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Amy Goodman is an American broadcast journalist and author. She is best known as the host of Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now! program. As an investigative journalist, Goodman has aggressively pursued human rights violations in East Timor, Nigeria, and other countries.
Goodman was born in Bayshore, New York, in 1957, into a Jewish family. She graduated from Harvard University in 1984.
Goodman was news director of Pacifica Radio station WBAI-FM in New York City for a decade, co-founding Democracy Now! in 1996. The show moved off-site permanently in 2000 as a result of a conflict over control of Pacifica Radio with a group favoring less news and more jazz. The show moved to a converted firehouse (where it is still located) and begun broadcasting "In Exile". Listeners eventually regained control of Pacifica and brought the show back.
In 1991, covering the independence movement in East Timor, Goodman and journalist Allan Nairn were badly beaten by Indonesian soldiers after they witnessed a mass killing of Timorese demonstrators in what became known as the Dili Massacre. She has speculated that having an American passport was the reason why her fate was different from that of Australian journalists who were killed in East Timor in 1975 (the two allege that the weapons sales from the U.S. to the country's Army were continuing; however, whether this was meant as an endorsement by the U.S. government for repression of the East Timorese is questionable, as it would run contradictory to the Clinton administration's human rights concerns over the Suharto regime).
In 2003, Goodman and journalist Jeremy Scahill documented the cooperation in human rights abuses in Nigeria between the Chevron Corporation and the Nigerian army. The company provided transportation for Nigerian forces seeking to stop the sabotage of oil rigs and other Chevron property by villagers who claimed the company was exploiting their land. It is unclear whether the corporation knew for sure that the military would use lethal force against two protesters.
In the run-up to the 2000 presidential election, President Bill Clinton telephoned WBAI to argue in support of Vice President Al Gore over Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. The ensuing interview between Goodman and Clinton, which the president characterized as "hostile", became well known among American progressives.
Goodman has received dozens of awards for her work, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award. In 2001, 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.
Quotes
- "But for the media to name their coverage what the Pentagon calls it -- everyday seeing "Operation Iraqi Freedom" -- you have to ask: "If this were state media, how would it be any different?" - Amy Goodman, Independent Media in a Time of War
- "ou're as mainstream, it seems to me, as anybody." - Tucker Carlson to Amy Goodman, November 12, 2004 interview on Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered
- "When you think of a journalist do you think of a sleazy individual only interested in pop stars, royalty and sex scandals? Amy Goodman can make you think again." (The Socialist UK newspaper 28 01 2005)
External links
- Peace Correspondent: 'Democracy Now!' Host Amy Goodman Is Making Her Voice Heard on Iraq - Published on March 10, 2003 by The Washington Post.
- C-SPAN Booknotes: Amy Goodman on The Exception to the Rulers - June 6, 2004; RealVideo format.
- Independent Media in Time of War - A documentary featuring Amy Goodman in RealVideo format.