The Public Intellectual- A Case Study

                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.