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Amy Goodman: There's a hunger for more voices, a dissatisfaction with the media. You have this same small group of pundits that is on every network ... This small group of know-nothing pundits who know so little about so much, who just pontificate. And now they're wringing their hands, "How did we get it so wrong in Iraq?" Why don't they have someone in who didn't get it so wrong?
NYP: DO YOU THINK THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY NOW! WOULD HAVE BEEN SO EXPLOSIVE WERE IT NOT FOR BUSH, 9/11, THE WARS ...
AG: I don't know. What I do know is that we should not be so unique. We're just doing the basic job that journalists should do. You go to where the story is. You go to where the silence is. You go to the people closest to the story ...
I think about Elisabeth Bumiller, the Times reporter who explained why the press didn't ask Bush tough questions on the eve of war in one of his oh-so-rare news conferences: "Because of the gravity of the moment," she said. Which is precisely why you have to ask the questions! The gravity of the moment is sending young men and women into war! That's when you ask the most important questions of the day.
NYP: DO YOU SEE INDEPENDENT MEDIA THRIVING?
AG: People across the political spectrum are very skeptical. Look at military families, for god's sake. They've paid the price with their loved ones' lives. More than 660 soldiers dead. More than 18,000, perhaps upwards of 20,000 evacuated, medically evacuated from Iraq. That's pretty astounding. We never hear these figures. More than 12,000 serious injuries. We never hear these figures. And they're saying "Why?" now. It's the media that failed them. Yes, their government did, but the government can only get away with it when the media doesn't challenge it.
- Amy Goodman, "BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER: A Q & A with Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman," interview by Alexander Zaitchik, new york press April 14, 2004
posted April 21, 2004 in politics, print, speech. 20032001