March, 08 2011, 07:44am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Mai Shiozaki w. 202-628-8669, ext. 116
On International Women's Day NOW Calls for End to the "War on Women"
Statement of NOW President Terry O'Neill
WASHINGTON
Today we celebrate International Women's Day, exactly 100 years after it was first established. Women have made incredible strides in that time -- both in the United States and around the globe. We cheer these advancements and thank the feminist activists whose dedication and fearlessness made them possible. At the same time, we are under no illusion about the road ahead, and we take this occasion to reaffirm our pledge that we will win full equality for all women.
The challenges before us are extraordinary. Many countries and cultures still view and treat women as second-class citizens. Human rights violations against women and girls take place in virtually every society. The global business of sex trafficking exploits millions of girls and women each year. In some parts of the world, rape is commonly used as a weapon of war. Even at one of the most triumphant moments in recent history -- the successful uprising in Egypt -- a woman reporter was targeted by a gang of men for a brutal sexual assault.
Here at home, we are no strangers to violence and injustice fueled by misogyny. Every two minutes in the U.S., someone, most likely a girl or woman, is sexually assaulted. Women continue to be paid less than men. They face discrimination at work and school. They are marginalized and objectified in the media. And now we face an all-out war on women's reproductive rights and their ability to access health care.
If conservatives are successful in their efforts, countless women will lose access to a wide range of services at family planning clinics, including mammograms, pap smears, screening for HIV and sexually transmitted infections, as well as contraception. Hospital emergency rooms will be allowed to let a pregnant woman die rather than perform a life-saving abortion. Public funding for abortion care will be permanently outlawed, and tax penalties will be imposed on companies and employees whose insurance covers abortion. The House of Representatives also voted to decimate funding for essential programs like prenatal care, women's and children's nutritional assistance, job training and college tuition assistance.
Sadly, the "war on women" isn't restricted to U.S. women. The House is poised to deliver a huge blow to the global women's health community by cutting international family planning assistance. This strike would include the elimination of all U.S. funds designated for UNFPA, the international development agency that works to reduce poverty and promote women's reproductive health in underserved areas around the world.
NOW calls on Congress and President Obama to vigorously defend the health and dignity of women everywhere. On International Women's Day, NOW also reiterates its call for the long-overdue U.S. ratification of CEDAW (the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) -- the most complete international agreement on basic human rights for women. Our message is simple: The individual atrocities and indignities committed against women every day will not stop until the larger war against our sex is ended and women's full equality is guaranteed.
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States. NOW has 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
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'We Have Lost a Giant': Broadcast Legend Bill Moyers Dies at 91
"Moyers believed that journalism should serve democracy, not just the bottom line."
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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."
So sad to hear of Bill Moyers passing. An amazing thinker, journalist, interlocutor, supporter of anyone trying to engage in serious dialogue on any front. Just a lovely, generous, and kind human. A great friend to @motherjones. www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...
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— Clara Jeffery (@clarajeffery.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 5:20 PM
"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."
Bill Moyers was enormously generous to @prospect.org over the years, mostly predating me. But I had the chance to speak with him a couple times and it was a great thrill. RIP.apnews.com/article/bill...
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— David Dayen (@ddayen.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 5:40 PM
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."
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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.
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Trump calls for the prosecution of “The Democrats” for leaking information about the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.If the leaked information is not accurate, why is Trump so mad about it?
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— Republican Accountability (@accountablegop.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Earlier Thursday, four sources familiar with the matter toldAxios that the president plans to restrict the sharing of classified information with members of Congress following the leaking of a preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency battle damage assessment. The DIA analysis suggested that the U.S. bombing only partially damaged Iran's nuclear facilities and set its nuclear program back by a few months.
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HAPPENING NOW: I’m hosting a shadow hearing on Trump’s undermining of due process.ICE is ramping up arrests at immigration courthouses, attacking the legal immigration system, and generating enormous fear in communities across America.Tune in now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqVC...
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— Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (@jayapal.house.gov) June 26, 2025 at 5:44 AM
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— Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (@jayapal.house.gov) June 26, 2025 at 9:31 AM
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