Bill Moyers Joins Nbc As Senior News Analyst

Bill Moyers, the celebrated newsman who left CBS in a huff nearly a decade ago to make news documentaries full time for public television, is returning to network television.

As NBC’s senior news analyst, Moyers will deliver two commentaries two or three nights a week on the “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw,” beginning the week of Feb. 13, reviving the two-minute commentary that was once a signature of evening newscasts at NBC, CBS and, briefly, ABC, but was abandoned in an age of fragmentary sound bites and viewer attention spans. NBC’s John Chancellor, who last delivered such commentary, retired from NBC in July 1993.

Moyers, 60, who produced such famous PBS documentaries as “The Secret Government,” which alleged the Iran-contra scandal was typical of US foreign policy, not an aberration, Tuesday said he’ll continue to provide PBS with programming through Public Affairs Television, his independent production company. But he’ll do less of it, one consequence, he says, of recent heart bypass surgery.

Moyers denied suggestions that he’s fleeing PBS, whose future is in doubt because of threats by GOP leadership to cut its federal funding.

Moyers will go up against his old network at a time when “NBC Nightly News” needs it. Tom Brokaw’s newscast is at a low ebb, with morale poor and the battle to avoid third place against “CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and Connie Chung” being won or lost indecisively in recent weeks, sometimes by one-10th of a Nielsen rating point, despite big problems at the rival newscast.

Lack rejected suggestions by reporters that NBC is exposing itself to partisan attack by hiring Moyers, whose criticism of government institutions and exploration of social welfare over the years have branded him with the L-word.

“Sometimes I’m going to sound liberal, sometimes I’m going to sound conservative, but I hope I always sound professional,” Moyers said.