Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Bill Moyers Continues Series on Intersection of Money and Politics

Moyers & Company Show 102: On Crony Capitalism from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.



Speaking of issues of integrity and leadership (I'm building here on what I just posted about Bethune-Cookman University): Bill Moyers continues with his extremely important new series of hard-hitting, truth-telling commentary on the American political scene.  His last show focuses on the corrosive effects of crony capitalism on American politics and American leaders today.

At Alternet, Moyers provides a summary of the program's analysis.  As he notes, the show interviews Ronald Reagan's former budget director David Stockman, who maintains,

Crony capitalism is about the aggressive and proactive use of political resources, lobbying, campaign contributions, influence-peddling of one type or another to gain something from the governmental process that wouldn't otherwise be achievable in the market. And as the time has progressed over the last two or three decades, I think it's gotten much worse. Money dominates politics.

Moyers is, to my mind, a national treasure--a journalist of unparalleled integrity who has continued digging for and telling the truth in season and out of season through years of seismic shifts in American politics and journalism, which have led, in many quarters, to the collapse of journalism to ideological doublespeak crafted by political leaders who are themselves functioning as mouthpieces for the very rich.

We would do well to listen to Bill Moyers before it's too late.  If, that is, we believe we have a culture worth saving.

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