Famed TV Journalist Bill Moyers Dies At 91

By The Financial District
Jun 30
2 min read

Bill Moyers, the former White House press secretary who became one of television’s most honored journalists—masterfully using the visual medium to illuminate a world of ideas, has died at the age of 91, Frazier Moore reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Moyers received more than 30 Emmy Awards, 11 George Foster Peabody Awards, three George Polk Awards, and two Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Gold Baton Awards for career excellence in journalism. I Photo: Bill Moyers Facebook

Moyers died in a New York City hospital, according to longtime friend Tom Johnson, the former CNN CEO and Moyers’ assistant during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. Moyers’ son, William, said his father died at Memorial Sloan Kettering after a “long illness.”

Moyers' career spanned roles as a youthful Baptist minister, deputy director of the Peace Corps, press secretary to President Johnson, newspaper publisher, senior news analyst for The CBS Evening News, and chief correspondent for CBS Reports.

But it was in public television that he produced some of the most cerebral and provocative series in broadcast history.

He tackled subjects ranging from government corruption to modern dance, drug addiction to media consolidation, religion to environmental abuse.

In 1988, Moyers produced The Secret Government, a documentary about the Iran-Contra scandal, and captivated viewers with Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, a six-part series of interviews with the renowned scholar of religion and mythology.

In 1995, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.

In 1967, Moyers became publisher of Newsday, a Long Island-based newspaper, where he focused on news analysis, investigative reporting, and lively features. Within three years, the paper had won two Pulitzer Prizes.

He left in 1970 after a change in ownership.

That summer, he traveled 13,000 miles across the country and published a best-selling account of his journey, Listening to America: A Traveler Rediscovers His Country. CBS News and NBC also reported his death.