Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 3, 1995 TAG: 9502030043
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN CARMODY THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
``I think it's a good thing to do at this stage in my life,'' Moyers said this week.
His new job has the title of senior news analyst, and he is free, under the terms of what is believed to be a two-year contract with NBC, to continue production of major programs for the Public Broadcasting Service, although he said he expects to reduce his workload with the public network.
NBC News has been without a regular commentator since John Chancellor retired in July 1993; Moyers is not expected to fill quite the same role.
``I'll do two or three commentaries a week eventually, but I expect to start slowly. TV is changing, and I have to find the right thrust and pace - it's been nine years, after all,'' he said, since he left network news.
Unlike Chancellor, Moyers probably will not join anchor Brokaw on the news set but will report ``maybe from an office, like Andy Rooney.'' Moyers said he will contribute ``essays ... hard-hitting, Bill Safire-like reportage and analysis.'' He will also have a role in coverage of the national political scene through the 1996 elections and recalled Tuesday that in 1992, PBS and NBC collaborated in coverage of the political conventions.
Moyers also plans to travel, ``I still consider myself the reporter.''
According to sources at NBC, Moyers has been wooed by NBC News president Andy Lack for at least a year. The two have been friends for years.
Lack, then a CBS producer, worked with Moyers on a documentary on abortion in 1977 during the latter's first stint with CBS News. Moyers said that Lack was instrumental in talking him back to the network in 1981 as the senior news analyst, replacing Eric Sevareid.
The restless Moyers left CBS News for a second time in 1986 amid turmoil at the network but said Tuesday he has missed the opportunity ``to be topical,'' as well as the ``regularity and stability'' of daily broadcasts. He called NBC News ``a good place and a perfect match for me.''
The 60-year-old Moyers had a bypass operation in May 1993 and, despite ``a false alarm'' this past Thanksgiving, said he has been feeling well.
For PBS, Moyers's Public Affairs Television, which is run by his wife, Judith, is completing an eight-part series due to air this summer called ``The Language of Life,'' a survey of the poets of our time, and a 90-minute special for the fall on Bill T. Jones, a celebrated African American dancer. Down the road is a study of the Book of Genesis.
``We've produced over 250 hours of television for PBS over the years,'' he said Tuesday. ``But I decided at the time of the bypass to cut back.''
Moyers was deputy director of the Peace Corps in the Kennedy administration and special assistant to President Johnson from 1963-67. He left the White House to become publisher of Newsday. His 1971 book, ``Listening to America,'' was a bestseller, as were four books based on his TV series, including ``Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth.''
In recent weeks, the liberal Moyers has been something of a lightning rod for conservatives eager to cut back or even ``zero out'' funding for public broadcasting and he has not hesitated to return fire.
He said there is nothing in his NBC contract that bans him from speaking out on the controversy; ``there are no conditions on my voice. As needs be, I will speak to that and other issues.'' However, he said he's laid aside ``the ax - I don't grind it anywhere.''
Moyers predicted that public broadcasting will survive. ``I think the people in Washington understand that Americans didn't vote for a wrecking team. The challenge is to deliberate on the future and how it can be funded.''
Lack, in a conference call this week, called Moyers ``the last of a breed. There are precious few individuals who can have a dialogue with the country every week about the soul of America. It takes an extraordinary mind to be able to embrace that kind of dialogue. You need a lot of wisdom under your belt.''
by CNB