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Goodman speaks out against mainstream media
Urges greater emphasis on local, alternative mediacas
By Tyler Casey
[The media] isnt doing a very good job of exposing the truth. Its the same small circle of pundits who know so little about so much.
Best-selling author and journalist Amy Goodman spoke about the importance of fighting corporate media in a speech at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukees Union Ballroom on Thursday, March 29, as part of the universitys Distinguished Lecture series.
Goodman, the co-author of the books The Exception to the Rulers and Static and the executive producer/co-anchor of the independent syndicated broadcast news outlet Democracy Now!, spoke to a packed house about how she believes that mainstream American media is not properly informing the public.
[The media] isnt doing a very good job of exposing the truth, Goodman said. Its the same small circle of pundits who know so little about so much.
Goodman charged that the embedding process of reporters in overseas combat leads to inaccurate and biased coverage of wars. She suggested that instead of getting only one perspective from the American military, that media outlets send reporters to Iraqi hospitals, Iraqi communities and the peace movement.
She also took aim at the Bush administrations prohibition on the release of photos of flag-draped coffins of American soldiers killed in Iraq.
Its not our job to sanitize and censor, she said to a roomful of applause.
Goodman urged those in attendance to seek out local and alternative media outlets to fight the Clear Channel-ing of America, referring to the San Antonio-based radio communications empire. She decried the closeness that she perceives between members of the media and the White House.
If we had state media, how would it be any different? she asked rhetorically.
The speech also touched on the privatization of the military, the White House press corps, and the lack of mainstream media attention being given to activist groups. She spoke about the idea of a media that listens to people beating a different drum and is more like mainstream America.
After her speech, there was an audience question and answer session and a reception held in the Union Art Gallery.
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