 | |
| Genre | News program,current affairs |
|---|---|
| Running time | 60 minutes daily (Monday thru Friday) |
| Home station | WBAI |
| Syndicates |
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| Hosted by |
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| Produced by | Mike Burke |
| Executive producer(s) | Amy Goodman |
| Recording studio | New York City |
| Original release | February 19, 1996; 29 years ago (1996-02-19) – present |
| Audio format | Stereophonic sound |
| Opening theme | "Need to Know" byIncognito |
| Ending theme | "Kid You'll Move Mountains" byManitoba |
| Website | www |
Democracy Now! is an hour-long TV, radio, and Internet news program based inManhattan and hosted by journalistsAmy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer),Juan González,[1][2] and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at 8 a.m.Eastern Time, is broadcast on the Internet and via more than 1,400 radio and television stations worldwide.[3]
The program combines news reporting, interviews, investigative journalism and political commentary from a progressive perspective. It documents social movements, struggles for justice, activism challenging corporate power and operates as a watchdog outfit regarding the effects ofAmerican foreign policy.[2]Democracy Now! views as its aim to give activists and the citizenry a platform to debate people from "the establishment".[2] The show is described asprogressive[4] by fans as well as critics, but Goodman rejects that label, calling the program a global newscast that has "people speaking for themselves".[1]Democracy Now! describes its staff as "includ[ing] some of this country's leading progressive journalists."[5]
Democracy Now Productions, the independent media nonprofit organization that producesDemocracy Now!,[2] is funded entirely through contributions from listeners, viewers,[6] and foundations such as thePark Foundation,[7]Ford Foundation,[8]Lannan Foundation,[9] and the J.M. Kaplan Fund.[10][11] It has over $36 million in assets and about a $10 million annual budget.[12]Democracy Now! does not accept advertisers, corporate underwriting or government funding.[13] The show has become popular on the internet, and from the late 2010s onward, has been involved in pioneering extensive media cooperation in the public sphere across the US.[2]
Democracy Now!, also calledDemocracy Now! The War and Peace Report,Democracy Now Independent Global News, orDemocracy News, was founded on February 19, 1996, atWBAI in New York City by journalistsAmy Goodman,Juan González,Larry Bensky,Salim Muwakkil, and Julie Drizin.[14][2] It originally aired on fivePacifica Radio stations.[1] Goodman is the program's principal host, with Juan González andNermeen Shaikh as frequent co-hosts.[13]Jeremy Scahill, aninvestigative reporter and co-founding editor forThe Intercept andDrop Site News,[15] has been a frequent contributor since 1997.[1]
The show covered theSeattle protests (1999) targeting theWorld Trade Organization.[2]
Democracy Now! partnered withFree Speech TV (FSTV) andDeep Dish Television to cover the2000 Democratic National Convention.[16] The event marked a turning point forDemocracy Now!, as in addition to its presence on radio, it became a television show.[17] From then onward,Democracy Now! has had their content promoted and broadcast on FSTV.[18]
Democracy Now! began broadcasting on television every weekday shortly after September 11, 2001, and is the only public medium in the U.S. that airs simultaneously on satellite and cable television, radio, and the internet.[19]
Democracy Now! has been critical of theTrans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.[20] After data disclosures by thewhistleblower organizationWikiLeaks regarding the TPP in 2010,Democracy Now! has given a significant media platform and extensively covered them since, and like some other news networks cooperated with its leaderJulian Assange.[21] Coverage of WikiLeaks byDemocracy Now! was sympathetic.[22]
In 2011, reporter Sharif Abdel Kouddous covered theEgyptian revolution forDemocracy Now!.[23]
On February 19, 2016,Democracy Now! marked 20 years on the air with an hour-long retrospective look back at "two decades of independent, unembedded news", with highlights chosen from over 5,000 episodes.[24] Amy Goodman also published a book entitledDemocracy Now!: 20 Years Covering the Movements Changing America,[25] and launched a 100-city tour across the United States to mark the 20th anniversary ofDemocracy Now!, with scheduled broadcasts of the show recorded during her travels.[26]
Democracy Now! began as a radio program broadcast from the studios ofWBAI, a localPacifica Radio station in New York City. In early September 2001, amid a months-long debate over the mission and management of Pacifica,Democracy Now! was forced out of the WBAI studios. Goodman took the program to theDowntown Community Television Center located in a converted firehouse building in New York City'sChinatown, where the program began to be televised.[27][28] Only a few days later on September 11, 2001Democracy Now! was the closest national broadcast toGround Zero. On that day Goodman and colleagues continued reporting beyond their scheduled hour-long time slot in what became an eight-hour marathon broadcast. Following9/11, in addition to radio and television,Democracy Now! expanded their multimedia reach to includecable,satellite radio, Internet, andpodcasts.[27]
In November 2009,Democracy Now! left their broadcast studio in the converted DCTV firehouse, where they had broadcast for eight years, and moved to a repurposed graphic arts building in theChelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.[28] In 2010, the new 8,500-square-foot[29]Democracy Now! studio became the first radio or television studio in the nation to receiveLEED Platinum certification,[30][31] the highest rating awarded by theU.S. Green Building Council.
Democracy Now! is the flagship program of thePacifica Radio network.[32] It also airs on severalNPR member stations. The television simulcast airs onpublic-access television and severalPBS stations; by satellite onFree Speech TV andLink TV, andfree-to-air onC Band.[33][34]Democracy Now! is also available on the Internet as downloadable andstreaming audio and video.[35] In total, nearly 1,400 television and radio stations broadcastDemocracy Now! worldwide.[3][36]
I think it's probably the most significantprogressive news institution that has come around in some time.
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including theGracie Award fromAmerican Women in Radio & Television;[38] theGeorge Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentaryDrilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on theChevron Corporation and the deaths of two Nigerian villagers protesting an oil spill;[39] and Goodman withAllan Nairn won Robert F. Kennedy Memorial's First Prize in International Radio for their 1993 report,Massacre: The Story of East Timor, which involved first-hand coverage ofgenocide during theIndonesian occupation of East Timor.[40]
On October 1, 2008,Goodman was named as a recipient of the 2008Right Livelihood Award,[41] in connection with her years of work establishingDemocracy Now! and in 2009, she, like her frequent guestGlenn Greenwald, was awarded the first annual Izzy Award (named after journalistI. F. "Izzy" Stone) for "special achievement in independent media".[42] Her co-host Juan González was inducted into the New York chapter of theSociety of Professional Journalists' Hall of Fame on November 19, 2015.[43][44]
Three journalists withDemocracy Now!—including principal hostAmy Goodman, and news producers Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous—were detained by police during their reporting on the2008 Republican National Convention protests in Saint Paul, Minnesota.[45] Salazar was filming as officers in fullriot gear charged her area. As she yelled "Press!" she was knocked down and told to put her face in the ground while another officer dragged her backward by her leg across the pavement. The video footage of the incident was immediately posted on the Internet, leading to a large public outcry against her arrest. When a second producer, Kouddous, approached, he too was arrested, and charged with afelony. According to a press release byDemocracy Now!, Goodman herself was arrested after confronting officers regarding the arrest of her colleagues. The officers had established a line of "crowd control", and ordered Goodman to move back. Goodman claims she was arrested after being pulled through the police line by an officer, and subsequently (as well as Kouddous) had her press credentials for the convention physically stripped from her by aSecret Service agent.[36][46] All were held on charges of "probable cause for riot".[47] A statement was later released by the city announcing that all "misdemeanor charges for presence at an unlawful assembly for journalists" would be dropped. The felony charges against Salazar and Kouddous were also dropped.[48]
Goodman, Salazar, and Kouddous subsequently filed a lawsuit against the cities ofSt. Paul and Minneapolis as well as other defendants.[48] According to Baher Asmy of theCenter for Constitutional Rights, "[a]ll three plaintiffs that are journalists withDemocracy Now reached a final settlement with the city of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the United States Secret Service, that will resolve the claims that they had against them from unlawful and quite violent arrests." The settlement includes $100,000 in compensation and a promise of police training.[36][49]
In September 2016, an arrest warrant for criminal trespass was issued for Amy Goodman after covering forDemocracy Now! theDakota Access Pipeline protests during which guards unleashed dogs and pepper spray on protesters inMorton County, North Dakota.[50][51][52] An arrest warrant was reportedly also issued for Green Party presidential candidateJill Stein and her running mate,Ajamu Baraka.[50][51][52]
Goodman elected to turn herself in. Three days before the court date, the charges were increased to engaging in a riot, which carried a penalty of up to 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine.[53] On October 17, 2016, the judge quickly dismissed the charges, but Morton County prosecutors insisted the case is still open and that they may pursue further charges in the future.[53][54] Goodman asserted the importance of freedom of the press and said thatDemocracy Now! would continue covering the developing situation in North Dakota.[53][54]
| Guest(s) | First Appearance(s) | Episode or Guest Notoriety |
|---|---|---|
| Mumia Abu-Jamal | February 24, 1997 | In its first year,Democracy Now! was one of the first national programs to air radio commentaries from the controversial journalist and formerBlack Panther Party member, on death row in Pennsylvania for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer. The 1997 decision to air Abu-Jamal's commentaries causedDemocracy Now! to lose twelve of its then 36 affiliates.[55] |
| Tariq Ali, Christopher Hitchens | December 4, 2003 October 12, 2004 | Took opposing sides in two debates over theIraq War, on December 4, 2003,[56] and October 12, 2004.[57][58] |
| Noam Chomsky | July 11, 1996 | A regularly interviewed guest;MIT linguistics professor, political analyst, and author.[59][60] |
| PresidentBill Clinton | November 8, 2000 | When Clinton called WBAI on Election Day 2000[61] for a quickget-out-the-vote message, Goodman and WBAI's Gonzalo Aburto challenged him for 28 minutes with human rights questions aboutLeonard Peltier,racial profiling, theIraq sanctions,Ralph Nader, the death penalty, theNorth American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the normalization of relations withCuba, and theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict. Clinton defended his administration's policies and charged Goodman with being "hostile and combative".[62] |
| Angela Davis | October 12, 2010 | Interviewed various times on the show, Davis is aprison abolitionist,communist, and scholar. Davis' interviews have featured topics such as theprison industrial complex,Palestine and theBoycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, US politics and the demonetization of radicals, and her past activism.[63][64][65] She was also interviewed in the summer of 2020 during theGeorge Floyd uprisings, speaking on the political moment and spread of abolitionist ideas.[66] |
| Alan Dershowitz, Norman G. Finkelstein | September 24, 2003 | Finkelstein is a frequent guest. This was a much publicized debate about whether the Dershowitz book,The Case for Israel was plagiarized and inaccurate. Dershowitz has written that he agreed to appear on the show after being told he would debateNoam Chomsky, not Finkelstein.[67] See also:Dershowitz–Finkelstein affair. |
| Naomi Klein | June 13, 1997 | Author, public intellectual, and critic of globalization andcorporate capitalism. Notable interview on March 9, 2011.[60][68] |
| Winona LaDuke | September 4, 1996 | Ojibwe activist and former Green Vice Presidential Candidate.[69] |
| Ralph Nader | June 14, 1996 | A regularly interviewed guest; consumer activist, corporate critic, author, and former presidential candidate.[60][70] |
| Robert Reich, Chris Hedges | July 26, 2016 | Clinton Administration Secretary of LaborRobert Reich and Pulitzer-winning investigative journalistChris Hedges debated on the role ofBernie Sanders supporters afterHillary Clinton won the 2016 Democratic nomination for president of the United States. Reich encouraged progressives to unite the party behind Clinton (as Sanders had already endorsed her), while Hedges endorsedJill Stein of theGreen Party of the United States, denouncing the "lesser of two evils" approach.[71] |
| Arundhati Roy | December 15, 2008 | Recurring guest; Indian writer,anti-war activist, and leading figure in thealter-globalization movement.[60][72] |
| Kshama Sawant | January 6, 2014 | Seattle City Council member and member ofSocialist Alternative, who made history in 2013 by becoming the first independent socialist to win election in Seattle for nearly 100 years. A frequent guest, including after her successful re-election campaign in November 2019.[73] |
| Joseph Stiglitz | June 6, 2012 | Recurring guest; Nobel Laureate economist; former Chief Economist of theWorld Bank; Chief Economist at theRoosevelt Institute |
| Studs Terkel | November 27, 2008 | Another radio broadcaster who collected stories from everyday people.[74][75] |
| Roger Waters | December 30, 2009 | English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who co-foundedPink Floyd.[76][77] |
| Edward Snowden | June 10, 2013 | American whistleblower who revealed unlawful mass surveillance carried out by the US government while working as a contractor.[78] |
| Katharine Gun | July 19, 2019 | British whistleblower whose attempts to expose lies about the Iraq invasion was called "the most important and courageous leak" in history.[79] |
| Greta Thunberg | September 10, 2019 | Swedish climate activist who sailed from Europe to America.[80] |
Democracy Now! has featured appearances fromGreen Party candidateJill Stein during the2016 United States presidential election.[2]
According to a 2016–17Quantcast survey, "democracynow.org reaches over 395K U.S. monthly people".[81]
in the hallowed halls, they're not in touch
Goodman herself lays the credit--or blame--for the program's success squarely at the well-rested feet of the mainstream newsmakers who, she said, leave "a huge niche" for Democracy Now! "They just mine this small circle of blowhards who know so little about so much. And yet it's just the basic tenets of good journalism that instead of this small circle of pundits, you talk to people who live at the target end of the policy,"
tariq ali democracy now.
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