Giving a voice to 'silenced majority'
New book takes the government, business and media to task
April 21, 2004
BY FRED BRUNING
STAFF WRITER
http://www.newsday.com/features/booksmags/ny-etlede3764997apr21,0,5361468
..story?coll=ny-bookreview-headlines
It was another frenzied day - a day, in fact, of special frenzy - at the
studios of the "Democracy Now!" radio program.
Amy Goodman, host of the Pacifica network news show that can be heard
Monday-Friday on WBAI-FM (and seen on some cable and satellite systems),
appeared to have sprouted a luminous third ear - just a cell phone, of
course - and was pacing a corridor in a converted firehouse in lower
Manhattan operated by an outfit called the Downtown Community Television
Center.
Most of Goodman's remarks could not be discerned, but, judging by her
tone
and expression, they might be summed up as: "Yikes!"
In a few hours, Goodman would embark on a promotional tour for "The
Exception to the Rulers," a book about political guile and corporate
duplicity written with her brother, David. Time was running short before
her
first appearance - in the Great Hall at Cooper Union, it drew an overflow
crowd - and there were a slew of details to be addressed.
Next morning, Goodman was heading to California. Her book trip, also a
fund-raiser for independent radio, includes 70 cities, so Goodman, having
completed her morning stint for left-leaning, listener-sponsored
Pacifica,
was briskly attending to business.
High speed
Zippy is how Amy Goodman operates. Even the subtitle of Goodman's book
($21.95, Hyperion) is an exercise in high-octane provocation: "Exposing
Oily
Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them."
The cover features stand-up figures of President George W. Bush, Vice
President ***** Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. On the back
is
a quote from moviemaker Michael Moore: "Pick up this book ... and go
raise
some hell!"
Raise hell? Confronted with claims of so much betrayal and skulduggery,
readers could be forgiven if they pulled covers over their heads and
moaned,
"Wake us when it's over."
That is not Goodman's intent: just the opposite. She anticipates an
energized, wide- awake citizenry - an America sick and tired of being
duped
by the clueless, powerful clods, Republican and, yes, Democratic, who run
things. "More and more people are saying no to government lies, corporate
greed and a slavish media," her book says. "The silenced majority is
finding
its voice."
In an upstairs den of the landmark 1895 firehouse, Goodman, who turned
47 on
this particular day, and her brother, 44, a Vermont-based freelancer who
dropped by for a visit, chimed in with their voices, too.
Lots of questions
Look at what's happening, they said. Turmoil in Iraq, phony statements
about
WMDs, the Patriot Act, the questionable means by which Bush became
president
in the first place - and a Fourth Estate that, despite the admirable
work of
many reporters, falls easily into line. "A megaphone for lies," said
David
Goodman.
"The establishment media follows the establishment," said his sister.
They asked why - before the fighting started in Iraq - so few advocates
for
peace were on television talk shows? Why didn't networks "embed"
reporters
with Iraqi civilians as well as American military units? "Those embedded
reporters gave us only one side of the story," said David Goodman. "It
was
the nature of the beast."
Exactly, said Amy Goodman. "If we are going to have reporters at the
barrel
end of the gun, we need reporters at the target end of the gun."
On another matter, the Goodmans wondered how much of the Sept. 11
commission
report on terrorism due later this year will be made public once the
White
House takes a whack at the material? "What will we be allowed to see and
when will be allowed to see it?" said Amy Goodman.
In a follow-up phone call, Goodman mentioned Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the
former leader of Haiti who contends he was ousted in February by American
authorities and taken to the Central African Republic. When a delegation
of
supporters brought Aristide to Jamaica last month, Goodman joined the
group
to cover the story. Whatever critics say about Aristide, Goodman noted,
"he
was democratically elected by a higher percentage than George Bush."
Let's hope, remarked David Goodman, "for a free and fair election" in the
United States this year.
Suburban kids
Resolute and relentless Amy Goodman and her brother may be, but, in
conversation, they are polite and patient - a couple of nice, suburban
kids
(they grew up in Bay Shore) who have come to believe, as Amy Goodman
says,
that America is "the greatest democracy on earth - for some." Why not for
all?
It is the kind of question their parents asked. Amy and David are the
middle
two of George and Dorothy Goodman's four children. The elder Goodmans -
George, who was an ophthalmologist, died in 1998; Dorothy, a retired
social
worker, lives in Setauket - were politically active and world-wise.
Amy and David Goodman took the cue. Both served as editors of the Maroon
Echo, the school paper at Bay Shore High, and, in one way or another,
have
been spreading the word - the truth as they see it - ever since.
Sharing the same political outlook, the two said they had no problems
collaborating on "The Exception to the Rulers."
Amy Goodman had plenty of stories - including a jarring recollection of a
close call while reporting in East Timor 13 years ago - and her brother
was
an established writer, who, in 2002, published a book on South Africa.
They did fresh research with an emphasis on links between policy makers
and
corporate benefactors and on what they view as a deterioration of civil
liberties. And what do you know, the Goodmans said, it worked.
Even before release, the book went into a third printing. What accounts
for
the robust interest? Obvious, Amy Goodman said. "People are fed up with
mainstream media," she said, offering her mainstream guest a smile before
departing - hastily - to do the many things still not done.
"If I can not dance, I want no part in your revolution." Emma Goldman
.
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