
Amy Goodman:
Independent Journalist
Published in Berkshire Eagle, 7/15/10
By Jeremy D. Goodwin
GREAT BARRINGTON—Several years ago, alternative media icon Amy Goodman came to the Berkshires to lend her name to the effort to get a low-power, community radio station on the air.
Now she returns, five months after WBCR-LP, the resulting station—an all-volunteer enterprise that is by some measures still fledgling, though growing--received the nod from the Federal Communications Commission to boost its signal from low-power to full-power status.
Goodman gives a talk entitled "The Role of Independent Media in Promoting Social Justice" tomorrow night at Monument Mountain Regional High School, followed by a book signing. The event is a fundraising effort for the radio station.
(Full disclosure: though not currently an on-air programmer, I have, in the past, hosted a music program on WBCR-LP.)
"WBCR is part of the independent media network in this country. It's like a huge quilt that is beautiful in all its diversity," Goodman said in a telephone interview. "It's so important, when we live in a globalized world, that we still live in communities. And those communities have a voice and those voices are linked together across the world."
Though her presentation is cool and collected, in substance Goodman is a fiery advocate of journalism that seeks viewpoints beyond the usual round of Washington pundits and policymakers. As such, she lies outside what she and alternative media activists sometimes derisively term the “mainstream media,” and is more likely to interview members of a community group affected by a government policy than the actual architects of that policy.
“It's so often painful to watch the mainstream media, these no-nothing pundits who know so little about so much explaining the world to us and getting it so wrong,” Goodman says. “[Our job is] to go to where the silence is, to bring out the voices that are not often heard.”
Independent Journalist
Published in Berkshire Eagle, 7/15/10
By Jeremy D. Goodwin
GREAT BARRINGTON—Several years ago, alternative media icon Amy Goodman came to the Berkshires to lend her name to the effort to get a low-power, community radio station on the air.
Now she returns, five months after WBCR-LP, the resulting station—an all-volunteer enterprise that is by some measures still fledgling, though growing--received the nod from the Federal Communications Commission to boost its signal from low-power to full-power status.
Goodman gives a talk entitled "The Role of Independent Media in Promoting Social Justice" tomorrow night at Monument Mountain Regional High School, followed by a book signing. The event is a fundraising effort for the radio station.
(Full disclosure: though not currently an on-air programmer, I have, in the past, hosted a music program on WBCR-LP.)
"WBCR is part of the independent media network in this country. It's like a huge quilt that is beautiful in all its diversity," Goodman said in a telephone interview. "It's so important, when we live in a globalized world, that we still live in communities. And those communities have a voice and those voices are linked together across the world."
Though her presentation is cool and collected, in substance Goodman is a fiery advocate of journalism that seeks viewpoints beyond the usual round of Washington pundits and policymakers. As such, she lies outside what she and alternative media activists sometimes derisively term the “mainstream media,” and is more likely to interview members of a community group affected by a government policy than the actual architects of that policy.
“It's so often painful to watch the mainstream media, these no-nothing pundits who know so little about so much explaining the world to us and getting it so wrong,” Goodman says. “[Our job is] to go to where the silence is, to bring out the voices that are not often heard.”

Vilified by her critics on the extreme left as well as the right, Goodman is cheered by her fans as a model of independent journalism and has won numerous awards for her work. She insists her mission is to hold those in power accountable, rather than to advocate for any partisan platform. The daily news program she founded in 1996 and continues to host, Democracy Now!, is broadcast on over 800 radio and television stations around the world. (The radio version is simply the audio portion of the televised program.) She is the author of four bestselling books, including Breaking the Sound Barrier, released in 2009.
In 2008, the Swedish parliament made Goodman the first journalist to win the "Right Livelihood Award," which is sometimes described as "the alternate Nobel Prize." The prize committee cited Goodman for "developing an innovative model of truly independent political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by mainstream media."
Citing the status of Democracy Now! as a non-profit entity free of paid advertising, Goodman calls attention to the corporate ownership of mainstream media outlets. Six international conglomerates—General Electric, Walt Disney Company, News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom and CBS—own the vast majority of television stations, radio stations, cable TV carriers and newspapers in the United States. (The Berkshire Eagle, owned by the Denver-based MediaNews Group, is not among them.)
“When we’re dealing with the worst environmental catastrophe in American history—the oil geyser in the Gulf of Mexico—we need a media that is not brought to us by the big oil companies. When we’re dealing with health care, we need a media that is not brought to us by the big pharmaceutical companies,” Goodman says. “We [at Democracy Now!] don’t have to abide by any corporate agenda to do good journalism and to be responsible citizens.”
In 2008, the Swedish parliament made Goodman the first journalist to win the "Right Livelihood Award," which is sometimes described as "the alternate Nobel Prize." The prize committee cited Goodman for "developing an innovative model of truly independent political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by mainstream media."
Citing the status of Democracy Now! as a non-profit entity free of paid advertising, Goodman calls attention to the corporate ownership of mainstream media outlets. Six international conglomerates—General Electric, Walt Disney Company, News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom and CBS—own the vast majority of television stations, radio stations, cable TV carriers and newspapers in the United States. (The Berkshire Eagle, owned by the Denver-based MediaNews Group, is not among them.)
“When we’re dealing with the worst environmental catastrophe in American history—the oil geyser in the Gulf of Mexico—we need a media that is not brought to us by the big oil companies. When we’re dealing with health care, we need a media that is not brought to us by the big pharmaceutical companies,” Goodman says. “We [at Democracy Now!] don’t have to abide by any corporate agenda to do good journalism and to be responsible citizens.”