Of Lipstick and Pigs, Hate Speech and Fairness

Bill Moyerssource: Bill Moyers Journal, PBS

Do talk show hosts and political pundits bear any responsibility for the state of American politics? Should hate speech be banned?

In case you missed Bill Moyers on Friday night, you can watch the program’s stories about political hate speech and whether political reporters are doing a good job of questioning guests when they utter falsehoods and wild exaggerations (or read the transcript) here: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09122008/watch.html.  See if you think the pundits have enough power to sway an election and what we can do about it.

And you should check out his report on lipstick and pigs and other hysteria from the campaigns here: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09122008/watch2.html. His guests, THE MEDIA’s Brooke Gladstone and NEWSDAY’s Les Payne join Bill Moyers to engage in some tough media analysis of media analysts.