Latest news with #GreatSociety
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill Moyers, former press secretary turned acclaimed journalist, dead at 91
Bill Moyers, a former press secretary to President Lyndon B. Johnson who turned into a longtime broadcast journalist and champion of public media, has died at age 91, his family confirmed to CNN. The acclaimed journalist's son, William Moyers, said he died of complications from a long illness. His wife of nearly 71 years, Judith Davidson Moyers, was by his side. Moyers, who was once described by Walter Cronkite as 'the conscience' of the country, was a public television pioneer, leading multiple installments of 'Bill Moyers' Journal' on PBS stations in the 1970s and again in the late 2000s. His storied career also included chapters as the publisher of Newsday; a presidential debate moderator; a correspondent at CBS News; and analyst at NBC News. Through five decades on the air, 'he reached the heights of excellence in journalism,' former CNN president Tom Johnson said, noting that many compared Moyers to 'the Edward R. Murrow of those times.' Johnson was an assistant to Moyers during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, when Moyers served as press secretary and one of the most trusted advisors to the president. Moyers was instrumental in setting up the task forces that led to Johnson's creation of the Great Society programs of the 1960s. 'At the root of the Great Society was only an idea,' Moyers wrote in his memoir, that 'free men and women can work with their government to make things better.' In a 2019 interview with CNN, Moyers — who was still busy analyzing the news, then at his own website — said that 'for the first time in my long life,' he feared for America. 'I was born in the Depression, lived through World War II, have been a part of politics and government for all these years,' he said, before observing that 'a society, a democracy can die of too many lies. And we're getting close to that terminal moment unless we reverse the obsession with lies that are being fed around the country.' Still, Moyers said, 'do facts matter anymore? I think they do.' Throughout his decades-long career, Moyers received 35 Emmy Awards, two Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Awards, nine Peabody Awards and three George Polk Awards. Moyers also received the first-ever Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the American Film Institute.
CNN
2 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Bill Moyers, former press secretary turned acclaimed journalist, dead at 91
Bill Moyers, a former press secretary to President Lyndon B. Johnson who turned into a longtime broadcast journalist and champion of public media, has died at age 91, his family confirmed to CNN. The acclaimed journalist's son, William Moyers, said he died of complications from a long illness. His wife of nearly 71 years, Judith Davidson Moyers, was by his side. Moyers, who was once described by Walter Cronkite as 'the conscience' of the country, was a public television pioneer, leading multiple installments of 'Bill Moyers' Journal' on PBS stations in the 1970s and again in the late 2000s. Through five decades on the air, 'he reached the heights of excellence in journalism,' former CNN president Tom Johnson said, noting that many compared Moyers to 'the Edward R. Murrow of those times.' Johnson was an assistant to Moyers during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, when Moyers served as press secretary and one of the most trusted advisors to the president. Moyers was instrumental in setting up the task forces that led to Johnson's creation of the Great Society programs of the 1960s. 'At the root of the Great Society was only an idea,' Moyers wrote in his memoir, that 'free men and women can work with their government to make things better.' This is a developing story and will be updated.
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Bill Moyers, Presidential Aide and Veteran of Public TV, Dies at 91
Bill Moyers, who served as chief spokesman for President Lyndon B. Johnson during the American military buildup in Vietnam and then went on to a long and celebrated career as a broadcast journalist, returning repeatedly to the subject of the corruption of American democracy by money and power, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 91. His son William Cope Moyers confirmed the death, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. To Americans who grew up after the 1960s, Mr. Moyers was known above all as an unusual breed of television correspondent and commentator. He was once described by Peter J. Boyer, the journalist and author, as 'a rare and powerful voice, a kind of secular evangelist.' But before that, Mr. Moyers was President Johnson's closest aide. Present on Air Force One in Dallas when Johnson took the oath of office after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Mr. Moyers played a pivotal role in the inception of Johnson's Great Society programs, and was the president's top administrative assistant and press secretary when Johnson sent hundreds of thousands of troops to fight in the Vietnam War. Mr. Moyers resigned from the administration in December 1966 at age 32, finalizing an irreparable falling out between the hot-tempered, flamboyant Johnson, who demanded unwavering loyalty, and the cool, self-contained Mr. Moyers, whom Johnson had denied several foreign policy positions. The two men never reconciled. In his 1971 memoir, 'The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963-1969,' Johnson mentioned Mr. Moyers only fleetingly, reducing him to little more than a footnote. In his four decades as a television correspondent and commentator, Mr. Moyers, an ordained Baptist minister, explored issues ranging from poverty, violence, income inequality and racial bigotry to the role of money in politics, threats to the Constitution and climate change. His documentaries and reports won him the top prizes in television journalism, more than 30 Emmy Awards and comparisons to Edward R. Murrow, his revered predecessor at CBS. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
The GOP Is Still Trying to Repeal Obamacare
For decades, politicians in both parties have operated on the belief that Social Security is the third rail of American politics, dangerous if not fatal to touch. Since the 1990s, Medicare has seemed equally inviolate. The budget bill Republicans are hoping to bring to the Senate floor this week will test whether Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act now also belong on that list. Republicans have long sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, and retrench Medicaid, a joint federal-state partnership created by the Great Society Congress in 1965 to provide health insurance to the poor.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump has just gambled his second presidency on a potential war with Iran
Many years after he left the presidency, Lyndon Johnson lamented how Vietnam consumed his entire term. 'That bitch of a war killed the lady I really loved – the Great Society,' he reportedly said. It did not matter that he had helped the country grieve the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and signed landmark civil rights and voting rights laws. People forgot that he created Medicare and Medicaid. His decision to escalate the war meant that chants of 'Hey! Hey! LBJ! How many kids did you kill today' echoed for generations. Martin Luther King Jr. broke with Johnson despite his civil rights accomplishments. President Donald Trump may not realize it now, but he did the same thing with his presidency. The 'One Big, Beautiful Bill'? It's now an afterthought. This had come after more than a week of teasing what his decision would be. As late as Friday, Trump said he would make his decision within two weeks. Forget about his relationship with Elon Musk turning sour and DOGE. Forget Trump's revenge tour against his perceived enemies like law firms. Forget his war on DEI and transgender people. Forget any judicial nominations he might make. If the January 6 riot will be the defining moment of Trump's first term in the White House, the second sentence of his obituary will be his decision to fully side with Israel on Iran to the extent of using massive U.S. military might without any apparent direct provocation. Trump also shares a parallel with another president. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson ran for re-election on the slogan of, 'He kept us out of war,' to highlight how he had kept the country out of World War I, only to have the United States enter the war the year afterward. Trump preached that he would be the candidate who would not send the nation into war. Last year, Trump spent one of his final campaign stops in Warren, Mich., making an appeal to Muslim Americans who loathed Kamala Harris and Joe Biden's support for Israel amid its assault on Gaza. 'If Kamala wins, only death and destruction await because she is the candidate of endless wars,' he said. 'I am the candidate of peace. I am peace. But I need every Muslim American in Michigan to get the hell out and vote.' Muslim and Arab-American voters rewarded him handsomely by swinging to the right. Now, Trump has fully thrown his support behind Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long promoted the idea that Iran was just weeks away from obtaining a nuclear weapon, in a way that Biden and Harris never did. In fact, Trump knows how wars can be a drag just by looking at what happened in Biden's presidency beyond his support for Israel. After a honeymoon period, Biden's approval ratings tumbled precipitously after his exit from Afghanistan. Trump made hay out of this and even invited the families of US servicemembers who died during the exit to speak at the Republican National Convention last year in Milwaukee. Trump's decision to get behind Netanyahu against Iran should surprise nobody. Ten years ago this month, when he descended the golden elevator to announce his campaign for president, he excoriated Barack Obama for the nuclear agreement his administration and U.S. allies brokered with Iran, saying 'He makes that deal, Israel maybe won't exist very long. It's a disaster, and we have to protect Israel.' In 2018, Trump withdrew from the nuclear agreement and levied sanctions against Iran. He ordered the strike that killed top Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani. While Trump had made some overtures to Iran in his second administration, those look to be for naught now. Despite Trump's stated desire to be a 'peace president,' he will be remembered as the president who ordered a massive U.S. strike on Iran without direct provocation. Whether it leads to war or simply a proxy battle between Iran, the U.S. and their respective allies, he has opened the door for a new chapter of American involvement in the Middle East after he had specifically excoriated the neoconservatives in his party. Indeed, Trump need not look any further than the most recent Republican presidents elected before him — both George H.W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush have legacies defined largely by their wars against Saddam Hussein. Where the elder Bush's war is now remembered as a sign of his competence and mastery of foreign policy, the disaster of George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq in 2003 tarred the rest of his presidency. Only now, after Republicans threaten his humanitarian programs like PEPFAR, has Bush the younger undergone a rehabilitation of reputation. The president's decision to strike Iran will not just exist in a vacuum either. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson both threw their support behind Trump's decision. But they do not recognize that this will make their legislative goals harder. While they have utterly failed in their constitutional authority to keep a president's military authority in check, this will inevitably require some type of congressional action, even if it is simply appropriating money for the war effort, either for American troops or to support Israel and other American proxies. That will take time off the calendar to pass their and Trump's proposed 'One Big, Beautiful Bill.' Morever, it will likely turn more of the public against the legislation because it will seem trivial compared to the need to mobilize resources to defend the United States. This is not to say that Trump is guaranteed to be remembered as a failure, though his approval rating continues to tumble even on policies where Americans supported him like immigration. But it does mean that Iran will define every other aspect of his presidency. Whether Trump recognizes it, he is now married to military strikes and divorce will be much harder here than it was for his first two wives.
