Annenberg Professor remembers Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers, former White House press secretary and one of television’s most honored journalists, died in a New York hospital at age 91 on Thursday. He is remembered for masterfully using a visual medium to illuminate a world of ideas. 

"Bill was a tireless advocate for and practitioner of fearless public media. His curiosity was boundless and his craft was an exemplar of principled journalism that exposed corruption, told important but neglected stories, and enriched people's lives,” Annenberg Professor Victor Pickard said in response to the news.

“He also believed deeply in the need for media reform. On several occasions, I watched Bill give rousing speeches against irresponsible news coverage. Over the years, I had a number of rewarding conversations with him about how we as a society might establish a new public media system that, as he once put it to me in an email, 'truly serves the people with the truths we need to know.' Bill never gave up the fight for creating media that actually serves democracy. I will continue to be inspired by his example."

Victor Pickard is the C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy at the Annenberg School for Communication, where he co-directs the Media, Inequality & Change (MIC) Center. His work is particularly concerned about the future of journalism and the role of media in a democratic society.