Bill Moyers Quotes
Hyperbole was to Lyndon Johnson what oxygen is to life.
Bill Moyers, Journalist, Special Assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, White House Press Secretary, Quoted in Miller, Lyndon: An Oral Biography, Putnam, 1980
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Characterization of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Califano was referring to his appearance on a special television broadcast on CBS on September 9, 1965, to inform New Yorkers of the administration’s actions and concern after a power failure had blacked out 80,000 square miles and 30 million people in the Northeast including New York City as well as parts of Ontario, Canada. People were initially concerned that the blackout might have been a Soviet attack
He was not referring to electronic amplification of the sound – microphones, speakers, and amplifiers were not yet invented. He was referring to the style and content of the speech.
Roosevelt himself was a great orator and there were many who thought those same terms might apply to him.
Billy Don Moyers is an American journalist and political commentator. He served as the ninth White House Press Secretary under the Johnson administration from 1965 to 1967. He also worked as a network TV news commentator for ten years. Moyers has been extensively involved with public broadcasting, producing documentaries and news journal programs. He has won numerous awards and honorary degrees for his investigative journalism and civic activities. He has become well known as a trenchant critic of the corporately structured U.S. news media.
