What would you catagorize Democracy Now! as?

[RadioRaheem84]

Liberal-Progressive, Progressive or Left-Progressive?

Amy Goodman's show is top notch and I enjoy it, but I was concerned that on today's show she just blatantly cut off a guest that was talking about the protests going in the world as a struggle against capitalism. The speaker was very anti-capitalist and was very blunt in advocating it's demise. Once he moved away from the typical liberal characterization of the ongoing protests as protests for "freedom" and "liberty", and said that the clashes in Libya, Egypt and Yemen are fights against capitalism, Goodman totally cut him off. Not blatantly cut him off, but was like, "OK, thank you professor such and such for your commentary, but moving on....."

I may be reading too much into this considering she has had openly socialist people on the show but this is the first time I've heard someone actually advocating the destruction of capitalism on air and cheering on fights against capitalism.

Usually, on the show if there is a discussion about capitalism, it's mostly about the economic crisis or capitalism in a state of crisis and in need of readjustment or reform, or it's about the excesses of the free market, etc. It's never an outright attack on the capitalist system and what it has done to people and supporting protests against the capitalist system.

I am guessing that made Goodman a bit uneasy considering the majority of her guests are left-liberal people who are on the outskirts of the Washington Establishment or independent journalist who lean left but not past progressivism.

your thoughts....

[Rakhmetov]

She loves Chomsky. She's anti-capitalist. Yeah, you miscontrued her.

Progressive

[RadioRaheem84]

I hope I did, because I love her show. Either way she is still a great ally.

Point is, as soon as the guest started talking about capitalism and the fight against it and how it's the cause of all the ills, I knew she was going to cut him or claim that they're out of time. Maybe she was out of time, I don't know. I just felt like the blatant anti-capitalist rant coming from the guest was too much for her.

She usually has guests on her show that code their real intentions; against free markets, against corporations, against corruption but usually never blatantly anti-capitalism.

[RedHal]

haven't watched her show since their championing of Liu Xiaobo without an ounce of criticism.

[RadioRaheem84]

Oooh. Yikes. Missed that one and I am glad that I did.

[JazzRemington]

I've watched only one or two episodes, but it came off as at least social-democrat. Or maybe progressive liberal. They seemed sympathetic to socialist tendencies, but I'm not sure if they are explicitly anti-capitalist in the same way that, e.g., revolutionary communists/anarchists are.

[NGNM85]

I'd classify Democracy Now! as the absolute best independent American news program, and one of of the best American news providers, period. Amy Goodman has had a long and distinguished career as an activist and a journalist, covering stories largely ignored by the mainstream media. She played a particularly significant role in publicizing the genocide in East Timor by the US-supported regime of Indonesia, which is an issue of special importance to me.

[9]

Liberal-Progressive, Progressive or Left-Progressive?
could you elaborate on what these terms mean and what is the distinction between the three of them? to me, they come across as all basically being synonymous.
at any rate, i think 'democracy now' is pretty clearly liberal.

[Apoi_Viitor]

I'd compare the composition of Democracy Now to progressive groups like the American Green Party. Which is:

10% Social Democracy
80% Progressivism
10% Socialism

Obviously, the vast majority of its contents are going to be arguments against free market capitalism and imperialism (but not anti-capitalism), but occasionally you'll see genuine socialists on the show.

[Os Cangaceiros]

left-liberal/soc-dem

I never watch Amy Goodman's program, but I respect some of the work she's done in the past as a journalist.

[CynicalIdealist]

Progressive left. Amy Goodman is definitely anti-imperialist, and sympathetic to democratic socialism as well as maybe anarchism.

[Amphictyonis]

I haven't listened to her show since the championing of Obama during the campaign and refusal to criticize him early on in his presidency.

[Red Commissar]

I'd say "progressive" of some sort, the kind that unfortunately can't escape the illusion that one day somehow the Democratic Party will be a party that completely follows what their views if they get enough progressives in there.

[ar734]

Here is Marx on the "Bourgeois Socialist" :

"A part of the bourgeoisie is desirous of redressing social grievances in order to secure the continued existence of bourgeois society.

To this section belong economists, philanthropists, humanitarians, improvers of the condition of the working class, organisers of charity, members of societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals, temperance fanatics, hole-and-corner reformers of every imaginable kind. This form of socialism has, moreover, been worked out into complete systems.

We may cite Proudhon’s Philosophie de la Misère as an example of this form.

The Socialistic bourgeois want all the advantages of modern social conditions without the struggles and dangers necessarily resulting therefrom. They desire the existing state of society, minus its revolutionary and disintegrating elements. They wish for a bourgeoisie without a proletariat.."

(Marx, Communist Manifesto, Chap. 3, part 2)

Amy Goodman wants the victory of the working class without the revolution.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

She's definitely Progressive, but her show is still important considering the rest of the crap that is American media.

Her latest book was published by an anti-capitalist organization, however, most of us would take it with a grain of salt (it's a Trotskyist organization, but they still publish some fine books).

[RadioRaheem84]

I'd classify Democracy Now! as the absolute best independent American news program, and one of of the best American news providers, period. Amy Goodman has had a long and distinguished career as an activist and a journalist, covering stories largely ignored by the mainstream media. She played a particularly significant role in publicizing the genocide in East Timor by the US-supported regime of Indonesia, which is an issue of special importance to me.

Are you her publicist?

[Lucretia]

I would classify it as a news show with a left slant. Trying to pigeonhole it into anything more specific than that is just impossible. Since it is news, rooted in the reporting of real events, there's only so much of an editorial bent you can elaborate in the span of an hour.

[RadioRaheem84]

Very true. It is a good show and Goodman does good work.

My guess is that she's also more left than she appears on the show but in trying to keep her "integrity" she also feels she has to stay away from "extreme" talk and that includes rants about fight against capitalism.

Listen to today's show and judge for yourself. It sounded like a cut off to me. The guy was ranting a bit but it seemed like she just felt it was unnecessary to be so blunt about anti-capitalism.

[MarxSchmarx]

Apoi_Viitor's admixture sounds about right. I've listen to this occasionally online, but it can actually use some tightening - for example, the reading of the headlines goes on way too long.

It's likely the largest leftist daily news show in America, and they manage to get top notch guests and are quite savvy. Somethings could be better (they could be more critical of Chavez, for example - in the man's almost 10 years in power I don't think they've ever had a negative thing to say about him), but on the average I think they are performing a useful service.

But one problem is that she has managed to siphon off a lot of her main parent company's very limited resource for her own show. This has a somewhat convoluted history, but here is what another DJ/programmer at the same network had to say about her:



By the way, after the Pacifica revolution of 2001-2002, Amy Goodman made out just fine. She struck a sweetheart deal with the new mgmt made up of her pals. Democracy Now! which was created by the network was privatized and handed to Amy as her own personal enterprise with a guarantee of well over a 1/2 million dollars a year in no-bid contracts from the network. Since then, Democracy Now! has raked in millions, literally, in foundation grants and other donations and is sitting on a pile of cash as the network from which it was born, and which it helped boycott while it was still part of, is now quickly evaporating into the ether. But, you know, Amy is a saint. And we should never wash our dirty laundry in public.
http://marccooper.com/pacifica-radio-plunging/

[Tablo]

I would certainly consider the show left leaning and at the very most democratic socialist, but only on rare occasions. I like the show a lot.

[Amphictyonis]

The bar has been set so far to the right in America Amy Goodman seems like a "communist". In the same fashion Obama is a communist to the right wing. Both early Obama and modern Goodman had/have great rhetoric in some cases but when it comes down to it they are...well, not what we need. Pacifica Radio and Democracy now need an influx of both more militant and younger commentary. They do serve a good purpose as far as "alternative" media but that alternative isnt so far from the main stream liberal media. Perhaps more of us in California should volunteer our time at KPFA. not only volunteer our time but make our positions quite vocal to them.

[Delenda Carthago]

kinda irrelevant, but I was thinking today to go and print a Tshirt with their logo on...

[NGNM85]

kinda irrelevant, but I was thinking today to go and print a Tshirt with their logo on...

Or, you could, y'know...buy one from they're official website.
http://www.democracynow.org/store/category/4

[NGNM85]

Are you her publicist?


Not, remotely. However, I stand by all of those statements. Democracy Now! Consistently provides better coverage than any other independent American news provider. I think it’s also fair to say they are high in the running in terms of best overall American news providers. I don’t think that’s terribly controversial.

Indonesia and East Timor is one of my pet causes. Amy Goodman has been a crusader on this issue, which was almost universally ignored by the US media, including getting the shit beat out of her, by Indonesian soldiers, during the Santa Cruz Cemetery massacre, in 1991.

I also think this is a complete waste of time. I think it’s a bogus objective to vet news providers for ‘ideological purity’ so we can live in a wind tunnel of ‘authorized’ opinion.

[brigadista]

they had great coverage recently of the prison hunger strikes- couldn't find much elsewhere

[ar734]

Since then, Democracy Now! has raked in millions, literally, in foundation grants and other donations and is sitting on a pile of cash as the network from which it was born, and which it helped boycott while it was still part of, is now quickly evaporating into the ether.


http://marccooper.com/pacifica-radio-plunging/

As I said, a bourgeois socialist.

[RadioRaheem84]

Well Pacific used to have a ton of progressive left voices, especially the station here in Houston. Now, it's just all banjo music, cooking shows, NPR re-runs and geek squad repair call in hours.

Very few of it is actually hard hitting stuff anymore.

[Rakhmetov]

Seen this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

[Delenda Carthago]

Or, you could, y'know...buy one from they're official website.
http://www.democracynow.org/store/category/4
I dont think ordering a single Tshirt from another continent is very smart move...

[NGNM85]

I dont think ordering a single Tshirt from another continent is very smart move...

It depends on the cost for shipping and handling. (I just assumed you lived in the US.) It just seems to make sense that if you really like their programming, to the point of wanting to make a t-shirt with their logo, you could buy a t-shirt with their logo already on it, and, by doing so, support the program.

[Franz Fanonipants]

It depends on the cost for shipping and handling. (I just assumed you lived in the US.) It just seems to make sense that if you really like their programming, to the point of wanting to make a t-shirt with their logo, you could buy a t-shirt with their logo already on it, and, by doing so, support the program.

Ladies and gentlemen - ANARCHISM

p.s. Amy Goodman/Democracy Now are pretty firmly classical "progressives." They might have some solid anti-imperialist credentials, but I think their materialist analysis is weak.

(which is why NGNM loves them)

[NGNM85]

Ladies and gentlemen - ANARCHISM

p.s. Amy Goodman/Democracy Now are pretty firmly classical "progressives." They might have some solid anti-imperialist credentials, but I think their materialist analysis is weak.

(which is why NGNM loves them)

The 'Christian Leftist' returns.

[Franz Fanonipants]

The 'Christian Leftist' returns.

Man and I totally just told Robocommie that's exactly what you would say.

Hey bro are you super bummed because your ethos bottled water didn't end cholera in Africa, you ridiculous disgusting liberal lifestylist fuck?

[NGNM85]

Hey bro are you super bummed because your ethos bottled water didn't end cholera in Africa, you ridiculous disgusting liberal lifestylist fuck?

I am in no way a 'lifestylist.' I've repeatedly condemned lifestylists.

[Franz Fanonipants]

I am in no way a 'lifestylist.' I've repeatedly condemned lifestylists.

But yet, there you are insisting someone buy a democracy now! t-shirt to show support for the show.

If you aren't wearing that really cool anarchist reputation to score points and win friends then I don't know what the fuck you're doing.

[NGNM85]

But yet, there you are insisting someone buy a democracy now! t-shirt to show support for the show.

That has nothing to do with lifestylism. He had said he wanted to make a Democracy Now! t-shirt. I simply suggested that rather than spending time and money making said shirt he could just buy one, and by doing so financially support this program he supposedly likes so much. That just makes sense. That's probably what's causing you trouble.


If you aren't wearing that really cool anarchist reputation to score points and win friends then I don't know what the fuck you're doing.

It should be abundantly clear, by now, that I couldn't care less about such things.

[9]

Hey bro are you super bummed because your ethos bottled water didn't end cholera in Africa, you ridiculous disgusting liberal lifestylist fuck?

ffs, chill.

[Tablo]

DIY is the way to go with t-shirts in my opinion.

[Delenda Carthago]

It depends on the cost for shipping and handling. (I just assumed you lived in the US.) It just seems to make sense that if you really like their programming, to the point of wanting to make a t-shirt with their logo, you could buy a t-shirt with their logo already on it, and, by doing so, support the program.
But I am going to support the program.I m gonna be a moving commercial for them.Many people will learn or remember about it from this Tshirt. At the same time, I m a poor greek dude,unemployed for a month now.What do you expect?:crying:

[Drosophila]

Democracy Now is a great news program. Amy Goodman is a distinguished, real journalist.

[wunderbar]

Democracy Now tends to range anywhere between progressivism and democratic socialism. It's one of the best news programs in the US, and Amy Goodman conducted what is arguably Bill Clinton's toughest interview.

youtube.com/watch?v=FWx1bX4hWtM

[berlitz23]

I just returned from Amy Goodman's lecture held in Boulder and I cannot properly situate and pigeonhole her under a specific party or alliance to the 'left'. For the sake of the show she does not want to alienate her viewers with an unequivocal socialist, anarchist, or communist slant that we all graft onto and hope will become espoused due to what we believe as an unprecedented championing of elements of Democratic-Socialist ideas that again most of us can find laudable. Therefore, she has to compromise in accordance to an audience that some of us consider have flaccid 'leftist' views-yet this is why she resonates with many of those people all over the progressive spectrum. I wouldn't simply discredit her because the original poster claimed she might have intentionally truncated an interviewee due to a tirade against capitalism- affirming that it demonstrates the tide of insurrection as symptomatic to the current conditions. Alternative Media Programs like Democracy Now! have generated significant support-support from progressive constituents who I bet she realizes now have been instrumental in her rise as an 'alternative media' celebrity. Therefore, it is compromise to a degree, and unfortunately that will be the culprit for networks like Democracy Now! They galvanize discussion about vital issues and are lionized for their in-depth reporting. Yet, It is within prescribed boundaries and these boundaries might become increasingly circumscribed since she is still appealing to a larger 'left' base, and will not want to surrender that by any means with 'radical' views. I am sure most of us realize that more visual consumption of Democracy Now! equates to more interest and investment for further economical opportunities and expansions. Ultimately, Democracy Now! is still a trenchant tool and anathema to Mainstream Media, but realize it will still subordinate itself to 'dominant' news standards to an extent. It is like any other alternative media network or forum- still under the stranglehold and axiom of Capital.

[Amphictyonis]

Seen this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

I'll pay attention when she gets arrested protesting at the DNC :) I'm a tad bitter because I use to call in and complain (once actually on air) about the support for Obama early on. In reply, minutes later, she said it's too early to criticize Obama. That we need to wait and hope he does the 'right thing' (whatever that is) and if he doesn't we need to "pressure him". He's doing what he was suppose to do and that is to quiet the left in America while the US government implements nationwide austerity measures (cuts to jobs, social programs and education) and expands imperialist wars.

I'm getting older and am tiered of seeing the same record play on the left. We need new torch bearers. People who will be unwilling to fall for the good cop bad cop routine. I'm sorry to say, this is exactly what Goodman did with Obama early on. I think honest journalism indeed has a place and she is honest in most regards but in my opinion, essentially, she is what main stream MEDIA should be- we shouldn't be looking to KPFA/Pacifica Radio for revolutionary or even radical analysis. They do have some great coverage but the overall tendency is for them to goad listeners into supporting Democrats. Reform is the end goal. Reform via democrats.

[Nolan]

Social democratic with reformist socialist tendencies at times.

They're the best on the television.