Amy Goodman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1957-04-13)April 13, 1957 (age 67) |
| Education | College of the Atlantic Radcliffe College (BA) |
| Awards | Right Livelihood Award |
| Career | |
| Show | Democracy Now! |
| Station | 1,524[1] |
| Network | Pacifica Radio |
| Style | Investigative journalism |
Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957[2]) is an Americanbroadcast journalist,syndicated columnist,investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of theEast Timor independence movement,Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara, andChevron Corporation's role inNigeria.
Since 1996, she has been the main host ofDemocracy Now!, aprogressive global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the Internet. She has received awards for her work, including theThomas Merton Award in 2004, aRight Livelihood Award in 2008, and anIzzy Award in 2009 for "special achievement in independent media".
In 2012, Goodman received theGandhi Peace Award for a "significant contribution to the promotion of an enduring international peace". She is the author of six books, including the 2012The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope,[3] and the 2016Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America.[4] In 2016, she was criminally charged with a riot in connection with her coverage of protests of theDakota Access pipeline.[5] This action was condemned by theCommittee to Protect Journalists. The charges were dismissed by the North Dakota district judge on October 17, 2016.[6]
In 2014 she was awarded theI.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence by Harvard University'sNieman Foundation.
Amy Goodman was born inBay Shore, New York onLong Island[7] to secular Jewish parents who were active in social action groups.[8][9] Her father, George Goodman, was anophthalmologist.[10] Her mother, Dorothy Goodman, was a literature teacher and later a social worker.[11] She has two brothers, David Goodman andSteven N. Goodman.[12] Goodman's maternal grandfather was anOrthodoxrabbi.[13][14] Her maternal grandmother was born inRivne, present day Ukraine.
She graduated fromBay Shore High School in 1975. Goodman studied for a year at theCollege of the Atlantic inBar Harbor, Maine, and graduated in 1984 fromRadcliffe College ofHarvard University with a degree inanthropology.[15][16]
In 1991, covering theEast Timor independence movement, Goodman and fellow journalistAllan Nairn reported that they were badly beaten byIndonesian soldiers after witnessing amass killing of Timorese demonstrators in what became known as theSanta Cruz massacre.[17]
In 1998, Goodman and journalistJeremy Scahill documentedChevron Corporation's role in a confrontation between theNigerian Army and villagers who had seized oil rigs and other equipment belonging to oil corporations. Two villagers were shot and killed during the standoff.[18][19] On May 28, 1998, the company provided helicopter transport to theNigerian Navy andMobile Police (MOPOL) to theirParabe 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. Omole said that Chevron management had requested troops from the government to protect their facility. The documentary made by Goodman and her colleagues,Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, won theGeorge Polk Award in 1998.
Michael Delli Carpini, dean of theAnnenberg School for Communication, said of Goodman: "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?'"[20]
Goodman had been news director ofPacifica Radio stationWBAI in New York City for more than a decade when she co-foundedDemocracy Now! The War and Peace Report in 1996. Since then,Democracy Now! has been described as "probably the most significant progressive news institution that has come around in some time" by professor and media criticRobert McChesney.[21]
In 2001, the show was temporarily pulled off the air, as a result of a conflict between some Pacifica Radio board members and staff members and listeners over the direction of the station. During that time, it moved to a converted firehouse, from which it broadcast from January 2002 for nearly eight years, until November 13, 2009.[22]Democracy Now! subsequently moved to a studio located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.[23]
Goodman credits the program's success to the "huge niche" left by coverage of mainstream media organizations.[21]
When PresidentBill Clinton called WBAI on Election Day 2000[24] for a quickget-out-the-vote message, Goodman and WBAI's Gonzalo Aburto challenged him for 28 minutes withhuman rights questions aboutAIM activistLeonard Peltier,racial profiling, theIraq sanctions,Ralph Nader, thedeath penalty, theNorth American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the normalization of relations with Cuba, and theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict. Clinton defended his administration's policies and said that Goodman was "hostile and combative".[25]
During the2008 Republican National Convention inSaint Paul, Minnesota, several of Goodman's colleagues fromDemocracy Now! were arrested and detained by police while reporting on ananti-war protest outside the RNC.[26] While trying to ascertain the status of her colleagues, Goodman was also arrested and held, accused of obstructing a legal process and interfering with a police officer.[27] FellowDemocracy Now! producers, including reporter Sharif Abdel Kouddous, were held on charges ofprobable cause for riot.[28] The arrests of the producers were videotaped.[29] Goodman and her colleagues were later released,[30]City Attorney John Choi indicated that the charges would be dropped.[31] Goodman (et al.) filed a federal civil lawsuit against the St. Paul and Minneapolis police departments and the USSecret Service for the illegal arrests. The agencies reached a $100,000 settlement and agreed to educate officers about theFirst Amendment rights of members of the press and public.[32][33][34]
On November 25, 2009, Goodman and her two colleagues, Denis Moynihan and Chuck Scurich, were detained for approximately 90 minutes by Canadian agents at theDouglas, British Columbiaborder crossing into Canada while en route to a scheduled meeting at theVancouver Public Library. Immigration officials asked questions pertaining to the intended topics of discussion at the meeting. They wanted to know whether she would be speaking about the2010 Olympic Games to be held in Canada.[35]
She and her colleagues were eventually permitted to enter Canada after the customs authorities took four photographs of her, inspected Scurich's computer, and stapled a "control document" into her passport; it required that she leave Canada within 48 hours.[35][36]
In September 2016, Goodman covered theDakota Access Pipeline protests inMorton County, North Dakota; footage from her reporting "showed security personnel pepper-spraying and siccing attack dogs on demonstrators."[37] AfterDemocracy Now! aired the footage, she was charged by state prosecutor Ladd Erickson with criminal trespass. After the court dismissed that charge, Erickson charged her withriot,[37][38] gaining awarrant for her arrest.[37] Erickson said that Goodman acted as "a protester" rather than a journalist, because "Everything she reported on was from the position of justifying the protest actions."[38]
Goodman turned herself in to the Morton County sheriff on October 17, saying that she would be fighting the charges against her as a "clear violation" of theFirst Amendment, which guaranteesfreedom of the press.[39] She was supported by theCommittee to Protect Journalists, which issued a statement saying: "This arrest warrant is a transparent attempt to intimidate reporters from covering protests of significant public interest. [...] Authorities in North Dakota should stop embarrassing themselves, drop the charges against Amy Goodman, and ensure that all reporters are free to do their jobs."[40] Steve Andrist, executive director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association, also expressed concern that a journalist was one of only two people covered by an arrest warrant from the day in question. Authorities said that Goodman was charged because she was identified from the video footage.[41]
On October 17, 2016, the case was dismissed by District Judge John Grinsteiner, of the South Central Judicial District, who found noprobable cause to support a riot charge.[42][43][44] The charges against Goodman reportedly increased the public awareness of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.[45] Goodman had presented that day'sDemocracy Now! broadcast from in front of the Morton County Courthouse.[46] ReporterDeia Schlosberg was arrested in similar circumstances while reporting on pipeline-related protests.[47]
Goodman has received awards for her work, including theRobert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting (1993, withAllan Nairn)[48] and theGeorge Polk Award (1998, withJeremy Scahill).[49] In 1999, she declined to accept theOverseas Press Club Award, in protest at the group's pledge not to ask questions of keynote speaker AmbassadorRichard Holbrooke and because the OPC was honoring Indonesia for its improved treatment of journalists despite the fact that its forces had recently beaten and killed reporters inoccupied East Timor.[50]
She received the 2001Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage.[51]
On October 2, 2004, she was presented the Islamic Community Award for Journalism by theCouncil on American-Islamic Relations.[52] On November 18, 2004, she was presented theThomas Merton Award.[53] In 2006, she received thePuffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship.[54]
Goodman was a recipient of the 2008Right Livelihood Award. The Right Livelihood Award Foundation cited her work in "developing an innovative model of truly independent grassroots political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media".[55]
On March 31, 2009, Goodman, withGlenn Greenwald, received the first Izzy Award (named after journalistI. F. "Izzy" Stone) for "special achievement in independent media". The award is presented byIthaca College'sPark Center for Independent Media.[56]
In May 2012, she received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree fromDePauw University in recognition of her journalistic work.[57] She also received theGandhi Peace Award fromPromoting Enduring Peace, for a "significant contribution to the promotion of an enduring international peace".[58][59]
On May 16, 2014, she received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree fromPurchase College, SUNY in recognition of her progressive journalism.
In February 2015, she (andLaura Poitras) received the 2014 I.F. Stone Lifetime Achievement Award from theNieman Foundation for Journalism atHarvard.[60]
In 2016, Goodman andDemocracy Now! (along with Laura Gottesdiener, John Hamilton and Denis Moynihan) received aSigma Delta Chi Award for excellence in journalism from theSociety of Professional Journalists in the category of Breaking News Coverage (Network/Syndication Service/Program Service) for their piece, “Standoff at Standing Rock: Epic Native resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline.”[61]
On February 14, 2019, she, and others, received the Frederick Douglass 200 award and was honored at theLibrary of Congress in Washington, D.C. The Frederick Douglass 200 award is a project of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives and the Antiracist Research and Policy Center atAmerican University in Washington D.C.[62] In October 2023, the NY Peace Action Network recognized her with the William Sloane Coffin "Peacemaker Award".[63]
In September 2007, Goodman suffered a bout ofBell's palsy.[64] She practices yoga.[65]
In 2006, Goodman narrated the filmOne Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern, a documentary chronicling the life and times of the retiredDemocratic politicianGeorge McGovern, focusing on his failed1972 bid for the presidency.[68]
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