How Media Silences Anti-War Voices (w/ Amy Goodman) (youtube.com)
30 years doing real news, real stories. Since 1996. They were a radio show. Once people heard it, people just wanted more, they wanted to have the show on their channels, they ended up with like 1500. 'We believe you have to go where people are,' whether TV or TikTok. No borders.
'We're going to where the silence is. We're covering stories that the rest of the media maybe has pundits on, if they cover it at all ... It's people describing their unique experiences, and from that we have to make a decision. What laws, what are the practices of our country, and that's how democracy works. Independent media is essential ...'
'When the White House says it's unpatriotic to ask questions, it's precisely when we have to ask questions.'
The distinction (why Goodman was called an 'activist' instead of a 'journalist' is between media that challenges power and media that accommodates power, not actual activism versus journalism.
'The way that it's used is to demean and to marginalize and to disrupt people that are truth tellers.'
'Who do you serve? Do you serve power, or not?'
'Who do you serve? You're actually the activist, becaues you're serving power, you're serving the corporations that own you, you're playing their game, and you have a very clear agenda.'
There are a lot of journalists who want to ask the hard questions, but they are just compromised by the companies they work for, noted a guest. Goodwin created a model that allows her to do that, without interruption. That really is the difference. Who are you accountable to? Who do you serve? What compromises are you forced to make.
People are not apathetic, Goodwin noted, considering Haitians gunned down when they ran for office or Americans largely not voting.
Clinton and Gingrich teamed up and passed the Telecommunications Act which lifted restrictions on ownership of local media, and it went from hundreds of local stations to now consolidated into just a handful. A few corporations and billionaire owners controlling the outlets, and their first priority is not to the news, it's not to the journalists who work for them. It's to the sharedholders, to their board of directors. They traded the integrity of the news organizations for special favors.
Why isn't there a law prohibiting owning more than 5 local networks, and even at 5 you should demonstrate some reason and interest in having all those 5 instead of just 1 or 2. Can't you require that who owns/runs a news organization actually take part in it?
'I don't think it's whether you have a view,' said Goodman. 'I think it's whether you are fair and accurate.'
She talked about how she had a guest on once, and before the guest came on she saw that Goodman had published an op taking the other side, but Goodwin challenged her saying 'So you're dropping out?' and she wouldn't drop out so she came on, but then after the debate she called Goodwin and said it was the fairest debate she'd ever been involved in. How many corporate news agencies can say the same?
'It's just straight up journalism. It's not advocacy. It's just a pure belief in what's good and fighting for that with everything that she's got.'
Democracy Now also has all their 30 years available publicly. Unlike maybe CNN or other big ones where they don't keep things past 6 months or it's paywalled, noted one guy.
Over the 30 years there's a record of many times the media has failed to pick up the story but Democracy Now has picked it up.
Goodwin talked about recent protests in Canada where police used dogs that bit native american protesters. No news covered it except them basically. But then it took off, and the big news agencies were using Democracy Now's footage, and Goodwin was like 'Good', and the democracy is called 'Steal This Story Please.'
The film already has 75 theaters and they expect to double that after they do NY, and they've won 8 audience awards, which tells them that even though big movie companies want you to believe all people want is true crime and celebrity films, there is a hunger out there for political content, for films that speak to this moment. ... Also, by the film being in these art house theaters it's helping bolster arts because art is dangerous now, and it's also under attack. These theaters that are daring to play this film, they're suffering from cuts, they're losing funding, alongside the journalists.