Gotta love Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! .......

[marmar]

...... I was just watching a DN! episode on YouTube, and Amy was running through the news headlines, which included ISIS, the Climate talks and the Jefferson County, Colo. school board's plans to change the history curriculum.
Now in all the corporate media's news stories on Jefferson County, they've used the school board's official language to describe the proposed changes: "promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights"
Amy's words when describing the changes: "to promote corporatism and deference to authority."

Amy,

[orpupilofnature57]

1. She's Thomas Paine !!!!

[grahamhgreen]

2. Best American news source, by far.

[onwardsand upwards]

3. Amy shows the world what true journalism looks like.

The "mainstream" (i.e., corporate) media look like cowardly munchkins in her shadow ...

[SheilaT]

4. I've been listening to her for more than ten years now,

and have had the pleasure of seeing her speak in person several times.

My local community radio station has her on at 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. with BBC news before and after, plus they do other programming. I wake up every morning to her, and usually listen to at least some of the BBC also.

Most evenings I watch the Rachel Maddow Show, and I read the local newspaper. No TV, so I never see what passes for Mainstream news, other than Rachel. And then there's DU. I feel as if I'm quite well informed, and I don't get the crap that MSM passes off as news. What I most specifically don't get, along with no political ads at all, is the way some truly irrelevant story gets hyped to the exclusion of genuine news. Unfortunately, here on DU the equivalent happens when six hundred threads get started on the same topic, and sometimes that topic is one of the stupid and irrelevant items of non news.

[Thespian2]

10. Right On, SheilaT.

I never watch the MSM, thanks to the internet. More people should follow your process and advice.

[RufusTFirefly]

14. Totally agree, SheilaT!

I don't watch any TV (not even Rachel) and for the most part all I'm deprived of is celebrity gossip and non-stories that the corporate media convert into something that they flog for days. (The "Dean Scream" is the gold standard for such manipulation.)

Unfortunately, corporate media propaganda spreads like a virus, so unless you are completely isolated, it's difficult to escape hearing about "the story that everyone is talking about", even though it is often wrong, irrelevant, or blown completely out of proportion.

The spate of DU threads on the breathless topic du jour is probably an indication that some folks are so deeply immersed in the Through the Looking Glass world of the corporate media that they're no longer even aware of the extent to which they're being manipulated. (As an aside, I consider "great commercial" to be an oxymoron.)

Another pet peeve is something I liken to dueling sports mascots. Some folks get so caught up in the back-and-forth sniping between TV personalities that they mistake this for the actual game. Personally, I don't care whether someone on the lefthand side of the corporate media spectrum (i.e. a centrist) gets off a real zinger about a rival on the righthand side. First of all, the two shows are unlikely to have cross-over audiences, so it's a case of preaching to the converted, and secondly (and more importantly), it's nothing more than a distraction.

[valerief]

5. Amazing Amy is a real journalist. nt

[RufusTFirefly]

6. K & R! A genuine American hero

She's no blow-dried newsreader. She's a feisty reporter who seems to live by the old adage, "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

I've met her twice and met Juan once. Seem like really nice people. Their fame and tenacious pursuit of the tough stories hasn't turned them into jerks.

Haven't yet met Nermeen though...

[SunSeeker]

7. Amy Goodman is badass!

[Cleita]

8. Never miss her show. It's the only one that exposes the lies

and selective reporting of the corporate media.

[Enthusiast]

9. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!

You are so right, marmar!

[Orrex]

11. She's excellent. I wish I could listen live on my commute.

[RufusTFirefly]

15. Depending on when you leave, have you considered downloading an MP3 file?

That's what I've done in the past.

If you're on the West Coast, depending on when you leave, it can definitely work. Elsewhere, perhaps not.

[Orrex]

16. I do that, or I stream it when I get home.

Good idea to download it, so I can listen on my drive, rather than hearing NPR bash Obama for 45 minutes every morning.

[liberal_at_heart]

12. Definitely love Amy Goodman!

[Beringia]

13. She is great

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. She's a troublemaker, a whistleblower, and has opinions. We need more like her. K&R

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. kick

[ellennelle]

19. agreed, but....

if you love her as much as you say you do, or as much as i do, you'd go directly to her website to watch all archived shows, plus extra interview footage and articles:

democracynow.org

why utube?

[JEB]

20. One of the best in the business.

[MrMickeysMom]

21. With the few left for whom we can donate… DN will get our support this year...

It's just too important not to keep supporting what she does.

[zeemike]

22. I don't watch TV but get my DN from you tube.

It may not be the latest but it is still the best news source we have in this country.
They are real journalist unlike most of the MSM.

[G_j]

23. She's solid, an absolute treasure!

one of the very best.

[RoccoR5955]

24. Amy Goodman

is one of the best people I know. She is honest, down to earth, and is not afraid to tell the truth in her newscast after doing intensive research. I trust her over any other news person on the planet!

[ReRe]

25. K&R

I don't need to tell anyone how much I appreciate Amy, do I? I mention something I seen on her show about every other day. Ever since this new enemy (IS) popped up a couple months ago, I had been hoping to see him on DemocracyNow to give us the low-down on what's really going on over there. And on Friday, there he was with Amy.

I highly encourage all DUers to get hooked on Amy.

Explore the archives 24/7/365 at http://www.DemocracyNow.org

[tuhaybey]

26. Kind of iffy on her

I used to love Democracy Now, but then I listened to some live coverage she did of a protest I was participating in, and I have to say, she totally hammed that protest up like there was no tomorrow... For example, the cops were actually being totally, impressively, cool and peaceful. I saw many, many, protesters like standing inches in front of some cops' face just screaming the worst insults they could come up with at them for no real reason, just itching for a fight. A number of the protesters at those things are always pretty much just there to get themselves arrested, and that sometimes takes some doing to pull off... Everybody I saw get arrested at that protest (not so at other protests I've been at) frankly totally deserved to be arrested. They generally had to do something that really was dangerous to others before the cops would arrest them. And the cops were still all please and thank you sir the whole time. A lot of them were making a huge point to smile and try to get to know the protesters a bit and whatnot. I was really impressed by them throughout. But to hear Amy Goodman tell it, it was basically a war zone with storm trooper cops just marching through beating every peaceful protester they could find senseless for no reason... Since then, I've been kind of skeptical of everything I hear on there. I still listen to it sometimes, but there is always a little voice in the back of my head saying that at least some of it is bs.

[daredtowork]

29. Was that Oakland?

I saw a lot of cop-provoking at the Oakland Occupy marches, and it really bothered me.

I'm a huge supporter of Occupy, and I'm disappointed that people just packed it in over the weather. But I think the points should have been made through massive popular turnout and popular speaking platforms. The constant cop provoking for a photo-op was just lame.

[U4ikLefty]

33. "Cop provoking"....what kind? Like Michael Brown provoking, or Kelly Thomas provoking?

I was actually involved in Occupy & watched live streams of my friends in Oakland get violently assaulted by the cops in real time.

The pigs were looking for a reason during Occupy.

[daredtowork]

43. Not what I saw

What I saw was kids constantly running up at cops and trying to provoke them while the cops were being extremely patient and unperturbed about the whole thing.

I believe passionately in exposing real police violence, but I don't think *creating* or *faking* the police violence will help that cause. What I saw in Oakland was a relentless stream of attempts to provoke the police for the sake of creating some media event.

This was during the march. I don't question that actual police violence occurred in the course of displacing the people that were actually camped in Frank Ogawa Plaza.

[U4ikLefty]

59. cool story bro

[tuhaybey]

54. No, DC

Way back when

[Kalidurga]

32. Oh do tell us more I am dying to hear it since you were there and all.

[yurbud]

48. wow--do you have video of abusive behavior that she didn't cover?

[tuhaybey]

56. She was just kind of hamming it up

I mean, that's kind of what all news media does is ham news up a bit to make it more exciting, but IMO, at least in regard to that protest, she was doing it a bit much for my taste... Like fundamentally, she was making it sounds like a terrifying place to be when in reality people were mostly pretty much having a good time. There was a lot of singing, dancing, etc... I've been to protests where there was a very different situation with a lot of teargas and all that kind of stuff, but that wasn't happening at all at this one really, and she made it sound like it was way worse than Seattle for example.

[yurbud]

57. Amy has been in some truly hairy situations like the midst of a genocide in East Timor

It doesn't seem likely that she would overstate police abuse given that she has seen much worse.

[tuhaybey]

58. She's kind of a Michael Moore type IMO

Let me put it this way. I was there for the first day and thought everything was surprisingly chill and amicable. Then the second day I couldn't head down there until after work, so I listened to her broadcast at work. I was totally shocked to hear what was going on there. I couldn't believe that the calm, peaceful, protest I had been at the day before had somehow descended into that kind of chaos and violence. I was torn about whether it would be a bad idea to head down there given how bad it apparently was. It was one of those times in life that you need to pull together your courage. Then I got there and nope, same as the first day. A cop was dancing with a big puppet, a DJ was playing, no problems...

It wasn't like she was just totally fabricating things I guess. It was more the tone. Like a cop would be standing beside his horse holding his baton down at his side negotiating with a protester about how if they would just back up 15 feet, he'd let them stay there or whatever and they'd agree, begrudgingly, to back up 15 feet... Then she'd report in a frantic voice that the police were driving the protesters back with batons and horses and talk about how she wasn't sure whether she would be able to hold her position, but then would decide to risk it and stay so that she could keep her listeners informed as long as possible... Meanwhile she's sitting at a folding table under an event tent with a bunch of sound equipment and staff and people walking past pointing at her and whispering to each other that they think that might be Amy Goodman. So, yeah, maybe she interpreted the cop holding a baton and having his horse nearby as a threat? Maybe she really was worried that the cops would put the protesters back another 15 feet and she'd have to move her table? But personally I think it sounded more like she was just trying to get whatever positive press for the protest she could, which meant painting the cops as the bad guys, so that's what she did.

Anyways, I still listen to her show sometimes. Her interviews I like a lot more than her reporting. But I kind of put her in the same camp as Michael Moore or Paul Watson or somebody. She's there first and foremost to have a particular impact on the national discussion about various issues and that impact is much more important than accuracy. She's an activist first and a journalist second. And there is nothing wrong with that. Heck, if somebody dropped a vast listening audience in my lap tomorrow, I might do the same thing. But, personally, I would just rather get my news from somebody who is a journalist first and an activist second or not an activist at all.

[yurbud]

60. which protest was this again?

[tuhaybey]

61. IMF/World Bank protest in DC

The protests against the structural adjustment strategy of the IMF and World Bank in 2000.

[Kath1]

27. Amy kicks ass!

And she is totally right on when it comes to the school issue.

I love it that all those high school students walked out and protested against this. Gives me hope for the future. those kids are right. Education should not promote things like "patriotism/free markets/citizenship." Education should be about education.

[blackbart99]

31. Do you remember when she got arrested?

That look on her face broke my heart...I was sure democracy died that day.

She is the last of a dying breed.

[Rod Beauvex]

28. It's a great show.

No wonder my NPR stations got rid of it. Too progressive.

I used to listen to 89.5 ETSU, but kicking off DN was the last straw.

[ucrdem]

30. Tough call. She was much better before 9/11.

And she jumped the shark entirely when Obama won in 2008. Long and short, the show is unreliable as a news source. What you get is a particular line that favors a particular kind of story -- Arab Spring, Occupy, Assange-Snowden-Greenwald-Chomsky etc -- so if you like that stuff, sure, it's a good show. But no better than Limbaugh on most days and whether Amy G realizes it or not she's catapulting somebody's propaganda. Ditto Pacifica. Whose I don't know, but I don't agree with it and it seems inimical to actual political progress as we discuss it here. So with all its many flaws, NPR winds up being a better source for news than Pacifica or DN.

[U4ikLefty]

34. Saying that Amy's show is "no better than Limbaugh on most days"

shows me how much credibility you possess.

[ucrdem]

35. The point is that she deliberately slants the news

to cast Obama and his admin in the worst possible light, very often dishonestly, by omitting context and letting her guests foster false appearances. She gets some little basher like Scahill or Hedges or Cornel West on and encourages them to spew their worst, and they do. If she can't find a fake-left basher she'll settle for a "retired" Bush-Cheney official. Personally I can't stand her rotten show though I suppose it's still better than CNN. But not by much frankly.

[U4ikLefty]

36. You are one who said her show is "no better than Limbaugh on most days" am I correct?

Many DUers have listened to her for years & know her integrity. Your dumb-ass quote above just ridiculous & you should be embarrassed.

I know there are some cheerleaders that don't like her because she doesn't carry water for the Democrats. Tough shit.

[ucrdem]

37. Yes, and as I mentioned, if that sort of thing appeals to you, you like her.

Fine. I'm repelled by it. And listening to somebody's show for years doesn't give them "integrity" any more than Limbaugh and O'Reilly fans confer integrity on those characters.

[mdbl]

38. There's a difference between using the media to mislead rather than inform

Those to whom you compared Amy Goodman use their positions to sway and mislead. Amy just reports what's happening. So yes, she has integrity whereas Limbaugh and O'Reilly have none. I don't know your age, but I remember days before journalism was allowed to turn yellow without penalty. At that time, Limbaugh and O'reilly would have been known for the clown shows they really are.

[ucrdem]

39. What looks information to you looks like disinformation to me.

Examples include Scahill's shameful misreporting of the 2011 Iraq withdrawal and the entire Snowden-Greenwald episode which left in the minds of many, perhaps yourself, the conviction that Snowden had uncovered illegal activity. He did not.

[mdbl]

40. maybe not, just unethical

As far as Snowden is concerned, it's too bad that laws have been passed over the last 20 years to nullify privacy and liberty that makes it so legal. That's the true story. As far as Scahill's concerned, what was misreported? Sorry if I missed it.

[marmar]

41. Nothing was misreported

But reporting truths that cast a Democratic administration in a negative light is considered misreporting by some DUers, sadly.

[ucrdem]

64. Nothing was reported, you mean.

Find the "truths" in this silly gob:

So, you know, I think that because—because it’s a popular Democratic president, I think people have been convinced that things have really radically shifted, and in reality, they haven’t.

And I think a lot of the Bush people stand in awe of what President Obama has been able to do, because they know that they probably wouldn’t have been able to get it done themselves.

So, you know, there are ways in which Obama pushed the Cheney agenda far beyond what a President McCain or a President Romney would have been able to do, because he had his base of supporters.


http://www.democracynow.org/2013/4/24/the_world_is_a_battlefield_jeremy

[yurbud]

46. hardly. When there's good news about Obamacare, she reports it.

[yurbud]

49. so...she would be more objective if she was a cheerleader for Obama?

[yurbud]

50. Do you remember what happened to NPR when Bush was president and appointed their president?

It wasn't pretty, and shows their vulnerability to corporate power both within the government and likely through their corporate underwriters.

They have to be careful not to bite the hand that feeds them (and keeps the lights on).

[alarimer]

52. Because they dare to criticize Obama (who absolutely deserves it)?

It's all well and good when the object of their stories is someone we don't like, but when it's someone we do, well, I guess it's time to throw them under the bus.

The fact is, journalists should not be in the business of supporting any politician. These people are not mere stenographers, like most of the White House press pool.

The fact is Chomsky, et. al, tell the truth about everyone. Just because it's not something you want to here, that doesn't mean it's propaganda.

[Monk06]

42. In terms of her role as an important public intellectual she's on par with Chomski IMO

[yurbud]

44. right after 9/11, Amy was the only sane voice on the radio

for a couple of years after 9/11, I felt like everyone, especially those in power, had lost their fucking minds.

I could find sane, informed analysis online, but Amy was the only human voice I heard saying the same thing (and the rest of the Pacifica gang).

[yurbud]

45. I wonder what our corporate, DLC/centrist/New Democrat friends think of Democracy Now...

I suspect they won't be stopping by to let us know.
[font color=red]
My bad--I see upthread that they did.[/font]

Amy equals Rush Limbaugh?

That would be true if Limbaugh included original reporting, interviews with Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, and Limbaugh had the respect of most of the real human rights activists from around the world.

He does not.

[marmar]

47. A few have. Check out response #30

[jen63]

51. Amy Goodman is a national treasure,

one of the few left. The fact that she hasn't been co-opted, tells you all you need to know about her integrity as a journalist. One of the few who can't be bought. I admire her convictions an wish more would tune in.

[SoapBox]

53. Oh that's good...

And true.

[malaise]

55. She's definitely one of the best

[librechik]

62. our only real news show...

I know there are others, but Amy really counts.

[woo me with science]

63. K&R