Bill Moyers booking

Bill Moyers is a broadcast journalist whose probing, thoughtful coverage reaches for the highest common denominator and assumes that viewing audiences will make the intellectual effort to meet him there. In doing so, he has spent decades enlightening Americans about themselves, their culture and the complex world around them. He anchors NOW on PBS, an hour-long weekly series offering fresh perspectives and analysis on today’s events, issues, and the ideas that are shaping the world.

Called one of the 10 journalists who most significantly influenced television news by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Moyers has produced more than 240 programming hours since establishing Public Affairs Television in 1986. His documentaries range from the hard-hitting (Moyers on Addiction; Moyers on Dying in America; Facing the Truth, the story of the aftermath of apartheid in South Africa) and the marvelous (The Power of Myth; Amazing Grace; Healing and the Mind) to the historical and political (God and Politics; The Constitution in Crisis; Minimum Wages).

Moyers combines a quick wit with deep reflection on the human condition. His 25-year career in broadcast journalism has been recognized with many major awards, including over 30 Emmys; the Erik Barnouw Award from the Organization of American Historians; the George Foster Peabody Award for political reporting and international coverage; and the Gold Baton, the highest honor of the Alfred I. duPont/Columbia University Award. Five of the books based on his television series, among them the 1971work Listening to America have become bestsellers.

Moyers began his journalism career at age 16 as a cub reporter on the Marshall News Messenger. He earned his B.A. in journalism with honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1956, and three years later received his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at Fort Worth, Texas. After serving as deputy director of the Peace Corps during the Kennedy Administration, he became the press secretary for former President Lyndon B. Johnson. As the first presidential spokesperson to make the transition to journalist, he has a unique perspective on the forces effecting news coverage. Moyers left the White House in 1967 to become publisher of Newsday, served as editor-in-chief of Bill Moyers’ Journal an award-winning program on public television, from 1970-76, and then moved on to CBS. He has also served as president of The Florence and John Schumann Foundation, and was a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation for 12 years.