May 16, 2005

Freedom of the press conference

Bill Moyers delivered a great speech at the 2005 National Conference on Media Reform in St. Louis over the weekend. The former PBS host of NOW lambasted Corporation for Public Broadcasting chairman Kenneth Tomlinson for his partisan crusade to impose right-wing politics on PBS programming, a campaign that included his hiring a consultant to monitor Moyers' show for "liberal bias." Moyers has challenged Tomlinson to a televised debate on the direction of public broadcasting.

Free Press has gathered 50,000 signatures so far this month to demand Tomlinson's resignation.

"The more compelling our journalism, the angrier the radical right of the Republican Party gets," Moyers said. "That's because the one thing they loathe more than liberals is the truth. And the quickest way to be damned by them as liberal is to tell the truth."

Listen to his speech here or watch it here (both may be slow). You can also listen to Democracy Now!'s coverage of the conference and Moyers' closing speech.

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