"I've learned in my years as a journalist that when a politician says 'That's ridiculous' you're probably on the right track." -- Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American progressive broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman is the principal host of Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the internet.
She graduated from Harvard University in 1984 and also attended the College of the Atlantic, in Bar Harbor, Maine. She is also the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award.
"Independent media can go to where the silence is and break the sound barrier, doing what the corporate networks refuse to do.""The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.""War coverage should be more than a parade of retired generals and retired government flacks posing as reporters.""We have to protect all journalists, and journalists have to be allowed to do their jobs."
Goodman had been news director of Pacifica Radio station WBAI in New York City for over a decade when she co-founded Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report in 1996. Since then, Democracy Now! has been called "probably the most significant progressive news institution that has come around in some time" by professor and media critic Robert McChesney. Amy Goodman's 'Empire'
In 2001, the show was temporarily pulled off the air, as a result of a conflict with a group of Pacifica Radio board members and Pacifica staff members and listeners. During that time, it moved to a converted firehouse from which it broadcast until November 13, 2009. The new Democracy Now studio is located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
Goodman credits the program's success to the mainstream news makers who leave "a huge niche" for Democracy Now!
When President Bill Clinton called WBAI on Election Day 2000 for a quick get-out-the-vote message, Goodman and WBAI's Gonzalo Aburto challenged him for 28 minutes with questions about Leonard Peltier, racial profiling, the Iraq sanctions, Ralph Nader, the death penalty, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Clinton defended his administration's policies and charged Goodman with being "hostile and combative".
In 1991, covering the East Timor independence movement, Goodman and fellow journalist Allan Nairn were badly beaten by Indonesian soldiers after they witnessed a mass killing of Timorese demonstrators in what became known as the Dili Massacre.
In 1998, Goodman and journalist Jeremy Scahill documented Chevron Corporation's role in a confrontation between the Nigerian Army and villagers who had seized oil rigs and other equipment belonging to oil corporations. Two villagers were shot and killed during the standoff. On May 28, 1998, the company provided helicopter transport to the Nigerian Navy and Mobile Police (MOPOL) to their Parabe oil platform which had been occupied by villagers who accused the company of contaminating their land. Soon after landing, the Nigerian military shot and killed two of the protesters, Jola Ogungbeje and Aroleka Irowaninu, and wounded 11 others. Chevron spokesperson Sola Omole acknowledged that the company transported the troops, and that use of troops was at the request of Chevron's management. The documentary, "Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship", won the George Polk Award in 1998.
Michael Delli Carpini, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, said, "She's not an editorialist. She sticks to the facts... She provides points of view that make you think, and she comes at it by saying: 'Who are we not hearing from in the traditional media?'"
Arrest at 2008 Republican Convention
During the 2008 Republican National Convention, several of Goodman's colleagues from Democracy Now! were arrested and detained by police while reporting on an anti-war protest outside the RNC. While trying to ascertain the status of her colleagues, Goodman herself was arrested and held, accused of obstructing a legal process and interfering with a peace officer, while fellow Democracy Now! producers were held on charges of probable cause for riot. The arrests of the producers were videotaped. Goodman and her colleagues were later released, but as of September 2008 they still face charges stemming from their arrests. City Attorney John Choi has indicated that the charges will be dropped.
Douglas border crossing incident
On November 25, 2009, Goodman was detained for upwards of 90 minutes at the Douglas border crossing into Canada while en route to a scheduled meeting at the Vancouver Public Library. Canadian border officials interrogated her and her colleagues on their intended topics of discussion at the meeting. After extended questioning, it transpired that they wanted to know whether she would be speaking about the 2010 Olympic Games to be held in Canada.
"I was completely surprised by what he was asking and did not know what he was getting at. I'm an anti-sports fan," she told a CBC Radio interviewer. "At Democracy Now, we don't cover sports much."
Goodman was eventually permitted to enter Canada after the customs authorities took four photographs of her and stapled a "control document" into her passport demanding that she leave Canada within 48 hours. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann commented: "If you‘re that desperate to prevent criticism of some Olympic games, you shouldn‘t detain a noted commentator and write her scripts for her."
Dave Zirin of the Huffington Post quotes Derrick O'Keefe, co-chair of the Canadian Peace Alliance, as saying: "It's pretty unlikely that the harassment of a well-known and respected journalist like Amy Goodman about whether she might be speaking about the Olympics was the initiative of one over-zealous, bad-apple Canadian border guard. This looks like a clear sign of the chill that the IOC and the Games' local corporate boosters want to put out against any potential dissent."
2004 — The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them co-written with her brother, Mother Jones reporter David Goodman. ISBN 1-4013-0799-X
2006 — Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People who Fight Back (also with David Goodman). She appeared on the Colbert Report on October 5, 2006 to promote the book. ISBN 1-4013-0293-9
2008 — Standing up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times (also with David Goodman) details the capabilities of ordinary citizens to enact change. Was on the New York Times bestseller list. ISBN 1-4013-2288-3
2009 — Breaking the Sound Barrier (with a preface by journalist Bill Moyers), an anthology of columns written for King Features Syndicate. In her first piece she wrote: "My column will include voices so often excluded, people whose views the media mostly ignore, issues they distort and even ridicule." ISBN 1-931859-99-X
In 2006, Goodman narrated the film The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern. Directed by Stephen Vittoria, the documentary chronicles the life and times of George McGovern, focusing on his failed 1972 bid for the presidency. The film features McGovern, Gloria Steinem, Gore Vidal, Warren Beatty, Howard Zinn, Ron Kovic, and Dick Gregory. The film won the Sarasota Film Festival's award for "Best Documentary Feature."
Goodman has received dozens of awards for her work, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award. In 2001, she declined to accept the Overseas Press Club Award, in protest of the group's pledge not to ask questions of keynote speaker Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and because the OPC was honouring Indonesia for their improved treatment of journalists despite the fact that its forces had recently beaten and killed reporters in occupied East Timor.
On October 1, 2008, Goodman was named as a recipient of the 2008 Right Livelihood Award, and often refers to it as the "Alternative Nobel Prize" ... the first journalist to be so honored. The Right Livelihood Award Foundation cited her work in "developing an innovative model of truly independent grassroots political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media." The prize was awarded in the Swedish Parliament on December 8, 2008.
On March 31, 2009, Goodman was the recipient (along with Glenn Greenwald) of the first Izzy Awards for independent media, named after journalist I. F. Stone. The award is presented by Ithaca College's Park Center for Independent Media.
The granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi, Goodman has relatives, including two granduncles, who died in The Holocaust. Goodman describes herself as a secular Jew. She grew up in Bay Shore, New York.
