Politics & Power Quote by Bill Moyers

"There are honest journalists like there are honest politicians - they stay bought"

Bill Moyers, Journalist

About this Quote

Moyers lands the punch with a dirty little symmetry: “honest journalists” and “honest politicians” are framed as equally mythical species, then “honest” gets flipped into a bleak kind of consistency. The line works because it weaponizes a word we’re trained to treat as moral praise. Here, honesty isn’t integrity; it’s predictability. If you’re “bought” and you “stay bought,” at least you’re not pretending otherwise. That’s the joke, and it’s not really a joke.

The subtext is a warning about the economics of trust. Moyers isn’t only accusing individuals of taking money; he’s pointing at systems that make capture stable: advertisers, donors, corporate owners, party infrastructure, access journalism, the career incentives that reward compliance and punish disruption. “Stay bought” implies that corruption is less a one-time scandal than a long-term contract - a relationship with benefits, expectations, and escalating costs for breaking it.

Context matters because Moyers built his credibility by moving between politics and media: a former Johnson aide who became a public-minded broadcaster. He understood, intimately, how “access” is exchanged, how narratives get laundered into conventional wisdom, how newsroom caution can look like neutrality. The line is aimed at audiences who still want to believe in clean institutions. Moyers offers a colder comfort: if you’re looking for purity, you’ll be disappointed; if you’re looking for motives, follow the money - and notice who keeps cashing the same check.

Quote Details

Topic	Sarcastic

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About the Author

Bill Moyers (born June 6, 1934) is a Journalist from USA.

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