Bill Moyers, White House press secretary and TV journalist, dies

NEW YORK - Bill Moyers, a former White House press secretary turned TV journalist, died Thursday. He was 91 years old.

Over the years, Moyers was showered with honors, including more than 30 Emmys, 11 George Foster Peabody awards, three George Polks and, twice, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Gold Baton Award for career excellence in broadcast journalism. In 1995, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.

Bill Moyers dies at 91

What we know:

Tom Johnson, the former CEO of CNN and an assistant to Moyers during Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration, confirmed the news, stating that Moyers died in a New York City hospital. 

Moyers’ son William also said his father died at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York after a "long illness."

What we don't know:

As of Thursday, no other details regarding his illness or the cause of death were reported.  

Bill Moyers' career

Dig deeper:

Moyer’s career ranged from youthful Baptist minister to deputy director of the Peace Corps, from Johnson’s press secretary to newspaper publisher, senior news analyst for "The CBS Evening News" and chief correspondent for "CBS Reports."

Moyers’ stint as presidential press secretary was marked by efforts to mend the relationship between Johnson and the media. But the Vietnam War took its toll and Moyers resigned in December of 1966.

Of his departure from the White House, he wrote, "We had become a war government, not a reform government, and there was no creative role left for me under those circumstances."

But it was for public television that Moyers produced some of TV’s most cerebral and provocative series. In hundreds of hours of PBS programs, he proved at home with subjects ranging from government corruption to modern dance, from drug addiction to media consolidation, from religion to environmental abuse.