From the Vault: Amy Goodman

“That is the responsibility of a journalist: giving a voice to those who have been forgotten, forsaken, and beaten down by the powerful.”
~Amy Goodman

In 1984, a young Harvard anthropology student named Amy Goodman enlisted as a volunteer at Pacifica station WBAI New York, and launched a career in ethical journalism which to this day remains unique in her profession. What began as a small daily radio digest called Democracy Now!, broadcast on just handful of radio stations across the country, grew into a media powerhouse now heard and seen on over 500 radio and television stations around the globe. Known as a passionate interviewer with an unassuming home-grown style, Amy has redefined the boundaries of journalism at a time when independent news is needed more than ever.

Amy Goodman’s career to date has included risking her life to cover the massacre in East Timor, turning the tables on Bill Clinton in a public relations interview that was supposed to be a pre-election “cakewalk” for him, as well as focusing the spotlight of world attention on the U.S. ‘coup-and-kidnapping’ of Haiti’s duly elected president, Jean Bertrand Aristide… In her own words, Goodman “goes where the silence is,” and reveals the ignored, the co-opted and the often unreported state of world affairs.

Pacifica Radio Archives and Amy Goodman have maintained a strong relationship through the years, and we have watched each other grow and prosper in amazing ways. We at the Archives are committed to preserving Amy’s recordings as an integral voice of the Pacifica Sound, and of world history. It is with great pride, then, that this week’s episode of From the Vault showcases some of Amy Goodman’s finest moments.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.