Investigative Journalist: Amy Goodman

 

Amy Goodman 

Written by: Lauren Fantone

Amy Goodman. Credit: Democracy Now!

Personal Background

    Amy Goodman is an award-winning investigative journalist, author, and broadcast reporter best known for her coverage on the East Timor independence movement and Chevron Corporation's role in Nigeria. Her independent and unbiased approach to political journalism - bringing millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded from mainstream media outlets - led her to receive the 2008 Livelihood Award, a prestigious award known as the equivalent to the Nobel Prize, marking her the first journalist to be honored. Her outstanding political work and relentless approach to investigative journalism has earned her various prestigious awards and recognitions including the 2014 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence Lifetime Achievement Award, while also being a co-recipient of the Park Center for Independent Media's Izzy Award, later being inducted into the Park Center's I.F. Stone Hall of Fame. Her unwavering and purposeful attitude in presenting the 'facts' through anything she does has served as an inspiration for independent journalists everywhere and has earned her a plethora of other different awards and accolades.  

    Throughout her career, she has co-authored six New York Times bestsellers, three of which were written with her brother, journalist David Goodman. Perhaps the largest contribution she has made to investigative journalism and independent broadcasting is the establishment of the daily one-hour news broadcast Democracy Now!, a progressive and independent global news broadcast which airs on over 1,400 public television and radio stations worldwide. 

Democracy Now!

    Democracy Now! focuses on issues both Goodman and her co-host Juan Gonzalez - another professional journalist - consider under-reported or ignored by mainstream media. Throughout this broadcast, Amy Goodman provides hard-hitting, independent, breaking coverage on war and peace, U.S. domestic and foreign policy, and struggles for social, racial, economic, gender and environmental justice in the United States and abroad. She strives to provide listeners and followers with the facts, giving voices to the voiceless, and highlighting how corporate media companies and outlets have distorted the media for their own benefit, rather than reporting the truth! In order to ensure her broadcasts are reporting the facts, she interviews community members, academics, and journalists shut out by the mainstream media, holds debates between activists and people in power, conducts exclusive interviews with controversial guests, and immerses herself into the situation at hand by overseeing on-the-ground reporting from protests and events around the world. 

Amy Goodman. Credit: Democracy Now!

"Independent journalism as a powerful tool for peace, for understanding. It is so important, especially during times like these, that the media hold the politicians feet to the fire..."

    Her relentless work towards uncovering the truth has led her broadcasting show, Democracy Now! to become the fastest growing independent news program in the United States. With this being said, it is difficult to uncover her net worth or average pay per story as she has various sources of income - as she serves as a freelance, investigative journalist, New York Times bestselling author, and regular co-host and founder of Democracy Now!

    I think her approach to journalism is refreshing and very needed in society right now, as she is not influenced by the corporate companies and mainstream media biases. Instead, she is solely focused on uncovering the truth and providing that daily so that millions of Americans can understand it for themselves. I believe her independent and investigative attitude towards broadcasting is inspiring and should remind us that the mainstream media is not portraying the truth, instead is more focused on receiving monetary benefit and advancing their political agendas. After researching her work and the awards she has received from various organizations, I believe she closely resembles the work of I.F. Stone as she is an independent journalist ready to discover the truth, and question anything and everything her corporate counterparts do and say.  

Story 1: Vaccine Apartheid: If One Person is Unprotected, We Are All Unprotected

    This column - written by Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan - highlights the disparity between the availability of vaccinations for wealthy nations and poorer nations. For instance, wealthy, western countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and countries in the European Union have bought or plan to buy billions of doses of vaccines, while poorer nations, where 85% of the world's population lives, are forced to wait for shipments. This problem is easily described as vaccine apartheid, or vaccine nationalism. The most important thing we should all be focusing on is how to get the most vulnerable populations around the world vaccinated. In fact, some rich countries have bought enough doses to vaccinate their population several times over, while the country of Guinea received 25 doses just a few weeks ago - only 25. A large contribution to this problem is how the pandemic has been exploited for profit as the private, for-profit pharmaceutical corporations who developed these vaccines guarantee themselves massive profits and monopoly control over their production. I think the most important aspect the article emphasizes is that this pandemic will continue to control our lives and everyday mannerisms until we establish a proactive plan to vaccinate the world's most vulnerable populations that inhabit the world's poorest countries. 

https://www.democracynow.org/2021/2/25/vaccine_apartheid_if_one_person_is

Story 2: America is a Democracy in Name Only

   The election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden has increased voter turnout, however, it also highlighted the systematic efforts to disenfranchise voters across the country and also brought to light the fact that the Republican Party has long relied on voter suppression as a central strategy to their gaining of  office and power. The states that are encompassed in the so-called Rust Belt, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin were critical in Trump's win in 2016. In addition, the results stemming from these states are often too close to call, like in Ohio when Trump won by less than one percentage point. Goodman's point throughout all of this is that voter suppression and voter turnout plays a large role in who ends up winning the election, especially voter turnout of minorities. For instance, in Wisconsin in 2016, "they enforced strict voter ID law that suppressed the votes of more than 200,000 residents, as it required people to present photo identification at polling places which directly prevented poor people and people of color from voting." Overall, the concept is democracy is constantly struggling as the right to vote should be a common goal for all, and the idea of voter suppression should be outlawed and deemed unfair as the right to vote needs to continue to be advocated for. 

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/america-is-a-democracy-in-name-only/

Story 3: The Latest Threat to Trans Rights Hurts American Kids

    This article emphasizes how at the beginning of this year, the latest anti-transgender state law in the country was passed through South Dakota's House of Representatives, which is a disappointing step back in representative legislation. This law criminalizes medical procedures intended to address gender dysphoria for people under the age of 16. Amy Goodman highlights the apparent truth that failure to support transgender individuals, especially youth, can lead to a number of problems, from physical and mental health problems, to self-harm and possible victimization by discrimination or violence. In addition, she includes how the Republican Party in South Dakota voted to pass the bill, even with strong opposition from organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association. While reading this article, the most eye-opening part that Goodman included is the interview with transgender youth from the state, stating that "this bill is actively denying medical treatment to children with strong feelings of disconnect from their bodies, you are not preventing harm, but instead, denying them access to medical procedures that could help them feel comfortable with themselves." These lawmakers are disregarding science, ignoring the urgent needs of the transgender community, and ultimately saying they 'are going to make your health care, and your life, a crime." Throughout this article, Goodman highlights the fact that legislation like this, preventing youth from health care, is a huge step backwards in social justice and gender equality. In fact, there is no positive outcome from this law, instead it is making health care for transgender individuals and youth to be prevented access to the procedures that could ultimately change their lives. 

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-latest-threat-to-trans-rights-hurts-american-kids/

Sources:

1. https://www.rightlivelihoodaward.org/laureates/amy-goodman/

2. https://www.democracynow.org/about/staff

3. https://civilination.org/resources/investigative-journalism-organizations/

4. https://www.democracynow.org/2021/2/25/vaccine_apartheid_if_one_person_is

5. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/america-is-a-democracy-in-name-only/

6. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-latest-threat-to-trans-rights-hurts-american-kids/