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« Kerry To Sail Again? | Main | The Stakes » October 20, 2006Bill Moyers Threatens to Sue a BloggerLeft-wing PBS journalist Bill Moyers is threatening to sue a blogger, claiming defamation because the blogger reprinted a statement first published by one of Moyers' interview subjects, who claims Moyers said something that Moyers says he never said. The Moyers interview subject claimed the following: "When Moyers interviewed me for the documentary last spring, he very candidly told me that he is a liberal Democrat and intended for the documentary to influence the November elections to bring control of Congress back to the Democrats."Moyers' lawyers argue that he never said such a thing, and publication of the falsehood defames Moyers' good name as a credible and fair journalist and makes him look to be a partisan hack. Which he's not. cough So they're threatening the blogger, Jimmy Akin, for republishing the statement. Because Moyers is an objective, unbiased journalist, not a left-wing propagandist. Er, except Moyers is already perceived broadly as a left-winger, so even if Moyers really never said what he is accused of saying, it's not like the claim some how damages his image. I think it Rather enhances it, especially for those on the Left who like Moyers' left-wing journalism. Of course, almost nobody had read the alleged Moyers statement before he had his lawyers sent a threatening letter to the blogger ... and then the blogger posted the letter ... and then Instapundit linked to it, and now other bloggers also have started linking to it, spreading it far and wide to lots and lots of people, who - even if it isn't true - will weigh it against Moyers' decades of work on behalf of liberal causes and liberal politicians and figure that it probably is true. And, before you know it, whether you said it or not, Bill Moyers, it will become part of that great steaming mass of stuff that everyone "knows" is true about you even if it isn't. Dumb move, Bill Moyers, dumb move. (Memo to Moyers' lawyers: Don't bother sending me a threatening letter for republishing the contested quote. I'm commenting on a news story here and the quote containing the alleged statement is central to that story. See also: The First Amendment). Update: In a related development, Bill Moyers today said that if it can be proven that he's a left-wing hack rather than a fair and objective journalist, he'd go on PBS, or maybe NPR, or possibly DailyKos.com or even Air America if it's still around, and tell everyone - left, right and moderate - the news. Said Moyers: "If my objectivity is not what you were led to believe, I'd like to break that story." /snark Posted in Journalism & Media
Comments
Only to the most rabid of right-wingers is Moyers considered a "left-wing partisan hack." Posted by: brittney at October 20, 2006 8:07 AMMoyers claims that there are witnesses to his alleged remarks and that Akin reportedly tape recorded the interview Moyers-Akin interview, yet Akin has not produced a tape of the interview/remarks. This seems to be the most important fact, and your failure to "report" these facts undermines the value of your report. Posted by: Meg McGowan at October 20, 2006 11:24 AMI can't remember reading something more ridiculous. Posted by: Dan at October 20, 2006 12:02 PMI've noticed for about the last 8 or 9 years that it's been the rights party line that any investigative jornalist is by definition a "lefty radical". I notice that my last post is "being held for aproval by the bolg owner". I guess that's to make sure all comments on this blog are "fair and balanced(TM)". iaintbacchus, you gave me all of three minutes to notice and publish your comment. Not comments - not even mine - are published instantaneously. All comments are held to screen out porn/gambling/drug spam. I am not perpetually logged in and watching for comments - some folks wait 12 hours before their comment is published. You waited three whole long minutes. You have the patience of my four-year-old. I don't reject comments based on content I disagree with - if you'll read through the thousands of comments on this blog you'll find about half of them are from the center-left point of view. I do reject comments that contain personal attack, foul language or are unrelated to the topic of the blog post. As for the issue of the post, John Stossell is an investigative reporter and nobody calls him a left-wing hack. Moyers' involvement with and, through his foundation, his funding of left-wing causes and publications, is well-known and documented. Oh, by the way iaintbacchus, the word you were looking for is "censored" not "censured." Posted by: Bill Hobbs at October 20, 2006 12:41 PMBill, I apologize. I assummed that you used prescreening like a talkshow host uses a kill switch. I was wrong. Well, if you don't like the message, I guess you're stuck with the Bush playbook of attack the messenger. Bill Moyers is a very well respected journalist who is far from a hack of any description. In fact, he has consistently attacked the Democratic party as well as the Republican party. I daresay, I cannot think of a single American journalist who is more respected for his fairness and objectivity than Mr. Moyers. Posted by: Mike C. Miller at October 20, 2006 3:58 PM"John Stossell is an investigative reporter and nobody calls him a left-wing hack" Not anymore, they certainly did before he became a Libertarian. Posted by: Sean Braisted at October 20, 2006 4:19 PMWhen you accuse a man of saying something he didn't say, you open yourself to a slander or libel suit. I hope he gets this guy good. Moyers is a fairminded liberal, as opposed to a closed minded conservative. Posted by: terry at October 20, 2006 6:48 PMOne of those supporting Bill Moyers' postion asked for a tape. Where has he been the last 20 years. In that time, most jurisdictions have OUTLAWED taping conversations without the approval, provable in court, of all parties to the conversation. This has empowered the powerful and depowered the week. Do not talk to Bill Moyers unless you can tape the conversation too. Posted by: Louis Spielman at October 21, 2006 12:22 AMThank you for printing this. As you said, most people probably wouldn't have known about it before Moyers' lawyers sent a letter. So, I read what they wrote and then what Mr. Akin's lawyers wrote back. From what I've read about libel law, it does seem like Mr. Akin could be sued for what he wrote - and, it looks like the burden of proof would be on him to prove what you so KINDLY reprinted. When you read what Mr. Moyers wrote to repudiate the statement, (which you were kind enough NOT to reprint so allow me to pull key phrases out: "You are not telling the truth. In fact, what you wrote in the ISA newsletter is an outright lie." "I said nothing of the sort -- nothing. To the contrary, I told you that I am an independent - members of the crew remember my saying that to you specifically (there were, remember, three other people in the room.) You yourself taped the entire session with your own recorder; show me where in the transcript such a conversation occurred." "Your conservative evangelical brothers who were also interviewed in the documentary – from Richard Cizik to Tri Robinson to Allan Johnson (not a liberal among them) have written in praise of how they were treated." "You and you alone have chosen to bear false witness to our conversation and to defame – in your own words –the ethics and journalistic balance of the documentary."), I can't believe you would talk about this without getting more information - from both sides. Where is tape from the interview subject? If you get the tape, you can go ahead and break the story like the Rather story was broken -- which you really seem to want to do. (BTW - I always wondered - even though the documents Rather used proved to be a forgery, what about the CONTENTS of the documents?) But, nothing else, huh? I guess I actually expected you would want to add to a story. I am so glad Mr. Moyers is still doing some journalism. I was afraid when he retired from NOW that I would be stuck reading hacks. Posted by: jillbryant at October 21, 2006 2:22 AMThe commenters here are pretty stupid if they can't even get it right that Moyers didn't interview Akin. Posted by: Hack at October 23, 2006 11:23 AMHack, thank you for saying what I was thinking as I read through the comments. Posted by: Mary Kay at October 23, 2006 11:39 AMAkin's only involvement in this affair was blogging about something that Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, who was interviewed by Moyers, had said about Moyers. Akin was not interviewed by Moyers and had no contact with him whatsoever until Moyers' Gestapo (i.e. his lawyers) wrote Akin and told him he was skating on thin ice for reporting what Beisner had said. You can read the whole story on jimmyakin.com. Posted by: Mark Johnson at October 29, 2006 9:43 PMPost a comment
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