AMY GOODMAN
The indie radio journalist takes aim at government lies, TV's cheerleaders for war, and the oil tank
By Joe Piasecki
President Bill Clinton called her "hostile, combative, and even disrespectful." Ex- Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told her: "I have advised my mother to talk to no reporters because of ... people like you." But nothing is about to stop Democracy Now! radio host Amy Goodman from asking impolite, bare-knuckled questions of public officials. The Washington D.C.-born Harvard graduate got her start in journalism after she turned a college paper about dangerous contraceptive injections given to thousands of inner-city women into an exposé. Inspired, she immediately signed up for courses on radio documentary, and more than 20 years later, Goodman's show is a cornerstone of the Pacifica Radio Network. Democracy Now! is broadcast locally on KPFK (90.7 FM) weekdays at 6 and 9 p.m., offering an important alternative to mainstream broadcast media. She cites a study by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting that found in the week leading up to war in Iraq that out of a sampling of 393 guests on network TV, only three represented antiwar viewpoints. "That is a media beating the drums for war," Goodman says. "If we had state media in this country, how would it be any different?"
The New York-based journalist is now celebrating the publication of her first book (co-written with brother David Goodman), The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them. "That's our job," she says of the book title and her role as reporter. "To be exceptions to the rulers."
- Joe Piasecki
CityBeat: Al Franken just helped launch a liberal-minded talk radio network, Air America. Hasn't Pacifica been doing that for 55 years?
Amy Goodman: The more diversity of channels there are, the better, and that means diversity of ownership as well. It doesn't matter how many there are if they're all saying the same thing. It is so important for people to have different avenues to get information. Pacifica Radio is the oldest independent media network in this country. It cannot get celebrated and written about enough. We're picking up one or two stations a week. It's incredible.
There's a real hunger for a different voice, not that small circle of pundits we see cheerleading for the war. Sometimes it's as if they're all in one room and they just change sets for the various networks. What we're saying is: How about inviting someone in the studio who got it right, someone who was saying the evidence [for war] is not credible? They weren't there a year ago, and they're not there today. They should be.
When we have less than that, then it's a disservice, especially to the men and women in the armed forces of this country. Now over 650 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq. Where was the national debate broadcast on all the networks, whether these men and women should be put in harm's way?
What does that mean for grassroots political movements that seem to be fading as we get closer to the November presidential election?
Politicians blow with the wind. They do polls to figure out what they think. I'm interested in what the people are thinking and doing and caring about, and having those voices heard.
That sounds just like what Ralph Nader said when we interviewed him. What do you think of him?
He is running to bring up issues, because of the way media will hone in on the candidates and too often let them set the agenda. Ralph Nader feels that in order to be part of that discussion, he has to run for president. The media spotlight is on those in power, and I think it should be on everyone, because whomever ends up president is just the employee of the American people. People died for the right to go to the polls. In this country, people mostly don't. But it's not apathy. They feel [their vote] either doesn't matter or they're not represented. When people vote they are making a huge decision, but they need information and that's the role of the media.
In 1991, you traveled to East Timor and narrowly escaped being killed in a massacre of hundreds of villagers by U.S.-armed Indonesian forces.
I was doing a documentary for Pacifica. Soldiers were marching towards the villagers, so we marched into the front of the crowd with the camera and the microphone. They simply swept past us. My colleague, Allan Nairn, threw himself on top of me to protect me. They beat him with their M-16s like they were baseball bats until they fractured his skull. It was horrific and horrifying because they were using U.S. weapons. They lined us up like firing squads. I threw my passport at them saying "American." Then one of them just kicked me in the stomach. In the end they decided not to kill us because, I think, we were from the same country their weapons are from.
That's very different from the many reporters in Iraq who are "embedded."
There's a huge difference. For the very reason the Pentagon calls it a spectacular success, it has to be challenged. Media is supposed to be the exception to the rulers. If reporters are embedded in the front line of troops, what about embedding reporters in Iraqi communities? What about embedding reporters in the peace movement; to show the true effects of war? Why is it so rare to see images of casualties, which, in other countries, are shown all the time? The war was sanitized by the corporate media. I don't even call it the mainstream media any more, because it doesn't represent the mainstream. I think the voices that aren't represented are a majority that has been silenced. Right now, with the number of soldiers who are dying, we know what the government has done. We know that governments lie, but journalists are not supposed to act as a purveyor of those lies. Those lies took lives. The media has reached an all-time low.
In your book you talk about alleged civil rights abuses by Chevron in Nigeria, which you investigated after two demonstrators were killed. You suggest that National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice has something to do with that.
She was on the board of Chevron that whole period, that decade before she became national security advisor. She even had an oil tanker named after her: The Condoleezza Rice. They only took the name off recently because it became embarrassing.
In your book, you also provide charts that suggest contracts to rebuild Iraq are directly proportional to campaign donations to Republicans.
We have to seriously look at crony capitalism, at the corporations making a killing off the killing in Iraq. What were the motivations for invading and who is reaping the benefits?
You ask a lot of uncomfortable questions. Is that easy for you?
We have a responsibility to ask questions. It should not be so unique. It should be standard reporting. We're not there to suck up to politicians. We're there to challenge them and hold them accountable. It's our job.Published: 04/15/2004
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