> danny burstein > Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2010 7:15 PM > To: wnn > Subject: [alum] Bill Moyers, in final PBS show, talks about.... > > ... he talks about the show that will be replacing his > public affairs program, and it will be hosted by... > > ... hosted by... Allison Stewart > > video clip, 3 minutes, 12 megs, h.264 QuickTime > > http://www.dburstein.com/video/moyers-on-stewart.mov
May 2, 2010 How, Exactly, Do You Follow Bill Moyers? By ELIZABETH JENSEN IT'S hard to imagine Bill Moyers bantering with a co-host. But the first thing that jumped out during a recent rehearsal of "Need to Know," the new Friday night public affairs program on PBS replacing Mr. Moyers's, was the repartee between its co-hosts Alison Stewart and Jon Meacham, mixed with bits of irreverence in the script. "Need to Know" is no "Daily Show With Jon Stewart" by any means, or even the 11 p.m. local news, but there's no other PBS program likely to let its anchors riff on the name of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull. Could PBS, home to "Frontline" and "NewsHour," be lightening up? Until "Need to Know" has its premiere on May 7, it's a work in progress, Shelley Lewis, the executive producer, cautioned, and the kibbitzing may well be trimmed. But the comedian Andy Borowitz will definitely close out each program, with "Next Week's News" (one rehearsal segment: "Next week at the box office, here are the Top 5 Tyler Perry movies.") Ms. Lewis said, "To have wit in the show was important for all of us." "Need to Know," which will tape at a new studio at Lincoln Center, arrives to plenty of apprehension from PBS viewers, thousands of whom, riled up by the advocacy group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, have already protested. Their fear: the new hourlong show will fail to live up to the programs it is replacing: "Bill Moyers Journal" and "Now on PBS," which ran a combined 90 minutes. Mr. Moyers, the lion of PBS, wanted, at 75, to step back from the grind of a weekly show, and was set to sign off on Friday, promising to return with specials. "Now" was cancelled. In a March 25 online column Michael Getler, the PBS ombudsman, called the new program "a pretty big gamble for PBS" given the "fear, as expressed by many viewers in recent months, that PBS may be pulling in its horns and shying away from controversy." One letter writer said, "I have the distinct impression that PBS is moving towards kinder, gentler documentary programming so as to avoid offending the powerful and upsetting the political right." Another complained of Mr. Meacham's "right-of-center stance on world events," as evidenced in Newsweek, of which he is the editor. Mr. Meacham, the winner of a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for his biography "American Lion: Andrew Jackson and the White House," dismissed talk of his supposed partisan leanings: "I'm a journalist and a biographer who calls them as I see them." Mr. Meacham, who is a regular on MSNBC - where he mostly stays out of the fray when the partisan shouting gets too intense - is a frequent target of conservatives, who decry what they say are Newsweek's "liberal" leanings. "I think it is a shame that people are already jumping to conclusions," said Neal Shapiro, the president and chief executive of WNET.org in New York, which is producing "Need to Know" for PBS. "There's no replacing Bill Moyers," he added, but "the issues that Bill raises" will be among the show's topics. Maria Hinojosa, senior correspondent for "Now," which took tough looks at issues like the Iraq war and maternal health in Haiti, is among those reporting for "Need to Know." The new program will feature an eclectic mix of reports and interviews, revolving mainly around the economy, health care, the environment and energy, national and international security, as well as high and low culture. Mr. Meacham has already recorded essays for the show on the history of anger and hate in American politics and the religious case for separation of church and state. Meanwhile Ms. Stewart has reported a history of the birth-control pill. She will be the face of the extensive Web site pbs.org/needtoknow, intended to be an integral part of the program, soliciting both input and feedback from the audience. Executives met with a half-dozen candidates before settling on Ms. Stewart, 43, and Mr. Meacham, 40, said Stephen Segaller, the vice president for content at WNET.org, who led the show's development. The unknown is whether Ms. Stewart's longtime fans - she won a Peabody Award for her MTV "Choose or Lose" work covering the 1992 presidential election, then had stints at CBS, ABC and MSNBC before working for NPR's short-lived morning show "The Bryant Park Project"- will make the leap with her. On Friday nights, she said, "you really have to give people a reason to watch." That's where the ad-libbing comes in, she said, adding, "We want to let people get to know us." Mr. Meacham, whose books have been best sellers, has his own fans, which PBS is also counting on. He calls the new program "a parallel bet" to the one made at Newsweek: "that there is an audience for serious political and cultural coverage that feels - despite all the programming options out there - that feels underserved." Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company Regards, KGB ----- Kevin G. Barkes Email: [email protected] KGB Report: http://www.kgbreport.com Commentwear by KGB: http://www.commentwear.com National Temperature Index: http://nationaltemperatureindex.com DCL Dialogue on line: http://www.dcldialogue.com Random Quotations Generator: http://www.goodquotations.com Over 13,000 searchable quotations. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "World News Now Discussion List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. 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