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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 2009)
Democracy Is Messy PHOTO BY TODD COOPER JOURNALIST AMY GOODMAN WORKS TO CLEAN UP DIRTY POLITICS BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN I f you’re one of those Eugene Weekly readers who opens this paper just to complain about the liberal left- wing media, you’re going to love complaining about Amy Goodman when she speaks at the WOW Hall at noon Monday, Nov. 23. She makes even EW look a little less left as she takes shots at conservatives and Democrats alike. Former President Bill Clinton called her “hostile, combative and even disrespectful” after an interview, while former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich told her, “I have advised my mother to talk to no reporters because of … people like you.” Goodman both writes the headlines and has been in the headlines as one of best- known independent media journalists on the frontlines of the news, and as an outspoken critic of U.S. policy and politicians. She is one of the hosts of Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report, which is broadcast from New York City to 800 stations across the country including UO’s KWVA 88.1 and KSOW 106.7 in Cottage Grove as well as on public access television. She comes to Eugene to promote her new book Breaking the Sound Barrier, with the book’s editor and former Democracy Now! staffer Denis Moynihan. INDEPENDENT MEDIA Goodman has made her niche covering the stories the mainstream media does not or will not deal with. In 1991 she traveled to Southeast Asia to report on the Indonesian occupation of East Timor and witnessed Indonesian soldiers gunning down 270 East Timorese men, women and children. The soldiers beat her and fellow journalist Allan Nairn as they covered the murders. Their subsequent documentary, Massacre: The Story of East Timor, won awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting. In 2004 while the mainstream press was repeating the U.S. offi cial party line that Haiti’s fi rst democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, had resigned, she interviewed Aristide and reported his claims that he had been forced out by the U.S. military. After Democracy Now!’s website received more than 3.5 million hits on the story, the mainstream media began to cover it, in what Goodman calls “trickle up journalism.” These and other stories that otherwise would have gone uncovered, undercovered or unnoticed are Goodman and Democracy Now!’s bread and butter. Though her radio program draws in more left-leaning media consumers than conservative listeners, she says, as a reporter, “Of course journalists have opinions, but what’s important is that people are fair and accurate.” She says, “We’re involved in two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and news is brought to you by a media that is profi ting.” Goodman points out the irony of hearing news about the current health care debate on TV stations funded by commercials paid for by drug companies. That’s why she says independent media is important and why alternatives to big corporate media outlets like public radio and alternative weeklies like EW are needed. She says, “You look at everything from global warming to the economic meltdown to health care. You look at the corporate media and who has the microphone through which we learn about it.” And of the issues in the news today she says, “Of course the economy is extremely serious. Rates of unemployment are so much higher in communities of color. Poverty is a dire issue. Global warming is critical.” Goodman says Democracy Now! will travel to Copenhagen to broadcast about the climate talks next month. Finally On Monday, Nov. 23, at noon at the WOW Hall Goodman will read from and speak about her new book Breaking the Sound Barrier. The event will begin with an introduction by the book’s editor, Denis Moynihan, and end with a Q&A. Tickets are $5 at the door. The event is sponsored by Eugene Weekly and is a benefi t for KWVA and Eugene Peace- Works. Organizers say people are welcome to bring their lunches. WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM she says, “There’s no more serious an issue a country can engage in than war.” Goodman is found not only in independent media sources (aka the indie media) that operate on donations and public funding; she’s also gone a little more mainstream with a weekly syndicated column distributed through King Features, the same company that carries Spiderman and Blondie comic strips and the “Ask Dr. Ruth” column. While EW doesn’t carry Goodman’s column for lack of space (feel free to bug us about that,) it’s available at democracynow.org and in major newspapers, including The Oregonian. Goodman’s book is comprised of selected stories from her weekly column (see sidebar). The column and the book, both titled Breaking the Sound Barrier, give editorial commentary on the news Goodman reports on Democracy Now! Listening or watching the show, the audience gets what Goodman says is essential — fair and accurate reporting. Reading the column gets you Goodman’s take on the story. A recent program featured an interview with the family of a soldier who died in Iraq. His parents were denied a presidential letter of condolence for his death from Obama because of a policy against such letters for military suicides. Goodman asks the questions and lets the interviewees tell their own story of their son’s death and their attempts to get the White House to acknowledge he died serving his country. EUGENE WEEKLY NOVEMBER 19, 2009 13
