“The media is a force more powerful than military might....”
This was the major theme of an address by public radio's Amy Goodman before a near capacity crowd this week at the Smith Opera House in Geneva. Goodman reiterated the necessity of an independent media free of corporate control, and the media's obligation to report all the news, from the viewpoints of all concerned. She used America's involvement in Iraq to illustrate her point.
“Americans are a compassionate people,” she said. “If they could see the mutilated bodies, the limbs destroyed by cluster bombs, and the impact of the war on Iraq's women and children, we would not be over there.”
(The Pentagon does not release civilian casualty figures, nor do any of the “imbedded” correspondents of the major TV networks and mainstream press. According to a report released by Just Foreign Policy, an independent assessment group, the total number of Iraq deaths attributed to the U.S. invasion as of 11/21/'08 stands at 1,288,426. This includes civilian and military personnel).
Goodman was one of over 40 media representatives arrested in St. Paul during the Republican Convention, and cites the incident as an example of eroding civil liberties under the Bush Administration.
“Americans must take democracy seriously,” she cautioned. She described how police overreacted to a handful of violent demonstrators, and took out much of their frustration on her and colleagues, and stressed the need to challenge abuses of authority and violations of civil liberties.
“It's essential that the press remain free and able to report events as they happened.”
Goodman received a standing ovation from the crowd of over 700, and following the program, met with patrons in the lobby to autograph copies of “Standing up to the Madness,” a book which she co-authored with her brother David.
The event was sponsored by WEOS Public Radio in Geneva, and the Goodman program, Democracy Now, is heard weekdays over this station.
On a personal note: When Amy Goodman learned that I had been given a ticket to her program as an 80th birthday gift, she presented me with a gift of her own: an autographed copy of her work, and while I stood there wondering what she was doing, she painstakingly drew a birthday cake on the inside cover - complete with all the candles. Her generosity aside, I enthusiastically endorse her as an activist and as a person.
Roland Micklem
Auburn
“Americans are a compassionate people,” she said. “If they could see the mutilated bodies, the limbs destroyed by cluster bombs, and the impact of the war on Iraq's women and children, we would not be over there.”
(The Pentagon does not release civilian casualty figures, nor do any of the “imbedded” correspondents of the major TV networks and mainstream press. According to a report released by Just Foreign Policy, an independent assessment group, the total number of Iraq deaths attributed to the U.S. invasion as of 11/21/'08 stands at 1,288,426. This includes civilian and military personnel).
Goodman was one of over 40 media representatives arrested in St. Paul during the Republican Convention, and cites the incident as an example of eroding civil liberties under the Bush Administration.
“Americans must take democracy seriously,” she cautioned. She described how police overreacted to a handful of violent demonstrators, and took out much of their frustration on her and colleagues, and stressed the need to challenge abuses of authority and violations of civil liberties.
“It's essential that the press remain free and able to report events as they happened.”
Goodman received a standing ovation from the crowd of over 700, and following the program, met with patrons in the lobby to autograph copies of “Standing up to the Madness,” a book which she co-authored with her brother David.
The event was sponsored by WEOS Public Radio in Geneva, and the Goodman program, Democracy Now, is heard weekdays over this station.
On a personal note: When Amy Goodman learned that I had been given a ticket to her program as an 80th birthday gift, she presented me with a gift of her own: an autographed copy of her work, and while I stood there wondering what she was doing, she painstakingly drew a birthday cake on the inside cover - complete with all the candles. Her generosity aside, I enthusiastically endorse her as an activist and as a person.
Roland Micklem
Auburn
