Amy Goodman: Books, Biography, Democracy Now, Education - Author Interview (2013)

• published: 18 Dec 2014
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Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman's investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement and Chevron Corporation's role in Nigeria. Since 1996, Goodman has hosted Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the Internet. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Thomas Merton Award in 2004, a Right Livelihood Award in 2008, and an Izzy Award in 2009 for "special achievement in independent media". In 2012, Goodman received the Gandhi Peace Award for a "significant contribution to the promotion of an enduring international peace". Goodman is the author of five books, including the 2012 The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope. In 1991, covering the East Timor independence movement, Goodman and fellow journalist Allan Nairn reported that they were badly beaten by Indonesian soldiers after witnessing a mass killing of Timorese demonstrators in what became known as the Santa Cruz Massacre.[9] 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.[10] 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?'" 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.[12] 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.[13] Democracy Now! subsequently moved to a studio located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.[14] Goodman credits the program's success to the mainstream media organizations who leave "a huge niche" for Democracy Now![12] When President Bill Clinton called WBAI on Election Day 2000[15] 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), the normalization of relations with Cuba, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Clinton defended his administration's policies and charged Goodman with being "hostile and combative". Goodman has received dozens[31] of awards for her work, including the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting (1993, with Allan Nairn)[32] and the George Polk Award (1998, with Jeremy Scahill).[33] In 1999, 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 honoring Indonesia for their improved treatment of journalists despite the fact that its forces had recently beaten and killed reporters in occupied East Timor.[34] On October 2, 2004, Goodman was presented the Islamic Community Award for Journalism by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.[35] On November 18, 2004, she was presented the Thomas Merton Award.[36] In 2006 she received the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Goodman Image By ChrisEaves.com (Amy Goodman Uploaded by Edward) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons