good on you for reporting this. Should be shown in every high school to every TV watching youngster that thinks TV is all reality.

Unfortunately, this summary of how this corrupt Administation and the compliant news media sold the war to the American public will only be appreciated by PBS viewers. It is unlikely to appear in context in the Washington Post, New York Times, or dare I say, on FOX, or on any other national network!!! Thanks for an award winning investigative piece of jounalism. Regards, Barry in Orlando

Thank you all for your unwavering work to find and report the truth from within this quagmire of misinformation.

Another unfortunate result of current mainstream press inability to "go out on a limb" is the absence of any definitive follow up of atrocities within the Veteran Administration system going back to the beginning of our "war on terror."

I state this because back in September 2004 I was told by a VA bureaucrat in Minnesota that incoming wounded US soldiers were being held overseas before being admitted into their respective states until AFTER 2004 presidential elections in order to minimize public distaste and rejection of growing casualty counts as a result of war in / occupation of Iraq...is this possible?

Also, is it possible that our occupation of Iraq is actually based on secret policies and decisions stemming from Cheney's secret Energy Commission?

Please keep up the good work, "the ink of the pen is far more valuable than the blood of a martyr."

Thank you all for your unwavering work to find and report the truth from within this quagmire of misinformation.

Another unfortunate result of current mainstream press inability to "go out on a limb" is the absence of any definitive follow up of atrocities within the Veteran Administration system going back to the beginning of our "war on terror."

I state this because back in September 2004 I was told by a VA bureaucrat in Minnesota that incoming wounded US soldiers were being held overseas before being admitted into their respective states until AFTER 2004 presidential elections in order to minimize public distaste and rejection of growing casualty counts as a result of war in / occupation of Iraq...is this possible?

Also, is it possible that our occupation of Iraq is actually based on secret policies and decisions stemming from Cheney's secret Energy Commission?

Please keep up the good work, "the ink of the pen is far more valuable than the blood of a martyr."

Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you!
Welcome back, we've missed you terribly!
Thank you Thank you, you've validated everything I've thought since this whole "fabrication" began.
Oh, finally, we can hear an objective voice on this horrible war, terrible presidency, despicable press

Thank you, Bill, for coming out of retirement to cast your unerring light on the Administration's hypocrisy and deception in the drumbeat for the invasion of Iraq.
We may never know all of the real reasons for this destructive travesty, but we can depend on you and your team to dig relentlessly for the truth.
The Knight Ridder reporters did a fine job of investigative reporting, but were obviously hampered by not having a national outlet...and by a "news industry" more interested in currying favor with the "usual sources" in Washington (and not putting their heads up to be smeared by the administration's slime machine) than in doing good old-fashioned reporting. Those who did try to get the truth out and listened to are to be admired and thanked. The others are to be despised.
The administration has betrayed our country and destroyed many citizens' faith in their government.

I honestly don't think it was that difficult to read articles in the NYT that told us the other side of the propaganda. For instance it was written that Powell and Cheney were having difficultly,perhaps not speaking to one another, after Powell expressed his opinions against invading Iraq. That was published in the NYT prior to Powell's disappointing speech to the UN.

I'm glad that Bill Moyers is back.

Cathryn

Mr. Moyers:
May I add my Canadian voice to the "welcome backs" It has been a while since I have been able to watch U.S. documentaries without wanting to put my foot through the screen....maybe I will re-new my PBS membership...just to say thanx.
You were missed...

Excellent program! And my congratulations to Landay and Stobel for their integrity and strength in reporting objectively.

I wonder if it were possible to produce this type of program during the "crisis"? For example, some of the issues that the masses and mainstream journalism seem to be supporting today. Wouldn't that be the next step to this awesome effort?

Ever since I started watching Bill Moyers on Democracy Now, I have have accepted him along with a host of other journalists as the ones in who's reporting we can rely upon. I congradulate Mr. Moyers and the Knight Ridder trio for doing their job as any journalist is expected to do. I am however dismayed by the fact that these same people who were proven to have lied in their efforts to sell the war to the American people are also the ones who have taken strong positions regarding supressing the 'Mother of all lies' the very 9/11 attack on America, which is also reffered to as the 'seccond Pearl Harbor'. There are now millions who beleive that all these liers were directly or indirectly responsible for the catestrophic attacks on 9/11, as these attacks empowered them in an un-presidented mannar. The question is that if they have done it the first 9/11 and have succeeded in making our democracy nothing but a subject of mocerry in the rest of the world, what will prevent them from pulling off another attack like that and just declairing Emergency Rule or Martial Law, in the pretext of protecting our Nation from these ficticious Al-Queda terrorists? It is in people like Mr. Moyers and the valient Knight Ridder's trio that we the people would now look towards to get to the very bottom of 'the mother of all lies about the 9/11 attacks.

Excellent program! And my congratulations to Landay and Stobel for their integrity and strength in reporting objectively.

I wonder if it were possible to produce this type of program during the "crisis"? For example, some of the issues that the masses and mainstream journalism seem to be supporting today. Wouldn't that be the next step to this awesome effort?

I too was blindsided, caught by surprise at your reappearence in the house, even a bit choked up. I'm locally vocal but not "a voice"... Nontheless, I was VERY disappointed that twice you shirked from relaying the most-accepted estimates of dead, not to mention maimed, Iraqis. ....."thousands dead".... . ? This statement needs nothing less than a correction. Perhaps your writers aimed Journal's reintroduction at livingrooms of the uninformed and offended. I would guess that anyone watching this program was urged to and accompanied by someone who is as horrified by our fatal affect on the innocent as I am. The definition and measure of war is the destroyed and partially destroyed bystanders. Why did you not say hundreds of thousands?

I'm amazed that you and your editors had KRT support for your investigations. As an intern at the Miami Herald during this period I was reminded that the paper had to keep feeding ever higher paybacks to stockholders (by cutting reporters and support staff, sharing motel rooms during hurricane coverage) or Tony Ritter would sell it -- which he ultimately did. I can only hope McClatchy can somehow stand up to market and political forces -- forces which in my brief tenure sidelined stories potentially embarassing to the publisher, powerful politicians, etc.

Thanks so much for your great work, showing KR at its best, though I agree with earlier comment that Pacifica/IndyMedia were also digging behind the facade.

INTEVIEW ALEX JONE BILL.HES AT INFOWARS.COM AND PRISONPLANET,TV..THANK YOU

It should be obvious to every American citizen after watching Bill Moyers report that it is our government that controls the information we receive through its economic intimidation of American corporations that own the media. The Administration exploited the peoples fears after 911 for its own capitalistic goals evidenced by the rise of the stock market. War evidently is the best thing for the economy regardless if it is justified. Beware when the press & media are afraid to report the facts and the truth for that can cast doom for a democracy.

INTEVIEW ALEX JONE BILL.HES AT INFOWARS.COM AND PRISONPLANET,TV..THANK YOU

INTEVIEW ALEX JONE BILL.HES AT INFOWARS.COM AND PRISONPLANET,TV..THANK YOU

Thank you Knight Ridder's and thank you Bill Moyer. I was raised to care and to read. I read the doubts in the news, even though they were hidden in the back of the newspaper. I knew that things were not right before we went to war. I appreciate with profound respect your jobs well done. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We are out here and we do listen and we do care about our world, factual informatkion, and your doing your job for us.

Has everyone forgotten their history?

Following, a definition and two quotes that frame the dire straits of our situation with a press hamstrung by cro·ny·ism(krn-zm)
n.
Favoritism shown to old friends without regard for their qualifications, as in political appointments to office.:

From Wikipedia..

The term Fourth Estate refers to the press, both in its explicit capacity of advocacy and in its implicit ability to frame political issues. The term goes back at least to Thomas Carlyle in the first half of the 19th century.

Novelist Jeffrey Archer in his work The Fourth Estate made this observation: "In May 1789, Louis XVI summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the 'Estate General'. The First Estate consisted of three hundred nobles. The Second Estate, three hundred clergy. The Third Estate, six hundred commoners. Some years later, after the French Revolution, Edmund Burke, looking up at the Press Gallery of the House of Commons, said, 'Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all.'

Marilyn Ferguson in "Aquarius Now" reiterates,
"Exploding digital technology, the Internet, especialy the World Wide Web, may be harbingers of a global renaissance. Millions of bloggers, linked and having their say, call to mind Jefferson's remark that if he had to choose between government without newspapers or newspapers without government, he would choose newspapers."

Long live Bill Moyers and men of his ethical and moral stature and long live the blogs and bloggers who analyze both facts and fiction.

It is incredible that smart people like reporters can claim that they were fooled by the administration when common people on the street and the mayority of the world saw that we were being led to war by false information. War is big business and the media is part of big business.
We must have a plan to prevent situations like this (i.e Iran) ever again. The leaders of our nations must be held to a higher standard, therefore they must pay the price for taking us to war under false pretenses. Trials similar to to the ones in Nuremberg should be held to uncover the truth and punish the guilty.
Presently the Senate is debating whether to fund or not fund the war and whether we should withdraw our troops. Again, the leasers that want to bring back our troops are being called traitors by many leaders and media channels. We must demand that we pull the troops out NOW. The war is lost but if it makes all the flag waving "patriots" happier let's declare victory and pull out the same way we went in.

Mr. Moyers - you are my hero. Thank you for providing an alternative model for courage, integrity, truth and honor. It's so refreshing to be reminded that true heroism doesn't only come in the form of body bags these days.
PDW

Pamela D. Winfield, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Religion and Philosophy
Meredith College
Raleigh, NC
-and-
daughter of Richard N. Winfield, 1st Ammendment Lawyer /World Press Freedom Committee / Professor of International Media Law in New York.

One of the most important lessons my father taught me is that, if you're going to call someone a liar, you better be able to back up your words. While Bill Moyers can be applauded for pointing out the medias' general and massive failure to adequately check the Bush administration in its run up to the war, he should be ashamed for repeatedly and slanderously insinuating that the case was "engineered," built on on "false pretenses," and the result of "Machiavellian" schemes. Moyers presents no hard evidence that "Bush lied" and that the right wing pundits were the administration's mouthpieces, but he took every opportunity he could to make those suggestions. Like Dan Rather, I still believe that people like Colin Powell truly did believe. You can say that the administration built its case on the flimsiest of frames (and that the press went for it hook, line, and sinker), but be careful who you call a liar. I had to chuckle: Evidently the Bush administration is smarter than the press corps.... Another cause for shame: "We were fooled, but THEY did it to us!" Please! Quit the whining and just take ownership!

Just watched Buying the War, What a waste of my time viewing this biased, inaccurate and redundant piece. Trotting out Dan Rather, disgraced and a fraud, along with his politically driven ex-producer and presenting him as some objective journalist was a hoot!
And saying Phil Donahue, another political hack, was driven out of his show because it was counter to the Bush Administration is laughable.
The fact is nobody watched Phil, and Dan was caught with his non-ethical pants down.
This type of one-way political programing is exactly why I do not support PBS.

Just watched Buying the War, What a waste of my time viewing this biased, inaccurate and redundant piece. Trotting out Dan Rather, disgraced and a fraud, along with his politically driven ex-producer and presenting him as some objective journalist was a hoot!
And saying Phil Donahue, another political hack, was driven out of his show because it was counter to the Bush Administration is laughable.
The fact is nobody watched Phil, and Dan was caught with his non-ethical pants down.
This type of one-way political programing is exactly why I do not support PBS.

Great show. I am stunned. I realize now that I have lived through my own McCarthy era. Where fear is the weapon against the truth and real Patriotism. I never thought this could happen again…

I was wrong.

--Jack Ryan

The current situation with the U.S. government demonstrates how capitalism fails our society. The corporate greed of executives, including those "executives" in the White House, has reached a threshold of catastrophic porportions, where Earth is perishing and overwhelmingly rich executives are only getting richer. Cheney was CEO of the US' biggest contractor in Iraq (Halliburton) and Bush has links with the Saudis and oil corporations in Texas. This greed for more power and stealing of natural resources from lands that belong to people has now embroiled the U.S. in the third world war, which has no end in sight. By the way, the only way to end this war is to consider what the enemy wants: peace and a self-determining middle east. Israel has to return to its pre-1967 borders before more negociations can take place for actually establishing its territory as defined by the U.N. in 1948 (with Jerusalem as an international city; Gaza-West Bank land bridge; Golan to Syria). If the U.S. government was more willing to listen rather than bullying and be greedy for more power, then maybe it could consider taxing oil companies and pay for fighting CO2 emissions. Call this communism, call this socialism, in my opinion natural resource everywhere should belong to the people of the land. At least stop these capitalist extremists in the White House from continuing their war: after Bush vetos the war funding on Friday, democrats should write a motion to impech him.

Thank you, Bill, and thank you, folks at Knight Ridder. I have a file about 2 inches think of clippings from the run-up to the war, much of it as you have reported, and more from folks such as those at the Guardian in England. Based on that I preached a sermon in the church which I was pastoring which agreed with the position of my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), which called the war "immoral, illegal, and unwise." The result? I lost my job. I was forced out in one of the worst years of my life. This work you have done is balm for me, and vindication. thank you.

The Iraq war was conducted badly. For 3-1/2 years we've been telling Representatives, the White House, and the Pentagon they screwed up, and how. They don't care what we think, never did. But it's time for the DNC and it’s operatives to grow up, and put an end to adolescent name calling, slander, and irresponsible statements in the press. The Democratic image these days isn't that we're against the war it's clearly that we want the White House, and we’ll do or say anything to get it.

For awhile it looked like Pelosi & Reid would be professional and negotiate with the Executive Branch on Iraq. Then Reid makes a reckless and irresponsible statement, embarrassing us in Nevada, and likely violating aspects of A-III, S-3 of Constitution.

America will never return to the 90's when we had 5 major terrorist attacks on our assets, and did nothing. We've needed a robust National Energy Policy for 20 years, and Congress won't do it. We want border control, and Congress won't do it. We want illegals documented and Congress won't do it.. And so on, and so on.

We’re sick of personality freaks, and hard-core political hacks. We demand experienced professionals with a proven record of getting things done. We don't care what our DNC thinks of Bush. Bush works for us. We’ll take care of him. We want to know the candidates program, and how they intend to execute it on all major issues.

Bill,
Thank you for your reasoned approach to news and current affairs. I believe that what you do so well is to: "mitigate as far as possible the damage done by the madness of our rulers". taken from this quote:
“We are going to be governed whether we like it or not; it is up to us to see to it that we are governed no worse than is absolutely necessary. We must therefore concern ourselves with politics, as Pascal said, to mitigate as far as possible the damage done by the madness of our rulers.” Pierre Elliot Trudeau

Mr. Moyers,
Your presence was missed. Thank you for coming back.

Bill Moyers is one of only a few actual journalists that can be found on american television today. For someone to question his ethics is truly the act of a pathetic human being.

But the sun will shine on the truth...it always does eventually.

Mr. Moyers, thanks for constantly being a man of character. You are a beacon of light for many of us.

Hindsightis easy. We did not find weapons of mass destruction, just mass graves. I'm old enough to remember hearing that Hitler was not a threat to us, so we should not get involved, and we did not until thousands had been put to death.

Earlier, I had asked about Bill Moyers' promotional schedule in connection with "Buying the War." There was no reply. I mentioned that I had heard two Moyers interviews in two days with uncritical interviewers (Bob Edwards and Terry Gross), and I predicted/wondered how many more there would be. Add at least two to the list; Tavis Smiley and Democracy Now!
To say that I am "uncomfortable" with Bill Moyers being given an uncritical bully pulpit, courtesy of public broadcasting, is an understatement. That the fully-mobilized forces of NPR, PRI and PBS are all lining up to promote Bill Moyers is even more discomforting. I really do wonder if anyone on any public broadcasting medium is going to ask Bill Moyers any hard journalism questions, as Fox News has been doing.

Dear Bill,
Love you. Missed you. Trilled you are back. We need your voice and integrity on the air as a reminder of how journalism should be. you have kept me sane!!

Welcome Back and Best Wishes,

I loved your answer to Amy Goodman this morning on Democracy Now!, to her question "Well, why are you back", which was "The world is still here." I loved that answer, because it is not just a simple answer to a simple question, but it says a lot about what you do and the state of the world. Yes, the world is still here and it is our job to make sure that it stays here! As long as it is here, people like you cannot stop talking about what is important and what we need to do to keep healthy and peaceful.

Welcome back Bill! We love you!

Great job, I heard you with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!

I do have one criticism for you: you claim that the only outlet which got the story correct was Knight Ridder.

However I would add the Pacifica network, DN!, FAIR and the FSRN reporters who with far fewer resources nailed the uranium cake fraud and other issues well before the main stream press did. They should receive the same accolades you grant to Knight Ridder.

This administration has brilliantly blurred the lines of support by confusing many of us into thinking that by not supporting every White House decision we therefore are not supporting the troops.
How can they say that wanting to end this seemingly endless war and bring the troops home is NOT supporting the troops while at the same time extending multiple tours of duty IS supporting the troops?
It is no longer a war on terror that the administration is waging but rather a war on words and the American mind that they appear to be winning.

Hey Bill, just watched you on Democracy Now. It is so reassuring to have you back on the beat. I was a weekly viewer of Now, until you left in December of 2004, and I will be a dedicated viewer of Bill Moyer's Journal in the future. Keep doing what your doing !!!

I'd like to share the content of a press conference - the text of it can be found here:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/21728

and a small excerpt is:

Because I believe the vice president's conduct of office has been destructive to the founding purposes of our nation. Today, I have introduced House Resolution 333, Articles of Impeachment Relating to Vice President Richard B. Cheney. I do so in defense of the rights of the American people to have a government that is honest and peaceful.

It became obvious to me that this vice president, who was a driving force for taking the United States into a war against Iraq under false pretenses, is once again rattling the sabers of war against Iran with the same intent to drive America into another war, again based on false pretenses.

Let me cite from the articles of impeachment that were introduced this afternoon, Article I, that Richard Cheney had purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and the Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United States armed forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security.

Hindsight is a wonderful gift

Bush still has no clue. Any terrorist group is as happy as a lark that we are staying in Iraq. It is easier to kill us there, it is cheaper to kill us there, it destroys our reputation in the world, and it bankrupts our economy.

Despite Bush's daily words, any terrorist would hate to see us leave and spend money and effort protecting and enhancing our home.

Lisa, your conservative friend sounds sadly familiar. So many of the people I worked with - who were well educated people, and consider themselves to be Christian - held similar views. It was a painful environment to be in.

When Eisenhower gave his warning about the military industrial complex, one of the things he mentioned was the 'spiritual cost' of maintaining a standing army. It's sad that speaking of spiritual values has become so difficult. I had a friend who worked in the Balkans, not as a combatant, but in a more vulnerable position of one who had to travel & work with some of the 'criminal elements' in that area. He came away from that experience with a real disgust for religion (in this case with Christians who carried out genocides against Muslims).

I felt a bit conflicted when reading John Walcott's speech, since he seems to share some of that same feeling about religion. My belief is that the answer to this suffering is fundamentally a spiritual one.

When Mr. Walcott says:

"I hope you'll understand that I am somewhat passionate about this because if truth is merely relative - if one person's truth, in other words, is as good as another's - then my work, and Kent's career as an intelligence officer and much of the work that many of you did and are doing, is meaningless."

then, I find myself cringing a bit. It's hard to define my unease with this statement - his concern is so well founded. While I see the value in collecting information - I'm uneasy with the notion of a single absolute truth.

I too am angry with the congress for not 'doing their job' in looking at the facts before allowing this war to happen, and I agree that "Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were wrong, no matter how devoutly they may have believed their own propaganda."

However, I also believe that we are *all* captives of our 'devoutly held propaganda', and that it's a part of being human that we never really see the world outside of the filter of our own propaganda.

I think our problems come as much from 'how we understand the facts', as the facts themselves. When someone believes that maintaining an army in Iraq long enough will create peace - then, I think an examination of the underlying assumptions used in understanding the world, along with a shared dialog about the truth we each experience, is probably as important as adding new facts.

I think it's just as likely to generate peace out of mass violence, as it would be to generate life out of a chemical soup.

Lisa, your conservative friend sounds sadly familiar. So many of the people I worked with - who were well educated people, and consider themselves to be Christian - held similar views. It was a painful environment to be in.

When Eisenhower gave his warning about the military industrial complex, one of the things he mentioned was the 'spiritual cost' of maintaining a standing army. It's sad that speaking of spiritual values has become so difficult. I had a friend who worked in the Balkans, not as a combatant, but in a more vulnerable position of one who had to travel & work with some of the 'criminal elements' in that area. He came away from that experience with a real disgust for religion (in this case with Christians who carried out genocides against Muslims).

I felt a bit conflicted when reading John Walcott's speech, since he seems to share some of that same feeling about religion. My belief is that the answer to this suffering is fundamentally a spiritual one.

When Mr. Walcott says:

"I hope you'll understand that I am somewhat passionate about this because if truth is merely relative - if one person's truth, in other words, is as good as another's - then my work, and Kent's career as an intelligence officer and much of the work that many of you did and are doing, is meaningless."

then, I find myself cringing a bit. It's hard to define my unease with this statement - his concern is so well founded. While I see the value in collecting information - I'm uneasy with the notion of a single absolute truth.

I too am angry with the congress for not 'doing their job' in looking at the facts before allowing this war to happen, and I agree that "Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were wrong, no matter how devoutly they may have believed their own propaganda."

However, I also believe that we are *all* captives of our 'devoutly held propaganda', and that it's a part of being human that we never really see the world outside of the filter of our own propaganda.

I think our problems come as much from 'how we understand the facts', as the facts themselves. When someone believes that maintaining an army in Iraq long enough will create peace - then, I think an examination of the underlying assumptions used in understanding the world, along with a shared dialog about the truth we each experience, is probably as important as adding new facts.

I think it's just as likely to generate peace out of mass violence, as it would be to generate life out of a chemical soup.

This is a letter that I recieved from a conservative friend. I am posting it in response to the mother of the soldier returning to Fallujah. This is exactly the thought process that scares me so much as an American who like so many others longs for a true democracy, with true democratic ideologies.
This letter is an example of so many people's point of view about why we must continue to "destroy" our "enemies". Please, why do these people believe that other human beings are any different than ourselves? Whether it be in Iraq or Palestine. Please define "ENEMY". When they look and act so much like "OURSELVES".
Here is the letter:

The lady who wrote this letter is Pam Foster of Pamela Foster and Associates in Atlanta She's been in business since 1980 doing interior design and home planning. She recently wrote a letter to a family member serving in Iraq .... Read it!
"Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001 ?
Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan , across the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania ?
Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?
And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was "desecrated" when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet?
Well, I don't. I don't care at all.
I'll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for
incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.
I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia
I'll care when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi tells the world he is sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.
I'll care when the cowardly so-called "insurgents" in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.
I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.
I'll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights.
In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don't care.
When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident, rest assured that I don't care.
When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank that I don't care.
When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed "special" food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being "mishandled," you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts that I don't care.
And oh, by the way, I've noticed that sometimes it's spelled "Koran" and other times "Quran." Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and ---- you guessed it - - I don't care ! ! ! ! !
If you agree with this viewpoint, pass this on to all your e-mail friends. Sooner or later, it'll get to the people responsible for this ridiculous behavior!
If you don't agree, then by all means hit the delete button.
Should you choose the latter, then please don't complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great country.
I am not deleting this, I am sending it on, but only after
I add:
--"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the
world. But, the Marines don't have that problem."
-- Ronald Reagan
I have another quote that I would like to add AND.......
I hope you forward this such as I have.
"If we ever forget that we're One Nation Under God,
then we will be a nation gone under. also by... Ronald Reagan

Better late than never.

But this would have been more useful in 2002.

Many of us knew from the start that there was something fishy about the enterprise, but who could have known MSM had been so thoroughly corrupted?

Dear Bill:
Thank you and God Bless you for coming back to mainstream media with your fair and unbiased journalism. We missed you.

Even though it is late but thanks for speaking out the truth.

Wish you all the best. Our country needs people like you so that the justice and truth that we stand for can be preserved.

Thanks to PBS to bring you back

Wasi

Thank-you so much for coming out of your much-deserved retirement, Mr. Moyers. Our democracy needs you now more than at any other time in your past career.

My husband and I completely stopped watching TV in 1996, but I will make a point of watching this show at the homes of friends.

Welcome back, and let the show begin!

Wecome back Mr Moyers,
Your Joseph Campbell series changed my life.

I am privileged to have the opportunity to post here. I hope my words effectively express my feelings.

The Poltics of Defeat

The other day I was sad to hear Senator Reid proclaim that the “war is lost”. I have been even more disturbed to hear the administration use phrases like “surrender date” and “cut and run” over and over again. Doing so in attempt to imply that the Democrats lack the “will to win”. Each party dispensing these baseless barbs without a single credible challenge by the opposition. This is the language of defeat.
WHO IS DEFENDING THE HONOR OF OUR MILITARY AND THE SECURITY OF OUR COUNTRY!?!?
In using this politically motivated and misleading terminology I believe the truth is distorted. Perhaps worse is the grave disservice these words do to our troops in harms way. Their bravery and incredible accomplishments ignored, maligned, and dishonored by these words.
A little more than four years ago we invaded Iraq to eliminate WMDs, depose Saddam Hussein and his sons and bring Democracy to the Iraqis.
There were no WMDs.
Saddam and his sons are dead.
The Iraqi's have held free elections.
The fact is that our military has done everything asked of them. They've already WON the war! Mission accomplished.
America's military will not resolve the centuries old religious disputes of Sunni and Shiites. Not in 16 months, not in 16 years. They must do that for themselves. After all, during their nearly 50 years of occupation and domination of the Balkans the Soviet Union kept Christians and Muslims from acting out age old vendettas. We all know what happened once they left.
Either by misreading intelligence or misleading the American people, ultimately what the Bush administration has done is to split our forces during time of war. Incompetent at best, criminal at worst.
I believe that we should bring our people home or; redeploy them to Afghanistan to finish the still unfinished fight against the Taliban and Al Queda.
What if after the D-Day invasion General Eisenhower had suddenly ordered the vast majority of Allied forces to head West to Madrid instead of East to Berlin? After all, Franco was a fascist, A friend to the Nazis and engaged in the extermination of his dissenters. What would have happened? He would have been immediately removed as Supreme Commander. And rightly so.
The politics of defeat are ultimately the politics of bigger and more dangerous wars. For by not making it perfectly clear that this War was NOT lost by the United States military, that our soldiers accomplished their mission doing in weeks what Iran could not do in 5 years, we invite attack. We need to impress upon our enemies that they should not mistake temporary incompetence in our leadership for weakness. To do so would demonstrate the same lack of vision and grasp of reality that the Bush administration has shown. To do so would be the gravest of errors.

Thank you,
Ron Hurst
Pasadena, California

Mr. Moyers,
I always knew I would get the truth if I listened to you. You have been my inspiration to write, to question and to call out corruption where i find it starting with Joesph Campbell and how to focus. Now was a mainstay of mine. Now nothing could possibly make me happier on TV than Seeing you on again, you are one of the reasons i support PBS. OF course your wisdom and ability to call a duck a duck in washington is probably why the Rove machine axed the support for PBS.

Thanks for restoring my faith in some media!

Thank you with all of my heart for being such a deep well of inspiration and for 'bestowing your boons' upon us. I am wondering if and when you might get round to addressing the UFO connection .... BEFORE we are coerced and misrepresented by 'the secret government', one more time.

There is no public voice as compelling and true as public broadcasting, and on public broadcasting, there is no one quite as compelling and true as Bill Moyers. Profoundly glad to have you back, Bill.

I was highly skeptical of the reasons for the war, but started wondering if I was crazy---because no one else was asking those questions!

But I share the question of the man who stated: "after you've yelled 'I'm mad as hell and I won't take it any more!'", then what? What do you do when the mainstream media and the "opposition" political party (both of which should be asking the hard question) fail you?

I am grateful for the wise voice of an elder. Thank you for your insight and sense of civility.

Dear Mr Bill (I couldn't resist.)

This is really exciting! However, I always find myself a bit frustrated after watching your broadcasts. I want to open my window and yell out, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" I'd appreciate some concrete advice and ideas on how I can affect change.
Thanks again for coming out of your semi-retirement.

I am so glad to hear that Moyers is back. It is time to start watching TV again! The next Moyers Journal should be a tough expose on all of the unanswered questions and misleading answers about 911 from NIST and the 911 Commission. 911 was the lie that Bush used to sell us the war in the first place. How did two airplanes take down three steel frame skyscrapers? Why did the collapse of the three WT towers exhibit all of the signs of controlled demolition? The facts are still there waiting for someone with the guts to investigate.

Hi Bill,
Thanks for coming back. The TV & the nation is richer because of you. I am looking forward to many an hours of thoght provoking discourses from you.
Thanks again.

"hes back!"
well, he never went away. that, for all our own good. someone left of the classic cronkite/brikley old school breed of honest reporter. not part of the new half price half breed 10 second shock clip renta-reporters of the day.

thankyouthankyouthankyou

Bill,
Would you please explore the issue of iminent danger as the cassis belli to attack Iraq. Would Saddam really attack the U.S. with his lousy 5 or 10 nukes when we have 10s of thousands nukes ready to totally distroy his country? That is the real issue, not did he have WMDs.

Is there a schedule of all of the interviews that Bill Moyers is doing to promote his new PBS program? I have heard him on two public radio programs in two days (Bob Edwards' Weekend and Fresh Air with Terry Gross.) The interviews sound rehearsed in that Bill keeps saying the same things, using the same anecdotes that sound off-the-cuff but apparently aren't. And not a single tough question was posed to Bill Moyers about his activities in the Johnson administration, or about some of his past statements and financial support for left-wing activist organizations.
How many different NPR programs will be hosting Bill Moyers for interviews this week? And how many interviewers will ask Moyers any hard questions?

Finally something worth watching on tv. I am very excited! I never seen you on air; I've only watched your documentary "The Secret Government" from which I also had to write a paper on for my PolSci Prof. I was stunned and shocked that the US commited and most likely still is commiting such atrocities. I was wondering where I might be able to purchase a copy of "The Secret Government"? Thanks!

Dear Bill,

I am so glad you are back. You are needed now more than ever. It is so good to have a voice of reason and truth. The current media is basically all about ratings and infotainment.

I agree with one the comments above. Please consider a series on the current Supreme Court and instigate how we get back our constitution.

Thank you.
Shari

Listen to Bill! He will take you places you cannot go alone where sheep's clothing is removed to reveal truth to power. Moyers follows Morrow in a great, great American tradition that is alas, in it's last throws.

Dear Bill,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming back!

Add my voice to the chorus who cheer your return to regular broadcasting.

I am a retired officer in the GAARNG who has followed this war since President Bush first started the build-up after 9/11. I have been amazed how the public has been duped, but I firmly believe the public has began to comprehend the scope and consequences of the deceit of the Bush administration in the run-up to the war. I think they will sort it all out and start demanding our government correct its course. It might not happen as fast as we would like for it to, but it will happen. Also the guilty probably won't be punished as they really should, except by history.

Bill has been a breath of fresh air ever since I encountered him. We are indeed fortunate to have him with us at this level

Dear Bill
Welcome back! Have missed your regular programs but have continued to watch on PBS, specific issues.
We have written to you before and sent you some material we have published because your work has been quoted in them, and certain discussions on PBS and other programs.
Yes, the war has been all wrong from the very beginning. We do not have to remain self-centered---simply look at all the opinions from the rest of the world and see how wrong the Bush administartion has been. After all there is much more to our world than just America right? Although we have too many who do not think so!
Welcome again, and we look forward to your continued insight.
Alex

What of our dollar Hegemony?

Thankyou Bill for continuing to inspire as well as perspire instead of retire. Back in the Nixon days I would often hear myself muttering: Geez! It Can It Get Any Worse Than This?! Man Was I Wrong!
It Is Far Worse Than My Worst PTSD Flasback. So I no longer use the phrase because Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and Bush have all shown how much lower down the low road they can go and drag us all down with them.

Dear Bill,
We’re glad you’re back!

While you were away we created our own blog. We meet at the Glendale Public Library in Glendale, California. We’ll be watching you and talking, here on the Moyers Blog and on our local MoyersTalk blog.

We invite other groups to meet in public libraries and perhaps form a network of such blogs. We’ve copied your blog rules to use. Let’s hear it for civil, civic participation.

You are the reason I finally became a member of my local PBS station. Welcome back

Welcome back Bill! We need your calm, intelligent voice and discerning eye. NOW hasn't been the same since you left and the media in general seems bought and paid for by the electorate. Bless you!

Welcome back. We have missed you terribly. My wife and I make it a point to watch any show with which you are asssociated (and we have continued to tune into NOW with David Brancaccio).

No pressure, but you are to us the most credible journalist now working.

Best wishes. We are really looking forward to the series.

From time to time, after you left us at NOW, we climbed a small hill, glimpsed your mountaintop orations, and were sustained against the storm. It still rages, but your return causes us to hope and to give thanks. This is truly wonderful.

A rainy day in Oregon.......bearable after learning that you are returning.

Welcome back, Bill, enjoy listening to the profundity of your ideas and discussions. As for the war in Iraq, so much grief and sadness, not a single person left in that blasted land who has not suffered the loss of a child, spouse, friend...??? Terror, tyranny, oppression, just the words simmering inside the cauldron of lies, hate and hypocrisy? Justice and freedom? Who is the oppressor and who the oppressed? Whoever would find the answer with the light of wisdom and understanding, would become a pioneer in stopping this whaling absurdity of a madness.
peace and love

I couldn't be happier Bill is back. We despirately need a voice of truth and candor in this media sea of cowardliness, info-tainment, of ignored stories, and of down right lies.
I've been watching Bill for 33 years. Horray!

Bill,

I can remember you overview of the Watergate crimes on PBS during the seventies. I wrote how grateful I was that someone had presented the blur of news activity in a from that the public could digest. Crimes were being uncovered at such a flurry that it was hard to remember what happened and who did what. You helped America understand how our very core Constitutional principles were being attacked and possibly being unrfaveled.
During my latter years in Houston. I was able to befriend Constitutional historian,John Henry Faulk. He and I spoke of the tremendous and essential effort you were making to maintain the fundamentals of good American journalism with questions and substantive information.

I think it may be interesting to hear from the many think tanks and individuals like Jessica Tuchman Mathews and John D. Sachs who pretty much mapped out what would happen if the US unilaterally went to war with Iraq.
The real issue is why didn't their advice coem to the forefront by the media and acknowledged sufficiently by our Washington leaders?
Your efforts during these surreal days when answers are not questioned and automatic allegiance is viewed as a good thing, is one of the few weapons we have against growing corporate power and a class of wealth that is greedily disembling the and

Bill, welcome back! It's about damn time!

The courage to tell Truth to Power is pitifully rare in the media these days, and yet we need it today more than ever. I can't think of anyone who does it better than you.

Go get 'em, Bill! I'll be tuning in every week.

Our country is going through some really rough times...set backs of tens of years, and no one seems to be able to do anything about it. Congress seems incapable. There are so many lies being told by this administration, that it's very discouraging. At least when Bill's covering the story, I feel that someone's documenting the truth and the air is cleared. It's uplifting.
Thanks Mr. Moyers.
Michele H.

Mr. Moyers - You once sent me a note calling me a "person of conscience". I have treasured it. As a small town editor in rural Tennessee, your journalistic courage has been my inspiration in our continuing battles against bigotry, meth, dog-fighting,apathy and poverty. I am so relieved to see you have regained your public voice.

Dear Ruth,

To sign up for the Bill Moyers Journal Newsletter, please click the following link: http://webmail.thirteen.org/mailman/listinfo/moyers-update

-Bill Moyers Journal

Dear Bill, How do I sign up to get on a list serve or something? I'm not up to date on the technology of these things. Like blogs. Thanks, Ruth Sherer, San Mateo, CA

Gentle sanity is back. Hoist a glass to that! And thank Bill Moyer...

This is the best news in TV journalism in years. I have really missed your objective reporting and relentless pursuit of the behind-the-scene stories that deeply affect us. I will be with you all the way.

Maybe I'll donate to Public Broadcasting now!

Thank Goodness! We might make it, after all.

Thanks for all you have done in recent years for media reform and standing up for the traditional role of PBS in the face of the NeoCons. I look forward to your show.

Best wishes and thanks

I am so grateful that you are back on the air. Your voice of honesty and clarity is very refreshing, like a cup of cold water to a parched soul. I was in Kenya when i heard you were axed from PBS, and I knew America was being deceived into settling for less than the truth. Thank you for gifting us with yourself.

After your decades of courageous reporting I was sorry to see you leave the airwaves JUST WHEN WE NEEDED YOU MOST! However, your lifetime of work has always reminded me of that Nobel winning poem by a fellow Irishman about "The Troubles" entitled "The Voice of Reason is Getting Hoarse".
I continue to cheer your "Voice" on Bill.

Bill,

So glad to see and hear your voice again. You've been missed. I'm thankful, in advance, and hopeful about the prospect of your take on the upcoming primaries and election.

That said, I hope relative to your new piece on "Buying the War" that you'll shed some light on hard reasons why the Washington Press core and so many others failed to follow good journalistic practice in their reporting.

Can you help us also answer the question - how can we as consumers of the news use our market power to promote balanced, penetrating, objective, and insightful journalism?

Best,
Mark Dawes

Just want to add my voice to the others cheering your return. I will never forget how bleak and ominous it felt watching you announce your "retirement" from "Now."

It's been a long and ominous winter and I hope this is an indicatation that a balance of powers is beginning to be restored to government. Thank you for your dedication to the constitutionally mandated freedom of the press.

Damn! Does this mean you WON'T be running for President? Or is this the first step?

Knowing you (Bill) are getting back on PBS is thrilling! Thank you for your caring, clarity, integrity and courage. I remember when you predicted an "explosion of investigative journalism". I hope you're right, and that it's beginning! (BTW, I was born on June 5, too... in 1941.) I love you!

Your renewed presence is much needed....welcome back.

Please comment about the focus on the cadidates fund-raising as an overwrought media subject. Why don't we just nominate, and then elect, the candidate that accumulates the most money. Sort of like the Monopoly game.

I am so grateful you are back! You are so important to this country.

Bill
Please do a piece on Venezuela. Our Government is slandering one of the world's best leaders of a totally democratic and benevolent Government.

Please set the record straight.

At last, the voice of reason is back. Thank you, Mr. Moyers!

It's so good to have you back on PBS and also here at this blog. Now if we can only get you to run for president.

Hallelujah!!!!!

Bill - this is wonderful and crucial. Please, please, please consider doing a series on the Supreme Court and what we can do to keep this court from dismantling OUR constitution.

What wonderful news!! We need you, Mr. Moyers, now more than ever. I have not quite forgiven PBS for cutting you back and for lots of other reasons...but your reappearance will help soften some of that resentment. I add my thanks to those of many others who know what a special person you are and how much your voice is needed in our country just now.

You're back!
Thank you!
Thank God!
Never in the history of the USA has there been such an urgent need for your honest and ethical voice on the "media"---where it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish a so called news commentary from a used car commercial.
Robert Dial

Welcome back Bill! It's been a long dry spell for us out here in the hinterlands

Welcome back, Bill! I look eagerly forward to your blog and program.

Your voice is missed whenever we can't hear from you.... frequently.

This is truly HUGE! I'm thrilled that one of the very few citizens who can shake us out of the apathy and cynicism now rampant in America -will be back in our faces again!

Give it everything you've got, Mr Moyers... I am with you all the way.
Most sincerely

Great to have you back Bill, I'm looking forward to your new show.

Ditto with all the welcome backs! The preview was inviting and I cannot wait to see the program. The whole Iraq occupation is still so incredible I don't think it can ever be explained but Bill Simon is a top notch respected journalist and not believeing him, not supporting the reporters who were coming up with this information to me was the end of American's freedom as we knew it.It is a different world now and the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 did not make it so different. The indifference and ignorance of We The People changed our lives forever after that day by refusing to let the truth be heard.
Thanks to these brave journalists and to you Bill, please keep coming back with more. We would rather live with the truth than live in The Matrix.

Congratulations! I have missed your excellent journalism. America NEEDS the educatin you present.

I want to know more about the Islam religion, especially the branch called the "Talkfear" (my spelling is incorrect. But the session on Sunday night on PBS in Denver had a program on the history of the development of Islam going back into the 1920's and 30's) This history is essential to build an understanding of today's Islam movement and the Wasabi Arabs fundamentalism movement. I want to learn more. MUCH MORE!
Welcome back!

Bill:

Any chance we’ll see more Podcasts? The few you kicked out a while back were genuine treats. Don’t get discouraged – post 2008 your type of reporting will come back in vogue again.

Thank God you are back! You've been gone way too long. You're an inspiration to all and I look forward to watching your show again every week.

I am so excited to hear that you are back. I would love to find a way to help you so one day you can retire but for now. . there's no one else that does what you do. Your style of listening truly allows many points of view to be heard. I think that's what journalists stive for but few achieve.

Thanks for returning Bill. I wish you the best of everything. I'll be watching.

Bill:

Never seen a more thought provoking journalist.

I am deeply saddened and feel sorry for our U.S. leaders: Perle, Wolfowiz, Rumsfeld, Cheny and Busch. In their quest to "do something" after 9/11, they were incapable of planning and thinking through all of the major consequences of the actions they were undertaking. Part of a failure to understand cultures and misguided egos that "we know best" how deliver and implement punishment. Also, they might have listened to much to foreign lobbies from the region. Those lobbies were tired of Iraqi sponsored suicide bombers in their communinties and realized it was the ideal time to push the U.S. to invade and clean it up for them. Now, sadley, it is apparent our leaders still do not understand what they are doing; they want us to think that they do understand but they do not. After Rumsfeld was replaced, President Bush said, "He accepted the responsibility of their shortcommings." Now, the public is holding him to those shortcommings. We are tired. President Bush--- you had your chance but you mismanaged it. It is time to become sober about the Iraqi situation and work together to resolve this mess. You both have important points. A solution can be found. If it is has to be "my way or the highway" then, ok, I prefer this---YOU LEAVE!

Delighted you're back. Posted a love letter, of sorts, to you on the Clotheslineblog last week. It's been a brutal six years under Bush and Co. Glad you're back to help us get through the final stretch.

Lets get to the point. Everything is far is just symptons of a system which is broken and the system generates the brokeness that only a broken system can emit. The real problem is K street and until that is gone we will get K oed.

Great to have you back on
a regular basis. Have always enjoyed Bill Moyer.

Your reputation for fairness & completeness in reporting is legendary as is your willingness to speak truth to power. It'll be wonderful to have you back on PBS on a regular basis and I look forward to the blog as well. Sorry I missed you here in Marshall as couple weeks ago.

Bill Moyers!! Welcome back!!!

Bill,
Your voice of reason has been sorely missed in the national discussion. Please bring some of the progressive investigative reporters like Robert Parry, Greg Palast, and Juan Cole into the dialog.
Welcome back to PBS!

So much of what you questioned and thought was going haywire in gov't indeed is: ie attorney general's office, questioning anything equals being traitor and now we're getting "since so many have died and been wounded we must fight to win for their honor".

Consider a program about winning and the American psyche. "Proud" is a cardinal sin, I believe.

Value enormously your point of view.

Paul Seligson

Dear Bill,

its been to long for you to be gone. your voice is truly a light in the darkened sky. a gleaming beacon of knowledge in these troubled times. i fear for my childrens children that they may not know an inspiring voice, a shoulder on which to lean on, that they will not know a soldier of right persuing the "wrongs" who work dilgently removing from us our born to rights. Thanks!

Peace
Tom

My only regret is that CNN, FOX, MSNBC and the major networks will not benefit from having Mr. Moyer's thoughts on the air. There is so much double talk to contend with, so much fear mongering.

Oops, didn't mean to be anonymous. That post at 4:36 was mine.

Thank you! Have always appreciated your voice. Off to blogroll this site!

WELCOME BACK BILL.....WE NEED YOUR CLARITY

Great. The Thomas Paine of our time back on the air to help re-awaken the true American spirit. The revolution against the ghosts of John Adams and the Federalists.

Bill it's so good to have a voice of reason in the wilderness back on the air. I look forward to your new series on PBS.

The hope for 'the return of a democracy that will actually remain accountable to citizens' just went up by 80%. You give me great hope for the political future of this country.

Welcome back Bill !!!

This is the best news I've heard in a long time! You've been missed by so many of us. Bill, thanks so much for returning!!

THERE IS A GOD!!! the end.

This has been a long time coming...

Thanks for hanging in there with all of us, Bill - yes, sane and wise voices are rare these days - and your probing questions illumine rather than deflect from root issues and causes. Good news!

I guess good does triumph over evil. Glad you are back Bill.

welcome back and THANK YOU!

Thank you so much for returning. I hope to see more wonderful conversations between you and Kevin Phillips and Karen Armstrong too.

I have bookmarked your new blog.

What and idiot!

I can't believe he is back.

I guess it is true what they say about a bad penny...

What a relief to know that your well-reasoned voice, Bill, has returned to the media mainstream. Thank you.

For many years I've considered
Bill Moyers our nation's most
distinguished teacher. Thanks
for coming back.

Bill Moyers, it was a sad day when you went off the air. We were first acquainted back in the 80's with your historic interview with Joseph Campbell. Ever since I have been a huge fan and greatly admire your inquisitive approach to so many different topics. I very much look forward to your next endeavor.

Welcome back, Bill. you are a national treasure and are sorely needed!

It is good to have you back Bill. Looking forward to the new show. We need your reporting now more than ever.

Hi Bill,

just checking out the site. I will have a comment about Social Security when it is appropriate. Meanwhile you might want to do your homework. Peter Peterson is not an honest source.

A voice like yours is needed to help us sort out the complexitites of the 21st Century. I'm so glad your back.

Bill: Echoing the others, my family is delighted to have you back on the air, as well as on this blog; your journey has been our journey; our awareness, activism and spirit have been nourished and strengthened by your clear-eyed guidance through the years.

Thank you...John Ellis

We are SO happy to have you back on the air. We've missed you, and your thoughtful and insightful commentary.

Dear Mr. Moyers,
It is wonderful that you will be coming back.
In these dreadful days, with lies and deceit and killing, there seems to be almost no surcease.
You are a boon, a gift, a treasure.
Thank you.
Lester Colodny

Yay! This is great. I am adding it to my bloglines account right now! Bill, what articles and other blogs have you been reading this week? Curious about what's on your reading list.

Glad to have you back Bill! Can't wait for the series.