Denial, Projection, and Reaction Formation Taint Otherwise Perceptive Remarks by Johnson Administration Press Secretary

Bill Moyers disses 9/11 researcher/activists in a recent speech. (Photo: Grahamtastic; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t)

On January 27, respected journalist Bill Moyers made a keynote speech to History Makers, described as “an organization of broadcasters and producers from around the world concerned with the challenges and opportunities faced by factual broadcasting.” Moyers made many comments with which we can all agree. Yes, “the struggle against power ‘is the struggle of memory against forgetting.’” Yes, we would all like to see more “television ‘that dignifies instead of debases’.” Yes, we would all like to see less demagoguery. And like Moyers we are discouraged by the new research findings indicating that people whose minds are made up harden their positions even further in the face of contrary information, “twist[ing] facts so they fit better with our preconceived notions.”.

However, anyone acquainted with the vast body of evidence indicating that the three World Trade Center skyscrapers were demolished by explosive controlled demolition on 9/11 would be dismayed by some of Moyers’ comments about that historic event. Rather than honoring the efforts of 9/11 researchers and activists to get our government and media to acknowledge well-documented facts about 9/11, Moyers engaged in what can easily be described as an uninformed diatribe.

Moyers’ dismissive and exaggerated way of framing the issue shows that he has zero awareness of the factual problems and internal contradictions in the official story. He falsely associates questioning 9/11 or believing it was an inside job with being on the political Left. In fact, on the contrary, an honest awareness of the problems in the official account of 9/11 unites people fairly equally from all across the political spectrum, from atheistic democratic socialists to Christian libertarians.

Moyers offers a superficial laundry list of alleged flaws in the case against the official account of 9/11, a list which he admits was taken from a recent single opinion column by journalist Robert Parry, whose criticisms have been responded to by Kevin Ryan (among other things, a member of the AE911Truth board of directors) Following are several examples of the purest projection. Each of these criticisms by Moyers are either false or misleading. The first two apply not to the 9/11 truth movement but to the official account: