Debunking Bill Moyers: Did the man of letters exclude "Debunking 9/11 Debunking"?

Leigh Pomeroy

"We detected only one organized campaign behind a certain book and we disqualified it as a result." — Bill Moyers in his "Journal" on PBS, Feb. 8: "Presidential Reading" (transcript here)

Nothing like a conspiracy to muddy the waters of ... well ... just about anything! So what was this "organization" and "book" that Moyers alludes to?

Well, it appears to be DEBUNKING 9/11 DEBUNKING by David Ray Griffin, which, not so ironically, is about a conspiracy of another kind: that of the U.S. government to hide the "truth" about 9/11 ostensibly to cover up its own participation in the plot. At least this is according to some of the irate commenters on his blog.

So far Moyers hasn't fessed up to fingering DEBUNKING 9/11 DEBUNKING as the book in question, at least as far as I've been able to find out.

Personally, I don't quite understand how he could have left off Lester Brown's PLAN B 3.0, the tome for which I voted along with numerous others. Perhaps it's because it's so new — just published last month — and Bill hasn't had time yet to read it. Yet the previous versions have been around since 2003, so Brown's ideas have had four years to gain traction. (In fact, when the first version of the book came out Ted Turner "purchased 3,519 copies to distribute to Fortune 500 CEOs, members of Congress, and heads of state and cabinet members worldwide," according to the California Cars Initiative.

But Moyers' list — or rather his readers' list — is certainly worthy, all except for a few which were included no doubt for "balance" in his ongoing attempt to defend himself from right-wing attacks of bias. This is the list:

• Howard Zinn, A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
• Jared Diamond, COLLAPSE
• Ayn Rand, ATLAS SHRUGGED
• Naomi Klein, SHOCK DOCTRINE
• Greg Mortenson, THREE CUPS OF TEA
• Barbara Tuchman, THE MARCH OF FOLLY
• Charles Dickens, A CHRISTMAS CAROL
• Robert Fulghum, ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
• Samuel P. Huntington, CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS
• Lee Iacocca, WHERE HAVE ALL THE LEADERS GONE?

To this Moyers adds his own recommendation: Stephen Graubard, COMMAND OF OFFICE: HOW WAR, SECRECY AND DECEPTION TRANSFORMED THE PRESIDENCY FROM THEODORE ROOSEVELT TO GEORGE W. BUSH. There were many other books in the running, including early reader favorites:

• Kim Michaels, THE ART OF NON-WAR
• Chalmers Johnson, BLOWBACK
• Tom Paine, COLLECTED WORKS/COMMON SENSE
• Al Gore, ASSAULT ON REASON/AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
• David Cay Johnston, FREE LUNCH
• George Orwell, 1984/ANIMAL FARM
• Naomi Wolff, THE END OF AMERICA: LETTERS TO A YOUNG PATRIOT
• Barbara Ehrenreich, NICKEL AND DIMED
• Doris Kearns Goodwin, TEAM OF RIVALS
• David Korten, THE GREAT TURNING
• John Steinbeck, THE GRAPES OF WRATH
• John Dean, BROKEN GOVERNMENT
• John Perkins, CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HITMAN
• James Carroll, HOUSE OF WAR
• Thomas Friedman, THE WORLD IS FLAT
• Lao Tzu, TE TAO CHING
• Tim Weiner, LEGACY OF ASHES
• Dr. Seuss, THE LORAX, HORTON HEARS A WHO, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO, IF I RAN THE ZOO

Absent from the list is another haunting tome: CORPORATION: THE PATHOLOGICAL PURSUIT OF PROFIT AND POWER, which is available also as a DVD.

The discussion is still ongoing on Moyers' blog. Needless to say, whoever the next president will be, he or she will have plenty of catch-up reading to do!

P.S. Outside Dr. Seuss, I wonder how many of these the current occupant of the White House has read....