Bill Moyers announced today to his colleagues in public TV that the last broadcast of his Moyers & Company public-affairs show will air Jan. 3, 2014, when current funding commitments end.
Moyers
He also said that his production company is “exploring the possibility of continuing to serve that audience through BillMoyers.com with the goal of engaging them in the renewal of democracy.” The show has more than 315,000 Facebook likes, Moyers said, and that number “grows every day by the hundreds. They — like so many of our viewers — take their citizenship seriously.”
The veteran public broadcasting newsman came out of retirement two years ago “thanks to the generosity of some unexpected funders and the loyalty of long-time funders” for the weekly series, he said in the memo posted on PBS Connect, the online communication hub for member stations. Carnegie Corporation provided major funding for his return.
Moyers & Company was his first program to be distributed by American Public Television instead of PBS, which distributed his previous series: Bill Moyers Journal ran from 1972-76 and from 1979-81; Now with Bill Moyers, 2002-04; and another Bill Moyers Journal, 2007-10. In 2011, the program became the first from APT to run on the PBS COVE video site.
“Before moving on, I want once more to express my appreciation for the collegiality I have shared with so many of you over so many years,” Moyers wrote. “I wish you all good luck in meeting the challenges facing public media today.”
Pingback: Morning Media Newsfeed: Reuters to Cut 3,000 Jobs | NY Post Goes to Trial | NYT Ad Woes - FishbowlNY
Pingback: The Morning Ticker: Moyers, Wheeler, Cheney - TVNewser
Pure pleasure to have worked with Bill and we are so much the better for the way he prodded and informed our democracy for decades. I will believe retirement in about a year after the last show. Hard to imaging he’ll stop contributing to the common good in a mighty way.
Huge loss to public tv and the American public. He is the best journalist of our time.
We sincerely hope that all of us who value Bill Moyers programs so highly will help keep his program on the air. It gives us hope for change in our unbalanced society.
Let’s hope he stays gone this time.