A Daily Reid: A good man has gone. Rest in peace, Bill Moyers

A seminal broadcaster and a human rights champion, Bill Moyers was the best of the mainstream media

My mom used to watch Bill Moyers, so I did, too.

Philomena controlled The TV … meaning the television in the family room, which up until I was in high school was the only one we kids had access to. She had a small TV in her bedroom, which I can now admit I would sneak into her room and watch, sprawled out across her bed, which I carefully refluffed and reassembled when I was done. But when she was home, and not at one of her three jobs, The TV was made for the nightly news, the Sunday shows, her favorite primetime shows (Dallas, Knots Landing, Fantasy Island (I can still hear her giggling uncontrollably every time Ricardo Montalbán yelled “Tattoo! Tattoo!” as if she was hearing it for the first time) The Love Boat, The Jeffersons and All in the Family among them, plus any movie with Harry Belafonte or Sidney Poitier in it, and Nightline, which I got to watch with her, starting in the sixth grade.

And also PBS, where Bill Moyers was The Man and Bill Moyers’ Journal was must see TV. Here’s a part of his obituary from the Associated Press, as he has passed away at the ripe old age of 91.

Bill Moyers, the former White House press secretary who became one of television’s most honored journalists, masterfully using a visual medium to illuminate a world of ideas, died Thursday at age 91.

Moyers died in a New York City hospital, according to longtime friend Tom Johnson, the former CEO of CNN and an assistant to Moyers during Lyndon B. Johnson's administration. He did not cite Moyers' cause of death.

Moyer’s career ranged from youthful Baptist minister to deputy director of the Peace Corps, from Johnson’s press secretary to newspaper publisher, senior news analyst for “The CBS Evening News” and chief correspondent for “CBS Reports.”

But it was for public television that Moyers produced some of TV’s most cerebral and provocative series. In hundreds of hours of PBS programs, he proved at home with subjects ranging from government corruption to modern dance, from drug addiction to media consolidation, from religion to environmental abuse.

In 1988, Moyers produced “The Secret Government” about the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration and simultaneously published a book under the same name. Around that time, he galvanized viewers with “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth,” a series of six one-hour interviews with the prominent religious scholar. The accompanying book became a best-seller.

His televised chats with poet Robert Bly almost single-handedly launched the 1990s Men’s Movement, and his 1993 series “Healing and the Mind” had a profound impact on the medical community and on medical education.

In a medium that supposedly abhors “talking heads” — shots of subject and interviewer talking — Moyers came to specialize in just that. He once explained why: “The question is, are the talking heads thinking minds and thinking people? Are they interesting to watch? I think the most fascinating production value is the human face.”

What was great about Mr. Moyers, apart from his very human face and soothing voice, plus his eclectic work bio, which I can absolutely relate to, was his humanity. He never shied away from asserting it, for fear of being viewed as not “objective.” Here’s an example from way back in 2015:

And here he is in an excellent interview with the Great Lawrence O’Donnell, talking about the then-president, Donald Trump 1.0 and the deep, open sore that exists in place of his soul.

Bill Moyers was one of one. His crystal clear voice and integrity are an example for all of us who are toiling out here in these media streets.

Deepest condolences to Bill Moyers’ family. May his memory be a blessing … and a lesson.