PBS to Replace Moyers, NOW With Newsweek Editor, Jon Meacham?

PBS to Replace Moyers, NOW With Newsweek Editor?

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4038

PBS to Replace Moyers, NOW With Newsweek Editor?
Meacham hire would send the wrong message

3/10/10


PBS is reportedly in final talks with Newsweek editor Jon Meacham to be co-host of its forthcoming Need to Know program (New York Times, 3/9/10). Meacham's consideration for a show that would replace hard-hitting independent programs Now and the Bill Moyers Journal sends a clear and troubling message about PBS's priorities (Extra! Update, 6/05).

Meacham is a fixture on commercial pundit shows in addition to his Newsweek duties. In these venues, he is a consummate purveyor of middle-of-the-road conventional wisdom with a conservative slant. After the 2008 election, Meacham (10/27/08) authored an article on America as a "center-right nation"--a conclusion based on dubious historical analogies (Sarah Palin is a kind of Thomas Jefferson) and cherry-picking national election results, casting aside evidence that would undermine the conclusion (FAIR Blog, 10/19/08).

He recently (FAIR Blog, 11/30/09) cheered on a Dick Cheney presidential run as "good for the Republicans and good for the country." Meacham had just months earlier (FAIR Blog, 1/12/09) argued that any critical investigations into the Bush/Cheney record on torture would be pointless ("the rough equivalent of pornography," as he put it).

Meacham's approach to journalism seems to be antithetical to the hard-hitting approach of Moyers and Now; he's called on journalists to "cover other institutions as you would want to be covered," with "charity and dignity and respect" (Meet the Press, 1/1/06). This Golden Rule approach to news was illustrated when he intervened in a Newsweek online story about Joe Scarborough, a personal friend who often invites Meacham on his cable show, to remove from the lead the fact that Scarborough had served as the defense attorney for the murderer of an abortion provider (FAIR Blog, 6/11/09).

Of course, some sources get more than their share "charity, dignity and respect," as when Meacham remarked about interviewing Rev. Billy Graham (Imus in the Morning, 6/27/05): "It was amazing. I went in and I realized this is what God probably was going to look like. The white hair, the blue eyes, he'll have a Southern accent, that's the way it should be, I think."

While Now and Bill Moyers Journal are notable for holding politicians feet to the fire, Meacham uses much more generous standards. After Cheney and right-wing Democratic Sen. Zell Miller gave speeches at the 2004 Republican National Convention that were filled with blatant distortions--accusing Democratic candidate John Kerry of being opposed to all U.S. weapons systems because he had voted against a Pentagon appropriations bill, for instance (FAIR Media Advisory, 9/3/04)--Meacham (MSNBC, 9/1/04) called it "a brilliant tactical night, one of the most brilliant in the age of television. These were two concise, rather devastating rhetorical hits at John Kerry.... They did not miss anything that they could hit."

Following the November 2009 announcement about the retirement of Moyers and the cancellation of Now, FAIR launched a petition (12/16/09) signed by over 14,000 people, calling on PBS to develop new programming that would feature the independent, outside-the-Beltway perspectives that appeared on those programs. PBS's response (1/22/10) was a recycled press release that didn't address any of the activists' concerns, instead asserting vaguely that "PBS is committed to maintaining the highest level of news and public affairs programming." This announcement suggests that that "highest level" is going downhill fast.

ACTION: Please write to PBS and tell them that choosing Jon Meacham to host Need to Know would mean that public television still needs to find suitable replacements for the hard-hitting, independent journalism of Now and Bill Moyers Journal.

CONTACT:
Michael Getler, PBS Ombud
Web Form: http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/feedback.html

Ugh - this is not good.

damned "lefty" media.

(please tell me I dont need the :sarcasm: )

They refused to air The Panama Deception cuz it was 'unbalanced'. Hell, it was THE balance to the pro-war media. Then Frontline did a BS program trying to support the Warren Commission's bogus conclusions about a single shooter from behind.

I stopped supporting them when they told me they'd publish my letter to the editor, then only published letters lauding their programming choices.

in there but I've had it! The other programs you cited I saw too and had your very reaction... balanced my as*. :(

Bookmarking so I can contact PBS later. I've always thought that guy was just a smarmy little weasel and FAIR pretty much confirms that assessment.

Thanks for the confirmation. When Bob Edwards was sacked from NPR I figured Air America was our last hope. NOW we've really got to hang on to the internets.

It's a win win for me:)

what an insult to Mr. Moyers to be replaced by that ass.

...in a prearranged post-speech television spot. He said it several times in that "appearance". He is obviously biased for the Republicans.

I am digusted that we are losing NOW with Hinajosa and Brancaccio.

Hinting at both his fundamentally inside-the-beltway elitism and his condescending "we'll only tell you what we feel you absolutely need to know" attitude toward the general public.

Poor PBS, what a horrible, degrading death. Poor Nova, to be the lone survivor in a vast wasteland. :cry:

:cry:

On Bill Maher's show, he strongly defended gay marriage as a right, citing his own relgious beliefs that marriage is a sacrament, and he could never deny others their wish to receive a sacrament. So he didn't hide behind 'civil unions, not marriage' rhetoric. He's an Episcopalian, and self-mockingly called members of his faith "God's frozen people".

I also enjoyed his biography of Andrew Jackson titled "American Lion". It's no hagiography (which have been all too common since 9/11 - with numerous books deifying the founders and their timeless wisdom, blah blah blah) - as he doesn't spare Jackson any criticism for how he treated Native Americans. Also, as religious history in America is one of his specialties, he is no fan of the religious right either. One of the highlights of the book is how Jackson dismissed and ignored the bleatings of the leading right-wing clergyman of his day. It would be the equivalent of Obama telling Rick Warren to go fuck himself. Makes you wish Obama had that aspect of Jackson in his character. Or that Obama shared Meacham's views on gay marriage.

Moyers is a hard act to follow though. I wouldn't envy anyone taking over his chair.

K & R

I just fired off a message to the ombud saying basically that Moyers is one of the few hard-hitting journalists today and that Meacham is "just another cookie cutter softball journalist" and referenced the given FAIR article.

http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/feedback.html
heard from me too! Thanks for the post.
I miss the late 70's PBS. Never knew the 70's would turn out to be the good old days.