National Conference for Media Reform Day 2

According to FreePress, former LBJ press secretary Bill Moyers is "one of the few remaining great journalists of our times." In light of the fact that he has used taxpayer-funded public broadcasting to encourage the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, Moyers denies public broadcasting has any hint of liberal activism.

Moyers says "the voice of public broadcasting has become a small whisper. . . public broadcasting has little to work with." Tell that to the Americans who are funding the $15 million a year the "Independent" Television Service receives. (See the Media Research Center's full report here)

Using the term "learned" rather broadly, I will list the other things I learned from Moyers this morning:

-the "great journalism of American history has never been partisan"

-his son William Cope Moyers has written a book

-Moyers himself has written a book

-capitalism is really, really bad

-Moyers and son will be in the Exhibit Hall to sell and sign their books right after this speech

-Rupert Murdoch has a secret weapon

-that secret weapon? MySpace.com

-a journalist's primary duty is to keep journalism "an open and non-discriminatory medium"

-the private market is bad

-the stock market is bad

-coal mining is bad

-Edward Murrow is good

-capitalism "breeds great destruction and inequality"

One statement that actually made me pause the Hannity podcast I'd been listening to is the following:

"It is up to you to fight for the one freedom that makes all other freedoms possible."

To those of you with the fortune of never having been sent into the lion's den: no opening prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, or tribute to our Armed Forces is heard at a leftist gathering. Freedom is rarely mentioned. When Moyers said the above statement, I tensed, ready to be surprised by a quick statement of gratitude to our troops. Surely he wasn't describing the mission of the 3,500 (according to FreePress) people surrounding me in the conference hall as a fight for freedom.

But he was. A bit later he said, "with truth in journalism thousands of American lives could have been saved." So there you have it: Journalists and bloggers are fighting for the lives of our troops. Journalists and bloggers are in a struggle where the freedom that makes all other freedoms possible is at stake.

Silly konservatives: we've had it backwards this whole time.