'We Have Lost a Giant': Broadcast Legend Bill Moyers Dies at 91

The life and work of journalist Bill Moyers was being celebrated across the world of independent and public media on Thursday as news of his death at the age of 91 spread across the United States and beyond.

"RIP Bill Moyers, one of the greatest of the greats,"NIcho Press Watch's Dan Froomkin said on social media as remembrances and celebrations of the legendary broadcaster, democracy defender, and longtime Common Dreamscontributor poured in.

Moyers died of complications from prostate cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

He began his long media career as a teenager, reporting for his local newspaper in Texas. He was also an ordained Baptist minister and former President Lyndon B. Johnson's press secretary.

"He believed deeply in the power and potential of public media, and he set the standard for public broadcasting by telling stories you couldn't find anywhere else."

A joint statement from the LBJ Presidential Library, his foundation, and the Johnson family noted that "Moyers played a central role in developing and promoting Johnson's Great Society agenda, an ambitious domestic policy program to eliminate poverty, expand civil rights, and improve education and healthcare nationwide."

Moyers left the White House and returned to journalism in 1967. He served as publisher of Newsday, then launched his award-winning television career, from which he retired in 2015. His website,BillMoyers.com, went into "archive mode" in 2017.

With his television programming—much of which aired on PBS—Moyers took "his cameras and microphones to cities and towns where unions, community organizations, environmental groups, tenants rights activists, and others were waging grassroots campaigns for change," Peter Dreier wrote for Common Dreams a decade ago.

In a comment to Common Dreams after Moyer's death, The Nation's John Nichols, who co-founded the group Free Press and co-authored The Death and Life of American Journalism, highlighted the late journalist's work during the era of former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"There were journalism and democracy campaigners before Bill Moyers, and there will be journalism and democracy campaigners who carry the movement forward now that he has passed," Nichols said. "But every honest history will record that the modern media reform movement—with its commitment to diversity, to equity, and to defending the sort of speak-truth-to-power reporting that exposes injustice, inequality, authoritarianism, and militarism—was made possible by Bill's courageous advocacy during the Bush-Cheney years. He raised the banner—as a former White House press secretary, a bestselling author, and a nationally recognized journalist and PBS host—and we rallied around it."

Free Press president and co-CEO Craig Aaron said in a statement that "Bill Moyers was a legend who lived up to his reputation. Moyers believed that journalism should serve democracy, not just the bottom line. He believed deeply in the power and potential of public media, and he set the standard for public broadcasting by telling stories you couldn't find anywhere else. He always stood up to bullies—including those who come forward in every generation to try to crush public media and end its independence. We can honor his memory by continuing that fight."

Many journalists weighed in on social media, sharing stories of his "very generous heart," and how he was "the rarest combination of curiosity, kindness, honesty, and conviction."

"Bill Moyers was a close friend, a mentor, and a role model. In a media world where there's almost no solidarity, he guided my career and was an unwavering supporter of our accountability journalism at The Lever," said the outlet's founder, David Sirota, on Thursday. "This is terrible news. We have lost a giant."

"There's this idea of 'never meet your heroes'—and in my experience, I think that aphorism holds up for the most part," Sirota added. "But it was the opposite with Bill—as great a journalism hero as he was in public, he was just as great a mentor in private. He truly was the best of us."

Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation's editorial director and publisher, said Thursday that "Moyers distinguished himself as a journalist by refusing to be a stenographer for the powerful. Instead of providing yet another venue for the predictable preening of establishment leaders, Moyers gave a platform to dissenting voices from both the left and the right. Instead of covering the news from the narrow perspective of the political and corporate elite, Moyers gave voice to the powerless and the issues that affect them."

"We journalists are of course obliged to cover the news," Moyers said at an event hosted by the magazine in Washington, D.C., according to vanden Heuvel. "But our deeper mission is to uncover the news that powerful people would prefer to keep hidden."

Beyond the media world, Moyers was also remembered fondly. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Thursday that "Bill Moyers, a friend, public servant, and outstanding journalist, has passed away. As an aide to President Johnson, Bill pushed the president in a more progressive direction. As a journalist, he had the courage to explore issues that many ignored. Bill will be sorely missed."

While Moyers has now passed, his legacy lives on in his mountain of work, more than 1,000 hours of which were collected in 2023 by the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, a collaboration between the Library of Congress and Boston's GBH. The Bill Moyers Collection is available online at AmericanArchive.org.