Amy Goodman has survived a brush with the Indonesian military in East Timor, faced off with US oil companies in Nigeria, and stood up to former President Bill Clinton after he called her tone “disrespectful.” It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that Goodman isn’t too worried about the challenges facing independent radio.
As producer and host of Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!, Goodman is a leading figure in the independent media movement. Aired daily on over 700 radio stations, Democracy Now! is more than just a radio show. Goodman’s team also produces a daily television program, a daily podcast, plus transcripts of all of their content.
Although her program has branched out into a variety of media, Goodman is still an independent radio evangelist at heart, dedicated to promoting the idea of the airwaves as a place for unbiased journalism and political dissent. Such a position has grown tenuous in recent years, as iPods and the Internet have siphoned off listeners who prefer to access their independent media on their own terms. Fueled by her anger at the corporate radio behemoths that have filled the dial with commercial dreck, Goodman is fighting back.
I met Goodman as she was recording a podcast at her studio, housed in a converted firehouse in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Having interrupted her take with the noise of the elevator door, I was listened to her re-record a report on voter turnout and a state-by-state comparison of voting laws concerning former felons. We later sat down to talk about the changing face of alternative media and her fight to keep independent radio alive.
Tell me a bit about your show.
Democracy Now! is a daily, grass roots, global, un-embedded, independent, international news hour. We are bringing out the voices of people, young and old, who are engaged. I see every local struggle having global dimensions. I think the following is so huge because we are all hungry for information. George Bush not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq exposed more than him. It exposed the entire media that kept repeating this claim over and over. It’s the media that did the convincing. People now say, how did the media get it so wrong? So they’re looking for other [outlets]. Does independent radio still play an important role in the media landscape? Couldn’t you do your work more efficiently by focusing on the Internet?
Radio is absolutely critical. It is a way most people can get information. There is still a digital divide in this country. A lot of people, particularly low-income people, do not have access to the Internet. But even if you do, radio gives you a sense of place. It gives you a sense of what you are dealing with in your community, and how that community connects to the rest of the world.
In 1995, when the Zapatista uprising happened in Mexico, I went down to Chiapas, the poorest state in Mexico, and attended the first news conference of the Zapatistas with Subcomandante Marcos. He only had radio [reporters] there. He said it was the most important mass media. Even if people couldn’t afford a TV set or even a TV for a community, they could afford a radio in a community.
[Radio] is how people get their information and, I think, will continue to. So I think it’s very important that we exist in all these different forms, from radio, to television, on the Internet. One reinforces another.
But this hasn’t kept you from embracing new broadcast technology.
We have always been on the cutting edge of technology. We were podcasting before the word podcasting was there. We are very aware of living in a global environment, and that’s the best way to be a part of that.
Right around September 11th, we started broadcasting the show every day on television. It started on a public access station here in Manhattan. Very quickly stations around the country began saying, ‘We want to broadcast it, too.’ Then the two TV satellite networks started broadcasting us, and it just took off. This has built an extremely diverse audience.
No matter how people choose to listen, I don’t think there is a threat to over-the-air broadcast. The new technologies only enhance us.
What do you think of mainstream commercial radio today?
You have Clear Channel owning 1200 radio stations around the country, sponsoring pro-war rallies, kicking off broadcasters who dare to express an anti-war point of view. They’re dominating the airwaves. The right-wing talk radio, hate radio, populated by the likes of Mike Savage and Rush Limbaugh…appeals to older white men. I think everyone, white men, white women, people of color, can respond to the worst, or something that brings out the best.
You talk a lot about getting people involved. How does your show do that?
These are very dire times. I think it’s critical to broadcast the voices of people who are most affected. I travel around the country speaking, and people always say that Democracy Now! gives them hope. Why? We deal with such difficult issues, I think you would be overwhelmed. But I have come to the conclusion that it depends on who you have on the air. If you have these disconnected pundits sitting in those arm chairs in Washington spouting off, you’re going to feel disconnected as a viewer. But if the people who are the analysts on the air are people who were there, perhaps an Iraqi, perhaps a student who has visited Iraq, the person you are getting information from is part of a group that is trying to make the world a better place. That is why it gives hope. That’s why I think people get so engaged. Young men and women your age are sent to Iraq to fight and then speak about their experience. Democracy Now! is about people speaking for themselves. That cuts through everything else. We have to take on all these issues, and the thing that is going to save us is people being involved. And I think radio is a great place to galvanize that involvement.
What’s your prognosis for the future of independent radio?
This is a moment in time where the audiences for independent media are just ever-larger. I think that the reason people go more and more to the web is that they’re looking for different information, because the traditional [media] did not bring any kind of honest reporting that people could trust. At Democracy Now!, we are constantly combing the web, getting information from all over the world, bringing out voices from all over the world.
I think when people care and want to build their community media, it’s just the work of making sure you’re presenting a full forum for everyone to be included. Then you don’t have to worry about people coming. They will. Because people know what’s real. People are demanding democracy now, in every sense. Democracy Now! is a demand as well as the name of the program. I think media can really facilitate that.
Radio today is not a dying entity. It is a hope for all of us to be part of the discussion that determines the future, not only of our communities, but of the planet.
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Features 
Amy Goodman has survived a brush with the Indonesian military in East Timor, faced off with US oil companies in Nigeria, and stood up to former President Bill Clinton after he called her tone “disrespectful.” It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that Goodman isn’t too worried about the challenges facing independent radio.