First book the exception to the rulers you right and we we are quoting the Washington Post here that amy goodman is the journalist as uninvited guests. Guest we are not supposed to be a party to any party. We are journalists. There is a reason why our profession journalism is the only one explicitly protected by the u. S. Constitution. We are supposed to be the check and balance on power. Host inapp look also war and peace, life and death. That is the role of the media in a Democratic Society to provide a forum for this discourse to do anything less is a disservice to the servicemen and Service Women of this country. Guest thats right. You know i had just flown in from denver where is that they National Conference on media reform and when we flew into the airport at Denver Airport where people hold up signs when you come out to pick you up. As we were walking there were some soldiers there. They were going to be picking up the general and as we walked by they were waiting. I thought maybe the journalist behind me could see the sign for the general. We went back and i said do you watch democracy now . They said every day. I said really . Why really . Why do you watch . They said its objective then you cover the war. It is not about whether you are for or against the war. Its about covering the most serious decisions a country can make. I see the media as a huge Kitchen Table that stretches across the globe that we all sit around and debate and discuss the most important issues of the day. As you quoted their war and peace, life and death than anything less than that is a disservice to the servicemen and women of this country. They cant have these debates on military bases. They rely on us in civilian society to have the discussions that lead to the decisions about whether they lived or died, about whether they are sent to kill or be killed. Anything less than that is the disservice to a Democratic Society. Host one of the recurring things in your writing is the Corporate Media as you call it. What is the Corporate Media and what does it do or not to . Guest its what most people see on television on most channels. Not all, and that is the hope. Abc, cbs, as cnn that turned to corporate support. The media that is brought to you by the listeners and viewers who are deeply committed independent information. What may cover war not by the weapons manufactures. When we cover Climate Change not brought to buy the oil, the gas in the nuclear companies. When we cover the health healthe debate in this Company Country not brought to you by the Drug Companies or the Insurance Industry but brought to listeners and viewers by listeners and viewers who feel that information is power, that information is essential. Its the oxygen of the democracy. Host back to the the exception to the rulers. Our motto at democracy now is to break the sound barrier and call ourselves the exception to the rulers. We believe all media should be. What do you mean by sound barrier . Guest so often on the networks we get this small circle of pundits who know so little about so much. Explaining the world to us and getting it so wrong. We go to the communities to talk to people in this country and around the world who are at the heart of the story. Its not always easy to find that people sense. I think its why so many young people at democracy now we have such a diverse audience in this country and around the world to quds its that sense of people knowing what they are talking about because theyre talking from their own experience. I think the best kind of journalism. Providing a forum for people to speak for themselves. Providing a forum for people from different strata of society to debate and discuss with each other the Critical Issues that hearing those voices of a great diversity of people, that is the role of journalism in a Democratic Society. Host went at democracy now starting how was it funded . Guest it was started 17 years ago as the only daily election joint public broadcasting. It began on radio. It was february 1996. It was the second election of president clinton ultimately but we didnt know that at the time. I was actually in haiti when i got the call from pacifica radio where the show was first established. And you know when they say do you want to host this daily election show, i thought it was a very interesting challenge because it covered places where people get when they go to the polls in places like east timor and places like haiti and the overwhelming majority of people vote. Why i wondered in this country dont people vote or i should say the majority did not vote. I dont think its apathy but i was interested to follow the primaries. A kind of map of the country and go go to the states and see what people are doing in their communities. How are they civically engaged . So we did the show and the election happened and we thought that would be it but there was more on the show after the election than before. We were right broad casting and a few dozen community stations and it kept growing and in the week of septembeseptembe r 11th happened. That we coincidently, im talking about septembeseptembe r 11, 2001. We were slated to go on one tv station in new york a Public Access tv station we were broadcasting from an Old Firehouse that have been turned into a Community Media center. It was the closest National Broadcast to the World Trade Center so on september 11 we were going to be broadcasting on television as well for manhattan neighborhood network. The now work right cast at 8 00 eastern standard every morning so the first plane hit the first tower of the World Trade Center at 8 47. We were in this Old Firehouse. The second plane hit at 9 03. We still didnt know was happening. We were though doing a show that day on the connection between terror and september 11 ,com,com ma 1973 in chile when salvador again day the democraticallyelected president died in the palace as the forces rose to power. Unfortunately the u. S. Forces that kissinger backed forces the nixon backed forces the itt backed forces and then i shut was a dictator who was ruthless who ran that country for 17 years. Tauzins of chileans were killed september 11, 2000 minus not the first time that september 11 is connected with terror. It has happened around the world and september 11, 1977 in south africa the founder of the black Consciousness Movement was being beaten to death in the back of a van bipartite forces. He died in the Early Morning hours. Guatemala september 11, 1990 and anthropologist was killed by Guatemalan Security forces sadly the u. S. Backed Guatemalan Security forces. September 11, 1971 here in the United States in new york that was the attica uprising september 9 to 13th. Two days later governor rockefeller would call up the state troopers and they would open fire on prisoners killing Something Like 79 prisoners and guards. Killing 39 prisoners and guards and criticallcriticall y wounding eight others and injuring hundreds of others. September 11 is not the first time that terror has come to u. S. Soil. Africanamerican slavery and september 11, 2001 was a horrific moment. 3000 people incinerated in an instant. Well never know actually how many people died those who go unnamed and undocumented in life often go undocumented in death and they were the undocumented workers in the World Trade Center but it was horrific. I think it united us with people around the world who have been victims of terror. Host democracy now amy goodman has been on television since 2001. Guest since that day and then we went on as emergency broadcasting. Public access stations started calling saying we want to write a broadcast. We were dealing with breaking news so i didnt think we could just melt them. We started fedex thing. The fedex guys will come and we would have huge garbage bags filled with videocassettes and wed send them around the country. In a community where it started running on television the local radio said can we run the show . We were on community stations pacifica Radio Stations npr stations and Public Access stations and increasingly on pbs stations all over the country. We started in a few dozen Community Radio stations in 96 and today we are broad casting on over 1100 public Radio Stations Radio Stations across the world. Our headlines are available in spanish for any Radio Station to take and also writing a weekly column for hearst for King Features to provide a roadmap for people to really see and read these independent voices that are so often not reflected in the media. But i think they reflect the views and and of perhaps most people in this country. Host funding . Guest its divided by the networks that run us. Foundations and listener and viewership support which is most critical. All over the country and around the world people are committed to it. Host the exception to the rulers journalists are not entertainers. We are reporters that go to places that are unpopular. Where were you in november of 1991 . Guest well, come in november of 1991 i went to the small country called east timor which at the time was occupy it by indonesia. I went there with my colleague a superb journalist in this country investigative journalists. We had gone there the year before to investigate what was happening there and then we returned at the end of october, 1991. Indonesia invaded east timor december 7, can 1975. At the time it was president ford and secretary of state kissinger. They gave the goahead for the invasion to one of the longest reigning dictators in the world and as they flew out the Indonesian Military invaded east timor by land by air and by sea just for a little history. They occupy the country. They closed it to the outside world and for the next 17 years or ultimately for a quarter of a century they slaughtered the people. One of the great genocides of the late 20th century. The genocide was worse than pol pots cambodia. The difference was in terms of people knowing what was happening and americans knowing is the pol pot was and the media would cover it because the president and secretary of state would talk about it and of course they should have covered it but in the case of indonesia invading east timor they were an ally of the United States or whether it was ford and kissinger on to reagan and bush and onto clinton they didnt talk about the atrocities in timor. So we went to east timor to do our job as journalists to go to where the silence was. With we found there was a real hell on earth. November 12, 1991 indonesia had occupy it for 17 years and it killed a third of the population , 213 thousand. On that morning the people went to church to the Catholic Church most of the country is catholic and had been occupy by portugal for many centuries actually and they went to the church in del the the capital of east timor and after the church went out into the street in an unheardof demonstration because in indonesia they didnt allow freedom of speech, freedom of press or freedom of assembly but two weeks before after we arrived the Indonesian Military surrounded the church and they had killed a young man named gomes in the church at pointblank range. They had a funeral for him the next day. A thousand people turned out in the cemetery and two weeks later they were having at commemoration procession. This land without freedom of speech press or assembly, the people marched into the streets. You would see a girl and her Catholic School uniform and then a woman and her old tim murrays garb. The girls and boys would pull out tanner said they had written on dead sheets and they would hold them up and they would say things like why did the Indonesian Military shoot our church . They appealed to president george h. W. Bush at the time. They appealed to the u. N. Someone to stop the slaughter. They will march to this treats free tracing the steps of the funeral two weeks before. Some putting their hands up in the thee sign shouting viva sebastian. Thousands from work school and home and they march to the santa cruz cemetery. When we got there we were interviewing people. Why are you risking your life to do this and they would say for my mother, for my father, for my village that was wiped out and from the direction the procession had come we saw hundreds of indignation soldiers carrying their u. S. M16s in the ready position marching up to the crowd. 90 of the weapons used were from the United States. The Indonesian Army was arms trained and financed by the United States and on this day was no different. The soldiers marched 10 to 12 abreast. Allen and i were interviewing people in the middle of the crowd and allen suggested we walk to the front of the crowd. We knew the Indonesian Military had committed many massacres they had never done it in front of western journalisjournalis ts and we thought maybe her presence would head off this attack is the always had our equipment because anyone caught talking to a journalist would be killed. I took my tape recorder out and slung it over my shoulder and i put my headphones on. I held up my microphone like a flag and allen put the camera but this had. Allen was writing for the new yorker magazine at the time. We walked to the front of the crowd and the soldiers walked up and rounded the corner. They swept past us and without any hesitation without any warning and without any provocation they opened fire on the crowd gunning people down from right to left. A group of soldiers gathered around me. They pulled my microphone away and waved it in my face as if to say this is what we dont want and then they took me down beating me with their rifles and boots. Allen got a photograph of me opening fire and he threw himself on top of me to protect me. They took their u. S. M16s. They slammed them against his skull until a fractured it. We were lying in the road and allen was covered in blood. The soldiers then put the guns to our heads in firing squad fashion. They had now stripped us of everything. The only thing i had left was my passport and in my skirt. They were shouting to things. Australia and polity. They were saying it was political for us to witness this but that is our job as journalists to go to where the silence is. And they were asking if we were from australia chanting australia, australia and we knew how dangerous that was for us. 17 years before when indonesia invaded east timor there were five australiaustrali anbased journalists covering the invasion. The Indonesian Military line them up against a house in the executed them all. There was a sixth journalist in the day after the invasion december 8, can 1975 he was reporting from a Radio Station for the world. He was the best western journalists there. They broken to the Radio Station and they dragged him out and they shot him with thousands. We believe because years later australia and indonesia would sign the treaty dividing timors oil between australia and indonesia. Oil is the source of so much pain in the world and so is the life there with allen covered in blood and they are shouting at us australia with guns to our heads we shouted back no america, america. I had thrown my passport at them i was born in washington d. C. They would kick me in the stomach when i would get my breath back and as others join the firing squad i would say america, america. At some point they take the guns from our heads we believe because we were from the same country. They would have to pay a price for killing us that they would never have to pay for killing them. A red cross jeep pulled up and the driver of the red cross jeep picked up this old man who was in a sewer ditch next to us. Every time the soldiers beat him he would put up his hands and a prayer sign and they would smash the buts of their rifles into his face. We drove off to a hospital and they stopped us to get away from us and we drove as a human mouse to the hospital. They hung off the top of the ge. At the hospital the doctors and nurses started to cry when they saw us. Not because we were in worship and the people. That we were being dragged there. I think because of what we have represented. Not just allen and i but i think americans. Not just timor but people all over the world. The represent two things, the shield and the sword. They also see the American People as the shield. They would call a Congress Member and say dont do that. People can march in the streets here and they saw that. That just deepen their despair. We went into hiding. We knew we had to get out of the country and we would not succeed in stopping the massacre. The Indonesian Military killed more than 270 that day. We went to the bishops house. He later won the nobel peace prize. And allen was covered in blood. He gave him a new shirt so we could clean him up. His head under his dark hair glistened like a bathing cap of blood but if we could get to the airport between before the new shirt was drenc