Adios Moyers

Last night Bill Moyers said goodbye to his PBS show "NOW" with a focus on the debilitating effects big media is having on our democracy. You can catch a rerun of his last show on Sunday morning at 8:00 AM in New Mexico, or read the transcript and other materials at the NOW website. Next season, NOW will be reduced to a half-hour program hosted by David Brancaccio.

Recently, Moyers won the Global Environment Citizen Award from the Ceter for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. In his acceptance speech he gave a hair-raising assessment of where we stand today:

"One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts."

If you're feeling sufficiently balanced and centered, give a read to his entire speech, entitled "Battlefield Earth."