Bill Moyers is retiring from PBS after a long career... ...that included working with President Johnson. After 33 years as a TV journalist and commentator - and prior careers in the Lyndon Johnson White House and as publisher of Newsday - Bill Moyers is walking away from television.The final installment of "NOW with Bill Moyers," his eclectic and thoughtful PBS series, will air tomorrow night at 8:30 (on WNET/Ch. 13).
Moyers, whose celebrated TV career includes such inspirational series as "Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth," "The World of Ideas" and several outstanding editions of "CBS Reports," is calling it quits - and is doing so because he listened carefully to some of the older people he's been interviewing."The first Emmy I ever won," Moyers said, relaxing in the "NOW" green room Tuesday, "was a long one-hour conversation with Henry Steele Commager, the historian, and there was something about the reservoir of wisdom that comes from somebody who's lived a long time and thought about it that has always brought me back to septuagenarians."
From Joseph Campbell came advice to "follow your bliss."
Most recently, Moyers said, he interviewed two septuagenarians this spring, just as he himself was about to turn 70: actor Hal Holbrook and author-artist Maurice Sendak.
Holbrook talked about sailing solo across the Pacific when he was younger and learning that to survive, "You have to give to nature just enough to stay upright." Sendak told a story about savoring a bite of a peach at an advanced age, with a focus of appreciation that "you want to be sure to taste that peach."
The lesson Moyers took from those conversations: bend a bit, slow down, and see where the winds of life blow you next.
"While there's no mark on the boundary between 69 and 70," Moyers said, "there's something about 70 that makes the horizon closer than you thought it was when you were 60.
"You don't feel differently, but you see the horizon coming at you faster. I wanted take my foot off the accelerator, touch the brake gently but firmly, and get out of the fast lane."
Moyers will spend Friday night with his wife, "NOW" executive editor Judith Davidson Moyers, and their family, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, which occurs Saturday.
"She has been my emotional and intellectual kindred soul for 52 years," Moyers said with a gentle smile. "I fell in love with her the first day I met her."
Moyers has one final series on the drawing board, but doesn't know whether he'll generate either the funding or energy to tackle it: "Fighting for Democracy," an examination of the almost generational battles to protect American freedoms.
His focus right now, though, is to step away from "NOW," and start savoring peaches. "NOW" will return Jan.7, with current co-host David Brancacchio taking the reins.
"Nothing is pushing me," Moyers said of his departure, "but something is pulling me, and I don't know what that is.
"I knew that if I stayed on the weekly deadline, on this show, with all these moving parts - I wouldn't find out what that is."
Moyers agreed that some of his series, like "Power of Myth," have a healthy shelf life on DVD and are favorites during PBS pledge periods, but he waved aside questions about his own legacy.
"I believe that journalism is all about writing in the sand and whistling in the wind," he said. "The wind blows the sound away, and the sand flows over the writing. A journalist has impact on his time, if he's lucky."
Besides, Moyers added, who remembers the legacy of the pioneering broadcast news greats, like producer Fred Friendly and reporter Ed Murrow of CBS?
"What's happened to the house that Murrow built?" Moyers asked. "It's now a shack on the side of the road."
He quickly added that he meant to apply the thought across the board, not just at CBS. There were good journalists working everywhere, he insisted, but too few places encouraging their best work, as he felt PBS has done with him for years.
"I've been so lucky that I could find and put on authentic people and authentic stories."
Originally published on December 16, 2004
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Posted by sciencegrrl at December 16, 2004 11:38 AM