There's a Jeremiah among us and his name is Bill Moyers. He is a product of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, having worked for the president and witnessed firsthand many of that administration's achievements, including the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Higher Education Act, the Public Broadcasting Act and the Freedom of Information Act. Earlier, he was deputy director of the Peace Corps. He left government to practice as a journalist -- principally a maker of documentaries -- and in the decades since has contributed enormously to the public weal. Noting that right-wing polemicists have long tried to tar "fact-based reporting that undermines their worldview" as "liberal advocacy journalism," of which he is among the country's prominent practitioners, he responds, "All I can say is that if reporting what happens to ordinary people because of events beyond their control, and the indifference of government to their fate, is 'liberal,' I plead guilty." ... (Read the full review.)

Q. On the issue of broadcasting and media, you’re broadcasting on PBS. Do you think it has become, well, let’s say, to put it mildly, risk-averse? Go back forty years to the Carnegie Commission and the founding of public broadcasting. You were there in the White House. You were the press secretary for Lyndon Johnson. You came in in ’63, when he came in after Kennedy’s assassination?

A. Yes. The first two years, I was his general assistant and the fellow who was coordinating his domestic policy. I actually helped put together the task force that led to the creation of public broadcasting in—Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. I had left in January of ’67. But my first job, before he insisted—after three times I had said no—he insisted I become the press secretary, was dealing with issues like the environment, civil rights, public broadcasting and all of that. So, yes, I was present at the creation.