Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman is one of the many women in media who are fighting for what media & journalism should be. A Harvard graduate with a degree in Anthology, Goodman started off the beginning of her career as a producer of the evening news show at WBAI, Pacifica Radio’s station in New York City. She is the founder of Democracy Now, which started in 1996 and is the only national radio/TV news show free of all corporate underwriting. Goodman focuses on Peace and Human- Rights movement around the world that corporate funded media would never cover. She is able to present a range of independent voices not often heard on the airwaves.

Democracy Now is necessary in the media today because, it allows people to see the real issues that are happening in the United States and nationally. It shows ordinary people from around the world who are directly affected by U.S. foreign policy & proletariat leaders etc. This is something that is rarely heard in the U.S.corporate-sponsored media today. Amy Goodman started Democracy Now after traveling to East Timor to report on the US-backed Indonesian occupation of East Timor. There, she was accompanied by Allan Nairn, where they witnessed the cruelty of the Indonesian soldier’s towards the East Timorese. Goodman and Nairn were beaten themselves by Indonesian government officials for reporting the cruel truth of which they saw. She has fought long and hard in the media to bring these key issues to light.

Democracy Now is airing on over 800 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration. Amy Goodman doesn’t only rely on the media to get people aware of these issues. She has worked on and collaborated with other activists on documentaries such as Massacre: The Story of East Timor, and From Annihilation to a New Nation and Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria’s Oil Dictatorship. Amy Goodman is also a distinguished author for her book The Exception to the Rulers, Standing up To Madness and her latest book Breaking the Sound Barrier. Goodman has received tremendous awards for her work as a journalist including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award. Not to mention Goodman is the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award which is often referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize".