Mr. Bill Moyers Responds

As previously indicated, equal space would be given for any response that Bill Moyers chose to send me in response to the reply that Dr. E. Calvin Beisner made to the demands Mr. Moyers issued through his lawyer.

I recently received the following e-mail:

There have been posts on your site about the exchange between Bill
Moyers and Dr. Calvin Beisner.  Attached is a PDF of the latest email
sent from Bill Moyers.  As of the time I am emailing you, Dr. Beisner
has not responded to the attached email.  We ask that you post it so
that your visitors can have a complete picture of their correspondence.
Thank you.

Best,

Rick Byrne
Director of Communications
Public Affairs Television

I therefore excerpt a portion of Moyers' e-mail equal in length to what was excerpted from Beisner's newsletter. Following it will be a link to the original PDF:

-----Original Message-----
From: Moyers, Bill
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 3:21 PM
To: Calvin Beisner
Subject:

Dear Calvin Beisner:

As this weekend passed and there was no response from you to my urgent request that you retract the lie that you have been spreading about me, my anger gave way to sorrow. There was only silence from you as your defamation raced across Cyberspace. By Sunday evening I had concluded that you were waiting for the damage to accumulate, knowing that with the Internet, a lie circles the earth instantly while truth stumbles to its feet.

And this saddened me. I had not wanted to believe that you are just as eager as your allies on the Right to practice the polemics of personal destruction. I knew that you were the designated spokesman on environmental matters for the religious wing of the political right, which is why they sent me to you. But I came to Florida in good faith, and I left believing that if you and I had such a cordial conversation, perhaps the sorely-needed dialogue among evangelical Christians in America might actually be possible. For so long the invective of the Falwells, Robertsons, and Dobsons has poisoned relations with other Christians. The transformation of Christianity into a political religion – a weapon of partisan combat – weighs heavily on the soul of democracy. I read Ann Coulter, listen to Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage – and I do not recognize the God they are talking about or the people they demonize, myself included. The great heart of Jesus seems missing from their worldview. The Golden Rule is tarnished and twisted. The Bible is turned into a partisan tract. And the Beatitudes are blasphemed. The profound themes of our historic faith – justice, mercy, love, compassion, redemption, and forgiveness – are swept away in the toxic dust of their vituperation. The propagation of the Gospel – the Good News – has been replaced by the polemics of personal destruction. As I listen and read all this, I think to myself: If this is what the world sees and hears of our faith today, no wonder Jesus weeps.

CONTINUE READING IN ORIGINAL PDF.

Comments

[Mark Wyzalek]

I suspect Mr. Moyers thinks that by dragging others down he will lift himself up.

[Joy Schoenberger]

Ouch! If Bill Moyers is telling the truth here, it seems that Beisner has some explaining to do.

Mark, why do you assume Moyer is the one who's lying? At this point, I think it's anyone's guess.

I just hope the two of them can work it out, and that whoever is lying will be adult enough to admit it publicly.

[PNP, OP]

"...the toxic dust of their vituperation."

Jimmy, you need to put a Deep and Think warning on this post! LOL

Fr. Philip

[LarryD]

Looks like someone blew the dust off their thesaurus for this letter....

[paul zummo]

If Moyers wanted to maintain the facade that he is not a partisan hack, he would have done well not to have written that final paragraph - a partisan piece of boilerplate, anti-conservative fluffery that shows him to be the partisan leftist he truly is. I cannot take someone seriously who lumps Rush and Hannity with Savage and Coulter. That might play on Daily Kos, but anyone with a functioning brain can recognize that the man does not know what he's talking about.

Moyers should just leave well enough alone, because he is sinking further into the abyss at this point.

[BillyHW]

Mark, why do you assume Moyer is the one who's lying?

Well, he *is* a journalist, isn't he?

[Curious]

Ahh... the polemics of personal destruction. I seem to remember someone in the past railing against the "politics of personal destruction", while proceeding to smear his enemies.

Each time BM issues a fatwa (I mean letter), he sounds more and more like a limousine liberal.

[Steve]

No doubt, Moyers is a die in the wool, christian hating liberal and hates the right. But that isn't the issue. The issue is - who's lying? Did Moyers say it or didn't he. No need to bash him - unless it's determined that he did say it. If Moyers letter is true then it would seem that Beisner is on weak ground. I'd like to hear his side.

[David B.]

"I do not recognize the God they are talking about or the people they demonize, myself included."

Wait a minute. Did he just say he doesn't recognize himself?

[Mike Petrik]

"Mark, why do you assume Moyer is the one who's lying?"

Now, I have no idea who is lying, or mistaken, or whatever. But if the foregoing inquiry was in response to Mark Wyzalek's post, it seems off the mark to me. As I read Mark's comment, it had nothing to do with the comparative veracity of Mr. Moyers versus Dr. Beisner. It made the completely independent observation that Moyers' letter included gratuitous, and actually unfair, cheap shots at uninvolved third parties.
Am I missing something here?

[SDG]

Wait a minute. Did he just say he doesn't recognize himself?

As demonized by those on the other side, yes.

[Marty]

I also don't know who's lying here. Perhaps both parties have "stretched the truth". But I agree with Mark. Moyers is even more achingly sanctimonious in his letter than he is in his TV show, and I had not thought that possible.

[John E]

Mr. Moyers states:
"The Right relentlessly
employs lies, deceit, distortions, exaggerations, and mischaracterizations to
intimidate journalists and discredit those with whom they disagree."

"I had not wanted to think that you were willing to join the right wing's ongoing
crusade against journalists."

What was the original complaint again? That he was called liberal, unbalanced, and unobjective? Well, I think that's settled!

[David B.]

SDG,

'twas a joke, my friend. :-)

[Mike Petrik]

John E makes a relevant observation. Moyers' letter was bizarrely crafted given the nature of his claim.

[Jared Weber]

Reminds me of the militant Islamists' cry: "Don't call us violent or we'll kill you." He might as well have said: "How dare you call me biased! Gosh I hate you conservative-types!"

[bill912]

On JA.O tomorrow: "Bill Moyers' lawyer threatens Jared Weber with lawsuit for calling Moyers a 'militant Islamist'."

[Jared Weber]

Oh, dag yo. I knew I should have come up with some lame handle like "Pipe," or "The Yellow Dart" or something.

So, uh, Mr. Akin? What was the name of your lawyer, again?

[Kris]

Moyers just seems like an attention hound. "Oh oh...don't forget about my story, here's my email correspondence."

I know Jimmy promised him space on the blog...but when is this going to end?

[chris-2-4]

Bill Moyers: "The Right relentlessly
employs lies, deceit, distortions, exaggerations, and mischaracterizations
intimidate journalists and discredit those with whom they disagree." (But I'm NOT a liberal democrat, I'm a fair and balanced journalist!)

[Jeff]

Yech, blech, what a lot of nauseating, self-serving baloney! I don't think I will 'CONTINUE READING IN ORIGINAL PDF.'

Don't these people ever get embarrassed?