"Hey Bill Moyers, are media really all that bad?"

"Our media institutions, deeply embedded in the power structures of society, are not providing the information that we need to make our democracy work. To put it another way, corporate media consolidation is a corrosive social force. It robs people of their voice in public affairs and pollutes the political culture. And it turns the debates about profound issues into a shouting match of polarized views promulgated by partisan apologists who trivialize democracy while refusing to speak the truth about how our country is being plundered."

Thus speaks Bill Moyers, prize winning PBS TV journalist, sometimes described as the inheritor of the Edward R. Murrow tradition.

Bill Moyers has long been the president of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy and the host of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.

He was giving the keynote address at the National Conference for Media Reform Conference in Minneapolis on June 7. You can read more on Moyers at his PBS website.

Bill Moyers laments the decline of journalism and labels it a "Fifth Column" undermining democracy.

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In my youth as a journalist with The Christian Science Monitor Bill Moyers was an esteemed name -- a journalist and clergyman and Lyndon Johnson staffer once again turned journalist.......

He is still a much respected icon, speaking out for the prophetic tradition of watchdog journalism, where reporters and editors "speak truth to power."

I personally called him while covering the 1976 Patty Hearst trial to discuss issues surrounding "mind control" and "brainwashing."

Today's Bill Moyers falls back on many "liberal" anti-corporate cliches -- oversimplifying the world between good and evil. Even though he does not use the Bushian term, "Axis of Evil."

Those who seek to gain the public's attention -- be they in journalism, movies, vaudville, or the circus -- have long hyped and hawked their wares to catch public attention. Wide media circulation sells advertising. Advertising supports media.

But government run media can also have problems of corrupting the truth by enforcing the party line.

This is not the kind of government media Bill Moyers knows. For at government subsidized PBS Moyers has had the freedom to "preach to his choir" -- even with plenty of corporate underwriting.

Yes, media today reflects lots of corporate power, consolidation, etc., especially at the local level.

Cost cutting downsizing of coverage at both local and international levels is legion. But journalism has always been highly intertwined with profit, with its making money in tension a bit with the idealistic ideology of freedom of the press.

Yet looking back, few journalists have been gods and few pure icons free from spin.

Anyone who studies the history of journalism knows there has been no truly "Golden Age" -- and that journalists were rarely high enough in heaven to become "fallen angels."

On balance I would say we suffer as much today from media anarchy, of information overkill, as we do from censorship or consolidation.

When one surveys the entire spectrum, the diversity and free flow of information is massive. The trumpets have sounded, and lots of walls have come tumbling down.

While some traditional journalism sectors have weakened, the world has come alive with an irrepressible bubbling of global information.

In my youth the door to China was dark and closed. Today I can see and read almost every pimple in the "Middle Kingdom."

God, Bill, the old days were nice......but, Hey, ain't it Grand Today?

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Partisanship and opinion spewing are massive today -- blatant Republican on Fox cable (Bill O'Reilly's "The Factor") ; blatant Democratic on MNBC (Keith Olbermann's "Countdown"); blatant populist nativism on CNN (Lou DobbsTonight).

Bill, we are in full agreement. Vituperation, opinion, spin are the hallmarks of today's journalism, especially on television where the competition for viewers and advertising is so keen.

Fear and ideological polarization are the hallmarks of much electronic media, both creating and pandering to the deep emotions of our times.

But to blame everything on corporations is to miss the forest for the trees.

Sensationalism and hype are nothing new. Indeed they are a major tool in the arsenal of the "rabble rousing" journalist -- whether it be to drum up popular support for a war or to gain attention for needed social reform.

In our history they are deeply established in the sensational but often reformist tradition of "yellow journalism" and our equally strong tradition of attacking "yellow journalism" as a corrupter of public discourse.

In time of war, nationalism, fear, and propaganda have long determined that "the first casualty of war is truth." It was no different once so many in this nation yearned for revenge following 9/11. American journalists seemed proudly "on team."

So it has been in almost every war, both in the United States and overseas. Until the pendulum swings, popular attitudes shift a bit, and media see profit and headlines in undermining the official view. That is when segments of the journalism world feel the freedom and the inclination to go "off team." That is when journalism's skepticism is most like to clash with the military's goal of "staying on mission."

But, Hey Bill Moyers, it takes a while to get there.

As for the information that would have undermined the President's case for war, so very much of it was out there for anyone who wished to see.

Rarely have the nuances of intelligence analysis been so open to the public. Rarely have the uncertainties of intelligence analysis been so publicly available. Rarely had the murky miasma surrounding Saddam Hussein been so apparent in news reports, books, and widely on the internet.

Yet rarely have Americans, including the media, felt so under threat as in the aftermath of 9/11. It was a "perfect storm" for war.

To complain that American media did not stop the Iraq war is the height of foolishness. What wars in history were truly stopped in the beginning by media?

Media are so often among the first to climb on board. In times of patriotic fervor who wants to be left behind to face stoning by the mob? Governments have long known how to exploit this.

Do some wars never happen because of media? Perhaps...If there is a "perfect storm" for peace.

There is nothing new about pack journalism and groupthink whether blindly following a drive toward war or mindlessly challenging every official account once a long war grows unpopular.

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Yes there are now, as then, "stuffy" bastions where credibility and balance still are valued.

Even within the cable TV outlets I cite above one can find vast, relatively untainted, news delivery where a bit of balance is still a part of marketing appeal.

Often it is far more than corporate greed which shapes the product. For example the dominance of fast moving visual imagery fed by modern technology and public hunger for images of "reality."

Nothing sells like the visual excitement of a hurricane or a massacre.

So entertainment, hype everywhere coexist with an avalanche of information. Yes, Bill, nothing is sacred. Neither the sins of the present nor the alleged saintliness of the past.

As always, lots of things are "spun." On TV, on the internet, in blogs such as this.

"Just the facts, ma'am" has often given way to a gush of unverified opinion.

But, Bill, like many of the rest of us, you have grown a bit righteous and rigid.

That is our prerogative.

We who are growing old have a tendency to romanticize the past.

God, it was nice......but, Hey, ain't it Grand today?