Before
beginning this blog I’d like to examine what it means to be a ‘Public
Intellectual’, after all, these individuals make up some of the largest
followings in the Blogosphere. Though I do not claim to be one myself, I feel
they represent an ideal of analytic ability that all bloggers should aspire
for. In particular, I’d like to do a sort of 'case study' of Bill Moyers, a man whose
analysis of class differences and poverty I found to be done quite rigorously.
Before this analysis though, we should ask what it means to be defined as a public intellectual.
What gives a public intellectual their
exclusive status is their ability to provide a unique, well-founded perspective
on a particular set of issues. Such a perspective is often very well supported
and if done correctly, difficult to refute. The viewpoints we often see people ‘parroting’
are often originally generated by those in the realm of the media, especially
among strong nodes of political perspective (for example, Fox News and MSNBC)
and can often result in a homogenization of views across party lines. This is
why it is important for us to really examine what sorts of people we let effect
our views, after all, they often set the stage for the public rhetoric. What distinguishes
the public intellectual from the typical ‘talking head’ types is worth strong
consideration.
In my view, what gives one an
ability to articulate strongly supported perspectives come primarily from three
sources: a strong educational background, political experience or direct
experience (as relating to the issues you are analyzing). Of these, an
individual often contributes different things based on which of the three of
the above are hit. These three allow access to different perspectives of an
issue, with an education allowing for analysis and historical perspectives,
while not contributing any sort of phenomenological tie to the issues at hand.
This also poses a serious issue for
the political types and was central to the criticisms pushed at Mitt Romney
during the 2012 Presidential Elections.
An inability to connect to the public at large creates a perception of separation
between the political class and the everyday citizen, one that scream: “our
representative neither care nor understand us”.
The expansion of this topic is
vitally important for this post, as direct experience is the position that Bill
Moyers is most lacking in, while yielding a very strong educational and
political resume. Direct experience allows readers to feel
connected and understood by the speaker, letting them know that they understand,
they have been in your shoes. With the wide variety of new sources available
via the web, choosing who to let inform your information flow often comes from
identification with the source or the issues they present.
I’m aware of this bias in myself, and growing
up in a very low income family naturally pulls my attention to issues of the
large financial gap between the well off and the impoverished. Finding a writer
that shares this experience with me often pulls my attention, though this should
not be the sticking point. Having such a perspective yields valuable data into
one’s opinion, one that cannot be replicated via schooling or political experience,
yet such a perspective should only work to make one’s argument even more
potent, supplying perspectives that may not considered by those who are not
tied to an issue personally.
Though Moyers does not appear to
have any sort of personal ties to poverty, I find his analysis to be
particularly formidable on the issues of financial differences between the
upper and lower economic classes, a topic of constant consideration for Moyers, with Economic Inequality being one of the premiere subheadings of
his website. His impressive power of analysis can be tied to Moyer’s strong representation journalistically (I know, it's not a word).
Moyers received a bachelors in
Journalism and Masters in Divinity and held positions as White House Press
Secretaries for Lyndon B. Johnson as well as a Peace Corp Deputy Director under the Kennedy
administration, giving him distinct perspectives on issues of the economic and political
sort. The majority of his public career
was a result of Moyers work in journalism (rather than his study of it),
working for Newsday before taking a role working for PBS. Having worked in journalism
since the late 60’s, Bill Moyers continued relevance points towards his ability
to provide compelling criticism despite the changing global climate of our time,
something more than likely refined by his long time presence in the public eye (you can find more on Bill Moyers here).
The central role criticism plays in identification as a public intellectual is
explained quite comprehensively by Stephen Mack, a Professor at the University
of Southern California, in his blog:
“... the public intellectual function is criticism. And if intellectuals are in a better position to perform that function it’s not because they are uniquely blessed with wisdom—and it’s certainly not because they are uniquely equipped to wield social or political power. It is only because learning the processes of criticism and practicing them with some regularity are requisites for intellectual employment. It’s what we do at our day jobs.
It is also, however, the
obligation of every citizen in a democracy. Trained to it or not, all
participants in self-government are duty-bound to prod, poke, and pester the
powerful institutions that would shape their lives. And so if public
intellectuals have any role to play in a democracy—and they do—it’s simply to
keep the pot boiling. The measure of public intellectual work is not whether
the people are listening, but whether they’re hearing things worth talking
about.”
Mack’s second paragraph bridges the relationship
between the public and the intellectual in an important way, giving us a hint
as to why Moyers continues to pique our interest today. His continued analysis
still bares relevance. With poverty being an omnipresent part of our American
reality (roughly 15% of Americans are below the poverty line) and the idea of the shrinking middle class relatability to most of those above it,
his ideas appear to strike a chord with most Americans. Of course, Moyers
importance as a journalist does not come from his following (that would contradict
the quote above), but rather his extensive experience with analysis and his
development of the tools that allow him to criticize via his long career as an
analyst.
The real test of a public intellectual should not lie
in credential, but rather the ability such credentials allow them to inform a
view that is both ‘on point’ and, as mentioned above, difficult to refute. Despite
the obligation Mack describes above, very few Americans take this
responsibility seriously,
giving the public intellectual an unusual degree of power in public opinion.
Whether intended or not, the public intellectual’s sway in the opinion of others
should be carefully considered, and attempts to inform opinion for shock value
and clicks will only serve to result in the downfall of the American political
rhetoric.
This is another place that I find Moyer’s to be quite
refreshing, as pointed out by his Biography by the New York Times,
he is quite well known for interviewing polarizing figures of the time, with
such notable interviews as Salman Rushdie, Maya Angelou and Ronald Regan. This
of course, speaks very little of his ability to approach these important
individuals with any sort of minimal bias, so I challenge the reader to watch
this interview of Kelsey Juliana by Bill Moyers.
As you can see, this distinctive sort of interview
style, what I would like to call ‘supporting the interviewee’ is at odds with
the Fox Newseque ‘leading the interviewee’ style often used by figures like
Sean Hannity and Bill Maher. This allows the interviewee to fully express their
views, as they see them, to the audience, rather than being lead to support one
position or another without being cut off.
Admittedly, it is difficult to
fully encompass a 50+ year career in a single blog post and that is not the
intention of this article. Rather, we must understand the role the public
intellectual plays in our everyday lives and take this degree of responsibility
they yield seriously. Though journalistic websites like billmoyers.com bare a
respectable backing, it is nothing compared to the backing of sites like Gawker,
which has a celebrity sighting tracker (aptly called the Gawker Stalker) and Huffington Post (famous for its overuse of the X WAYS YOU CAN Y, which
was later beat into the ground by Buzzfeed).
Though these blogs can bear the occasional political insight, their obsession with clicks and views threatens to water down any journalistic integrity to a popularity contest. This was all too obvious during the Deflategate 'scandal', a situation that did not deserve the exposure that it was granted. It is important we as politically active citizens use the public intellectual as another opinion to consider, rather than the tell all be all end all of political opinion. But in this ever present reality of style over substance, it is the role of the public intellectual to remain steadfast and true to a standard of journalistic integrity. This I feel, Bill Moyers strongly epitomizes, and this is why I've chosen to write about him. Give him a look, you may not agree with him, but I can guarantee you'll find his views quite informed.
