BRINGING BALANCE

"and I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance...oh wait, wrong movie"

I never watched much of Bill Moyers when he was on PBS and after reading a recent transcript of a speech Moyers gave, I wish I had watched more. Moyers, who is currently under blatant partisan attack by one of the many Bush cronies (unfortunately, now heading the Corp. for Public Broadcasting), takes on the current reality of news journalism in America - one that is beholden onto the government to define what is "news" and what is not, casting serious doubt that today's "independent" journalism really is.

Notable quotables:

"Hear me: an unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda is less inclined to put up a fight, ask questions and be skeptical. And just as a democracy can die of too many lies, that kind of orthodoxy can kill us, too."

"We knew that the success of NOW’s journalism was creating a backlash in Washington. The more compelling our journalism, the angrier became the radical right of the Republican Party. That’s because the one thing they loathe more than liberals is the truth. And the quickest way to be damned by them as liberal is to tell the truth."

"Although apparently he never watched the broadcast -- I guess he couldn’t take the diversity -- Senator Trent Lott came out squealing like a stuck pig when, after the mid-term elections in 2002, I described what was likely to happen now that all three branches of government were about to be controlled by one party"

""Let me assure you that I take in stride attacks by the radical right wingers who have not given up demonizing me although I retired over six months ago. They’ve been after me for years now, and I suspect they will be stomping on my grave to make sure I don’t come back from the dead. I should point out to them that one of our boys pulled it off some two thousand years ago after the Pharisees, the Sadducees and Caesar surrogates thought they had shut him up for good. I won’t be expecting that kind of miracle, but I should put my detractors on notice, they might just compel me out of the rocking chair and back into the anchor chair."

I like this last comment especially because Moyers is basically throwing down on the Right, daring them to come after him. It's the news anchor equivalent of him spitting at their feet, squaring them in the eye and declaring, "What? B----, I'm platinum."

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ALSO

Like many people for whom the original Star Wars was a transformative moment in our childhood, I figured I'd shlump my way to Revenge of the Sith since Lucas could shoot a pile of doo doo and call it "Episode 7" and I'd still go, like cows to the slaughterhouse.

But lo and behold, so far, the advance buzz on Sith has been good. Real good. Stunningly good. In fact, no less than an authority than the NY Times' A.O. Scott has called the film, "This is by far the best film in the more recent trilogy, and also the best of the four episodes Mr. Lucas has directed. That's right (and my inner 11-year-old shudders as I type this): it's better than "Star Wars."

Somewhere, a 35 year old man wearing a "There Is No Try, Only Do" t-shirt is swearing a blood oath to hunt down Scott and torture him with the Ewok Song until he recants such blasphemy.

I'm now even more genuinely excited to see the film though I don't think it's worth while to find a babysitter for El-Boogie just to wait in line with hundreds of other folks this weekend.

--O.W.