His conversations with Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth left a lifelong mark on me, and how I think about the stories we tell about ourselves. Campbell was riveting but would not have been so without Moyers’ radical curiosity. Well worth the rewatch.
Bill Moyers, the former White House press secretary turned broadcast journalist who became a mainstay on PBS, has died at the age of 91.
Moyers’ son, William, said his father died after a “long illness” at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York.
Born in Hugo, Oklahoma, in 1934, Moyers started working for Lyndon B. Johnson during the then-senator’s 1954 re-election campaign. In 1956, he graduated from the University of Texas and would become Johnson’s assistant and eventually deputy director.
After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, he became a key official for then-President Lyndon B. Johnson and in 1965 became White House press secretary.
Moyers left the White House in 1966 as the Johnson administration was increasingly consumed by the Vietnam War. He became the publisher of Newsday, a Long Island newspaper.
In the early 1970s, Moyers turned to television, where he would spend more than 40 years as a broadcast journalist for PBS and CBS.
For PBS, Moyers hosted, wrote and/or produced a variety of programs, including, “Bill Moyers Journal,” “Now,” “Moyers & Company” and “Joseph Campbell and The Power of the Myth.”
Marking his passing, PBS President Paula Kerger released a statement calling Moyers a “giant of public media” who “fought for excellence and honesty in our public discourse.”
Throughout his career, Moyers earned more than 30 Emmys, including a lifetime achievement award in 2006.