Bill Moyers Journal

Series Overview

Bill Moyers Journal is an American television current affairs program that covered an array of current affairs and human issues, including but not limited to economics, history, literature, religion, philosophy, science, and most frequently politics. Originally, Bill Moyers executive produced, wrote and hosted the Journal. WNET in New York produced it and PBS aired it from 1972 to 1976. In 1979, following a nearly three-year hiatus, many presidential members of PBS announced that Bill Moyers Journal would return for a second series. The second series covered a broader range of issues in depth. This included election coverage and documentary footage from several U.S. states, among them Florida, Texas, Illinois, D.C. and Nevada. In addition, among its pop-culture coverage, the Journal reported on the 25th anniversary of the premiere of the long-running NBC talk program The Tonight Show. Like the first installment, the second one was produced by WNET in New York City, and was aired on PBS. However, the second installment and consequently the series ended in 1981. For the third time, Bill Moyers Journal returned to television on April 25, 2007. The debut episode was "Buying The War", which demonstrated how the commercial U.S. media served as an unwitting partner to the Bush administration in convincing the American people that the Iraq War was legitimate and necessary.