You Can't Keep a Good(Wo)man Down: Why Rochester (and Every Place Else) Needs Amy Goodman and Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman, co-host of the radio news
program, Democracy Now! has been doing all along what the big corporate media
journalists have forgotten how to do. This entry provides links to several
recent news articles about Goodman and explains why Rochester (and every place
else) needs to have the Democracy Now! radio broadcast easily available to all.
It also provides an easy means for making your voice heard in the campaign to
bring Democracy Now! to Rochester.
I have had the pleasure -- and the privilege -- of
hearing Democracy Now!
host Amy
Goodman in person three times
now.
The first time was last November at the National Media Reform Conference in Madison, WI. You can hear her presentation here. The second was April 5, at LeMoyne College in Syracuse. (Read Rochester Indymedia's interview with Goodman here.) The third was May 13, at the University of Buffalo.
The event at UB was packed -- a standing room only crowd, with more than 50 people spilling onto the stage, and more having to listen to Goodman from out in the corridors. People who made it inside the auditorium stayed there happily for two hours despite the heat and 90+% humidity. Although I had already heard much of what Goodman had to say before, I was nonetheless happy to be there as well.
Goodman is what a journalist is supposed to be, and most aren't. She asks tough questions. She is not content to take what government and other officials say at face value. She talks to people that other media don't talk to and thereby gives voice to the silenced. She is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with as other news media end up following her lead, because she is getting the news that they missed or thought no one would care about.
If just 10 percent of today's journalists working for big corporate media had followed Goodman's model, the Bush Administration would never have been able to sell its lies about the so-called "Weapons of Mass Destruction." Thousands of people who died in the war and who now are dying in the "occupation" would still be alive. Thousands more who are now maimed for life would still be whole. This country would have more than 200 billion dollars more to spend on what it really needs -- education, health care, job development -- and/or to eliminate the burgeoning federal deficit.
Right now, Metro Justice in Rochester is working on a campaign to bring Democracy Now! to WXXI radio. You can listen to Goodman every day on her free radio webcasts from the Democracy Now! website. You can also see Democracy Now! on Free Speech TV if you are a Dish Network subscriber. But people who do not have access to the web or to the Dish Network -- especially people who cannot afford either -- need to be able to hear Goodman, too.
This week, WXXI is running its membership drive. Metro Justice office is mobilizing its members to call WXXI during their membership drive, asking them to try Democracy Now! on 1370am for a year. The program is available to XXI at no cost for the first year.
In addition to calling WXXI during its membership drive (585-258-0200), you can also send Jeanne Fisher, Vice president of WXXI radio, an email asking WXXI to try Democracy Now! To do this easily, go here .
Here are some samples of what other press are saying about Amy Goodman, culled from the last few months:
March 10, 2003: Washington Post
Peace Correspondent
'Democracy Now!' Host Amy Goodman Is Making Her Voice Heard on Iraq
By Michael Powell
And now for the news:
"President Bush last night claimed a war in Iraq would set the stage for peace in the Middle East, but he did not set any deadline or detail any specific steps." . . .
"The Financial Times describes the Bush administration's financial analysis as 'a piece of fiction.' " . . .
"In Australia, 43 legal experts warn that an attack on Iraq is a violation of international law." . . .
"And the United States asks aid groups in Baghdad for civilian satellite coordinates in Iraq" -- pregnant pause here -- "Is it to bomb them or save them?"
"This is 'Democracy Now!' " says the anchor. "The war and peace report." Cue the lilting Bob Marley reggae guitar licks.
This is not the news as Brit Hume construes it or Dan Rather intones it. In a "Showdown: Iraq," Blix-is-nixed, pack-my-trench-coat-honey testosterone media age, Amy Goodman and her radio show, "Democracy Now!," beam in as if from some alternative left galaxy.
Broadcasting on the Pacifica Radio network from a book-strewn loft in an old firehouse a half-dozen blocks from Ground Zero, Goodman is a daily polestar for those who crave the antiwar perspective that mainstream networks and newspapers often consign to the margins.
"War coverage should be more than a parade of retired generals and retired government flacks posing as reporters," Goodman says after the show. "Why not invite on some voices that are not Pentagon-approved?"
More here.
April 21, 2004: Los Angeles Times
She has opinions, will travel
Left-wing radio's Amy Goodman takes her views on the road.
By Greg Braxton
FRESNO -- "Democracy Now!" radio host Amy Goodman flashed an appreciative smile from her podium last week as the overflow crowd inside the Satellite Student Center at Cal State Fresno spilled onto the large bare stage behind her and into the aisles of the 650-seat auditorium.
Surveying the scene from the back were frowning fire marshals who moments earlier had threatened to shut down Goodman's lecture, as well as event organizers who had not expected the massive turnout. Finally, to appease the authorities, dozens of latecomers reluctantly departed, resigned to listening to the talk on speakers outside along with more than a hundred others who could not get in.
"So many people have turned out that I've decided to cut short my five-hour speech," began Goodman. The roar of laughter and applause from her faithful following suggested that, even though they got her joke, they would have welcomed an all-night session with Goodman, the most high-profile personality on the left-leaning Pacifica radio network.
More here.
April 26, 2004: Newsweek
Updated: 6:01 p.m. ET May 17, 2004
Access of Evil
A controversial liberal radio reporter argues that the mainstream U.S. media are becoming corrupted because journalists are too close to those in power
By Brian Braiker
April 26 - Depending on your own brand of politics, you either view Amy Goodman as a crusader, a kook, a nuisance, a threat, or a hero. But one thing is almost irrefutable: she has courage. In nearly 10 years as the controversial host of the liberal Pacifica Radio network’s “Democracy Now!” program, Goodman has witnessed (and narrowly escaped) a massacre in East Timor, been threatened by Nigeria’s “kill ’n’ go” military police while trespassing on Chevron’s oil fields and reported for several straight days from ground zero after the September 11 attacks.
Now, with her new book “Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers and the Media that Love Them” (Hyperion), she is going toe-to-toe with the Bush administration and mainstream media. She has written the book, she tells NEWSWEEK, because, “the media
has reached an all-time low. The lies take lives. ‘Exception to the rulers’ should be the motto of every news organization.” She describes what she calls the “disinformation two-step,” in which an administration “leaks” information to reporters, after which those officials refer to the published accounts to bolster their assertions. Sound dubious? If the reaction she and her co-author—her brother, David Goodman—have gotten on their 70-city book tour is any indication, they’re not the only ones who feel this way: More than 1,000 people came out to hear her speak in New York City and in California at Fresno, Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. More than 2,000 people came out to her book signing in Los Angeles, which doubled as Pacifica’s 55th birthday party and fundraiser.
More here.
April 26, 2004: NPR Radio interview with Goodman by Tavis Smiley
To listen to this interview, go here.
May 3, 2004: Houston Chronicle
Critics can't keep an Amy Goodman down
By BARBARA KARKABI
The Amy Goodman book and 70-city tour roared into town Sunday to standing ovations and a crowd of adoring fans.
Goodman is the sometimes controversial award-winning radio host of Pacifica Network's Democracy Now! , which airs Mondays-Fridays at 9 a.m. on Pacifica's KPFT 90.1 FM.
Her visit was a benefit for KPFT, a celebration of the 55th anniversary of the founding of Pacifica Radio in Berkeley, Calif., and a tour to promote her book The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers and the Media That Love Them (Hyperion Books, $24.95).
More here.
May 5, 2004: The Daily Camera (Boulder, Co.)
NYC's 'Democracy Now!' in Boulder
Host interviews CU professors, Rocky Flats juror
By Mary Butler, Camera Staff Writer
The Flatirons were a focal point both on air and behind the scenes of "Democracy Now!" on Tuesday, as the New York City-based independent national news program broadcast from the Boulder studios of Free Speech TV.
Host Amy Goodman is using Boulder as a home base for the cable television and radio show this week as she promotes the book she co-wrote with her brother, "Independent Media in a Time of War," on a 70-plus city tour.
Goodman also is dedicating the admission price at two local events to Boulder's KGNU 88.5 FM, which is in the midst of raising $3 million to buy an AM signal to expand into the Denver market.
Goodman packed Boulder's Flatirons Theater on Monday, speaking to a sell-out crowd of 900, and was expected to draw a similar audience Tuesday night at Denver's Central Presbyterian Church.
More here.
May 13, 2004: Grand Rapids (MI) Press
Media war coverage one-sided, critic says
By Steven Harmon
The corporate media have reached an all-time low in their coverage of the Iraq war -- with their sanitized images and "embedded" mentality -- and must be countered by an alternative media.
That's the message liberal talk show host Amy Goodman is bringing to 70 cities around the nation, including Grand Rapids. She will appear at Fountain Street Church at 6:30 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $5.
The Harvard alumnus is touting her new book, "The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them," currently No. 25 on the New York Times bestseller list.
"When you see war from the trigger end of the gun, that is one limited perspective," Goodman said. "What about what it feels like to be a target? If we were seeing babies dead on the ground, peoples' legs shorn off, if we'd seen these images, I do think there would be a collective 'no' that people would say. But the media has sanitized the war."
More here.
The first time was last November at the National Media Reform Conference in Madison, WI. You can hear her presentation here. The second was April 5, at LeMoyne College in Syracuse. (Read Rochester Indymedia's interview with Goodman here.) The third was May 13, at the University of Buffalo.
The event at UB was packed -- a standing room only crowd, with more than 50 people spilling onto the stage, and more having to listen to Goodman from out in the corridors. People who made it inside the auditorium stayed there happily for two hours despite the heat and 90+% humidity. Although I had already heard much of what Goodman had to say before, I was nonetheless happy to be there as well.
Goodman is what a journalist is supposed to be, and most aren't. She asks tough questions. She is not content to take what government and other officials say at face value. She talks to people that other media don't talk to and thereby gives voice to the silenced. She is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with as other news media end up following her lead, because she is getting the news that they missed or thought no one would care about.
If just 10 percent of today's journalists working for big corporate media had followed Goodman's model, the Bush Administration would never have been able to sell its lies about the so-called "Weapons of Mass Destruction." Thousands of people who died in the war and who now are dying in the "occupation" would still be alive. Thousands more who are now maimed for life would still be whole. This country would have more than 200 billion dollars more to spend on what it really needs -- education, health care, job development -- and/or to eliminate the burgeoning federal deficit.
Right now, Metro Justice in Rochester is working on a campaign to bring Democracy Now! to WXXI radio. You can listen to Goodman every day on her free radio webcasts from the Democracy Now! website. You can also see Democracy Now! on Free Speech TV if you are a Dish Network subscriber. But people who do not have access to the web or to the Dish Network -- especially people who cannot afford either -- need to be able to hear Goodman, too.
This week, WXXI is running its membership drive. Metro Justice office is mobilizing its members to call WXXI during their membership drive, asking them to try Democracy Now! on 1370am for a year. The program is available to XXI at no cost for the first year.
In addition to calling WXXI during its membership drive (585-258-0200), you can also send Jeanne Fisher, Vice president of WXXI radio, an email asking WXXI to try Democracy Now! To do this easily, go here .
Here are some samples of what other press are saying about Amy Goodman, culled from the last few months:
March 10, 2003: Washington Post
Peace Correspondent
'Democracy Now!' Host Amy Goodman Is Making Her Voice Heard on Iraq
By Michael Powell
And now for the news:
"President Bush last night claimed a war in Iraq would set the stage for peace in the Middle East, but he did not set any deadline or detail any specific steps." . . .
"The Financial Times describes the Bush administration's financial analysis as 'a piece of fiction.' " . . .
"In Australia, 43 legal experts warn that an attack on Iraq is a violation of international law." . . .
"And the United States asks aid groups in Baghdad for civilian satellite coordinates in Iraq" -- pregnant pause here -- "Is it to bomb them or save them?"
"This is 'Democracy Now!' " says the anchor. "The war and peace report." Cue the lilting Bob Marley reggae guitar licks.
This is not the news as Brit Hume construes it or Dan Rather intones it. In a "Showdown: Iraq," Blix-is-nixed, pack-my-trench-coat-honey testosterone media age, Amy Goodman and her radio show, "Democracy Now!," beam in as if from some alternative left galaxy.
Broadcasting on the Pacifica Radio network from a book-strewn loft in an old firehouse a half-dozen blocks from Ground Zero, Goodman is a daily polestar for those who crave the antiwar perspective that mainstream networks and newspapers often consign to the margins.
"War coverage should be more than a parade of retired generals and retired government flacks posing as reporters," Goodman says after the show. "Why not invite on some voices that are not Pentagon-approved?"
More here.
April 21, 2004: Los Angeles Times
She has opinions, will travel
Left-wing radio's Amy Goodman takes her views on the road.
By Greg Braxton
FRESNO -- "Democracy Now!" radio host Amy Goodman flashed an appreciative smile from her podium last week as the overflow crowd inside the Satellite Student Center at Cal State Fresno spilled onto the large bare stage behind her and into the aisles of the 650-seat auditorium.
Surveying the scene from the back were frowning fire marshals who moments earlier had threatened to shut down Goodman's lecture, as well as event organizers who had not expected the massive turnout. Finally, to appease the authorities, dozens of latecomers reluctantly departed, resigned to listening to the talk on speakers outside along with more than a hundred others who could not get in.
"So many people have turned out that I've decided to cut short my five-hour speech," began Goodman. The roar of laughter and applause from her faithful following suggested that, even though they got her joke, they would have welcomed an all-night session with Goodman, the most high-profile personality on the left-leaning Pacifica radio network.
More here.
April 26, 2004: Newsweek
Updated: 6:01 p.m. ET May 17, 2004
Access of Evil
A controversial liberal radio reporter argues that the mainstream U.S. media are becoming corrupted because journalists are too close to those in power
By Brian Braiker
April 26 - Depending on your own brand of politics, you either view Amy Goodman as a crusader, a kook, a nuisance, a threat, or a hero. But one thing is almost irrefutable: she has courage. In nearly 10 years as the controversial host of the liberal Pacifica Radio network’s “Democracy Now!” program, Goodman has witnessed (and narrowly escaped) a massacre in East Timor, been threatened by Nigeria’s “kill ’n’ go” military police while trespassing on Chevron’s oil fields and reported for several straight days from ground zero after the September 11 attacks.
Now, with her new book “Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers and the Media that Love Them” (Hyperion), she is going toe-to-toe with the Bush administration and mainstream media. She has written the book, she tells NEWSWEEK, because, “the media
has reached an all-time low. The lies take lives. ‘Exception to the rulers’ should be the motto of every news organization.” She describes what she calls the “disinformation two-step,” in which an administration “leaks” information to reporters, after which those officials refer to the published accounts to bolster their assertions. Sound dubious? If the reaction she and her co-author—her brother, David Goodman—have gotten on their 70-city book tour is any indication, they’re not the only ones who feel this way: More than 1,000 people came out to hear her speak in New York City and in California at Fresno, Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. More than 2,000 people came out to her book signing in Los Angeles, which doubled as Pacifica’s 55th birthday party and fundraiser.
More here.
April 26, 2004: NPR Radio interview with Goodman by Tavis Smiley
To listen to this interview, go here.
May 3, 2004: Houston Chronicle
Critics can't keep an Amy Goodman down
By BARBARA KARKABI
The Amy Goodman book and 70-city tour roared into town Sunday to standing ovations and a crowd of adoring fans.
Goodman is the sometimes controversial award-winning radio host of Pacifica Network's Democracy Now! , which airs Mondays-Fridays at 9 a.m. on Pacifica's KPFT 90.1 FM.
Her visit was a benefit for KPFT, a celebration of the 55th anniversary of the founding of Pacifica Radio in Berkeley, Calif., and a tour to promote her book The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers and the Media That Love Them (Hyperion Books, $24.95).
More here.
May 5, 2004: The Daily Camera (Boulder, Co.)
NYC's 'Democracy Now!' in Boulder
Host interviews CU professors, Rocky Flats juror
By Mary Butler, Camera Staff Writer
The Flatirons were a focal point both on air and behind the scenes of "Democracy Now!" on Tuesday, as the New York City-based independent national news program broadcast from the Boulder studios of Free Speech TV.
Host Amy Goodman is using Boulder as a home base for the cable television and radio show this week as she promotes the book she co-wrote with her brother, "Independent Media in a Time of War," on a 70-plus city tour.
Goodman also is dedicating the admission price at two local events to Boulder's KGNU 88.5 FM, which is in the midst of raising $3 million to buy an AM signal to expand into the Denver market.
Goodman packed Boulder's Flatirons Theater on Monday, speaking to a sell-out crowd of 900, and was expected to draw a similar audience Tuesday night at Denver's Central Presbyterian Church.
More here.
May 13, 2004: Grand Rapids (MI) Press
Media war coverage one-sided, critic says
By Steven Harmon
The corporate media have reached an all-time low in their coverage of the Iraq war -- with their sanitized images and "embedded" mentality -- and must be countered by an alternative media.
That's the message liberal talk show host Amy Goodman is bringing to 70 cities around the nation, including Grand Rapids. She will appear at Fountain Street Church at 6:30 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $5.
The Harvard alumnus is touting her new book, "The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them," currently No. 25 on the New York Times bestseller list.
"When you see war from the trigger end of the gun, that is one limited perspective," Goodman said. "What about what it feels like to be a target? If we were seeing babies dead on the ground, peoples' legs shorn off, if we'd seen these images, I do think there would be a collective 'no' that people would say. But the media has sanitized the war."
More here.
Posted: Tue - May 18, 2004 at 09:32 AM
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My name is Georgia NeSmith. "Random Acts of Love" is my weblog, but I have numerous other websites you can link to through this blog. "Random Acts of Love" began in February, 2004, and I have been posting to it fairly steadily ever since, although there are a few months when illness and other issues have kept me away. I write about nearly everything under the sun. I also do a lot of photography and digital art and I teach journalism online. Recently I've also started posting videos to YouTube.
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"The difficult I'll do right now
The impossible will take a little while."
-- From "Crazy, He Calls Me"
written by: Bob Russell / Carl Sigman
Sung by Billie Holiday
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-- Margaret Mead
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all..."
-- Emily Dickinson
"In our sleep, pain, which we cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom, through the awful grace of God.
-- Aeschylus, Agamemnon
-- From "Crazy, He Calls Me"
written by: Bob Russell / Carl Sigman
Sung by Billie Holiday
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-- Margaret Mead
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all..."
-- Emily Dickinson
"In our sleep, pain, which we cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom, through the awful grace of God.
-- Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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