Bill Moyers Likens Washington to the Mob

Public advocate and progressive journalist Bill Moyers delivered an emboldening speech at the commemoration of Public Citizen’s 40 years of consumer advocacy last month, declaring: “Our politicians are little more than money launderers in the trafficking of power and policy—fewer than six degrees of separation from the spirit and tactics of Tony Soprano.”

Before making that comment, Moyers clarified that GOP today means “Guardians of Privilege,” but he didn’t limit his criticism to conservatives. Barack Obama earned a place in his cross hairs for calling bankers “fat cats” while simultaneously inviting them for $200 dinners at some of New York City’s glitziest restaurants. Moyers suggested that this might have something to do with the dissatisfied crowd camped outside Wall Street in Zuccotti Park.

—ARK

Bill Moyers via AlterNet:

Over these 40 years journalism for me has been a continuing course in adult education, and I came early on to consider the work you do as part of the curriculum—an open seminar on how government works—and for whom. Your muckraking investigations—into money and politics, corporate behavior, lobbying, regulatory oversight, public health and safety, openness in government, and consumer protection, among others—are models of accuracy and integrity. They drive home to journalists that while it is important to cover the news, it is more important to uncover the news. As one of my mentors said, “News is what people want to keep hidden; everything else is publicity.” And when a student asked the journalist and historian Richard Reeves for his definition of “real news”, he answered: “The news you and I need to keep our freedoms.” You keep reminding us how crucial that news is to democracy. And when the watchdogs of the press have fallen silent, your vigilant growls have told us something’s up.

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Bill Moyers, left, interviews Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former pastor, on PBS in 2008.