As the host and co-founder of Pacifica Radio’s “Democracy Now!” program, Amy Goodman is among the U.S. left’s leading journalists. Aired by 1,500 public radio and TV stations and currently celebrating 30 years of broadcasting, “Democracy Now!” is arguably independent media’s flagship program, and the new documentary “Steal This Story, Please!” chronicles the daily, hourlong news show. It’s also a portrait of Goodman, a George Polk Award winner, who began her journalistic career as a little girl contributing to her family’s DIY “newspaper.” The film covers many of Goodman’s and “Democracy Now’s!” greatest accomplishments, important stories often overlooked by the corporate press. Before “Democracy Now!” even began broadcasting, Goodman flew to East Timor as news director for Pacifica’s New York station WBAI and covered the 1991 massacre by the Indonesian military of at least 271 unarmed civilians at Dili, wherein Goodman and another American journalist, Allan Nairn, were severely beaten. After going on the air in 1996, “Democracy Now!” covered the struggle against Chevron and its role in Nigeria and the work of Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wia. After NPR was pressured not to air political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal’s jailhouse commentaries, “ Democracy Now!” started broadcasting them.
With its studio at a former firehouse in lower Manhattan, “DN!” was located closer to Ground Zero than any other major broadcaster on 9/11. “Democracy Now!” extensively covered opposition to the invasion of Iraq and the war itself, with unembedded, on-the-ground reportage by Sharif Abdel Kouddous (“DN!’s” Jeremy Scahill had previously reported from Iraq back in 199 . In 2016, Goodman reported on the anti-oil pipeline protests at Standing Rock, North Dakota, and so on.
Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, the co-directors of “Steal This Story, Please!,” were Oscar-nominated for the 2008 Hurricane Katrina documentary “Trouble the Water,” while the 2023 HBO nonfiction film Lessin co-helmed about abortion rights, “The Janes,” won three Emmys. “Steal This Story, Please!” has won at least 15 audience and jury awards at film festivals. Goodman, Deal and Lessin were interviewed via Zoom in New York City. Truthdig: Congratulations on your 30th anniversary and on the film. The title seems derived from Abbie Hoffman’s 1971 “Steal This Book” and Robert Greenwald’s 2000 biopic about Abbie, “Steal This Movie!” Why is the documentary titled “Steal This Story, Please!?” Amy Goodman: It is one of the mottoes of “Democracy Now!” We consider an exclusive a failure. Like, if we’re the only ones telling this story, we want people to pick it up, sharing stories with neighbors, but the networks to tell this story as well. Carl Deal: The first time we heard Amy use that phrase, and they used it in the newsroom, it just felt like it said everything you need to know. They practice “trickle-up” journalism. This is a film that’s about that in many ways. That may be another name for independent journalism. You’re covering the stories that are being missed by the mainstream and hoping that they pick them up. Amy’s a person — she’s multidimensional. She’s a dogged reporter but she’s also got a very cheeky side to her. There’s something about the title, this turn of a phrase — it’s not “Steal This Story, Please!” It’s “Steal This Story, PLEASE!!!” The title also embodies some of the spirit of that side of Amy. Tia Lessin: She’s plucky. Amy, I’m paraphrasing, but I recall that you once said in a TV interview that story selection was easy for “Democracy Now!” because you often cover what the corporate media ignores and neglects. “Go to where the silence is.” AG: What’s important about moving forward in the world is done by people organizing together. That often doesn’t hit the corporate media radar screen. For example, activists who organize forums, groups … they are denigrated in the media. People who care about war and peace, climate change, the fate of the planet, inequality, people who care about LGBTQ issues, are not a fringe minority, not even a silent majority, but the silenced majority — silenced by the corporate media. Which is why we have to take the media back.
Another of our mottoes is: “Go to where the silence is.” But what’s interesting is that it’s not usually silent there. It is raucous, it’s rowdy, people are organizing, but it doesn’t hit the corporate media radar screen. And that’s where we begin. A good example of what you’re saying is in “Steal This Story, Please!” After you and other journalists were arrested at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, you ask CBS journalist Katie Couric why she isn’t covering that. AG: That’s right. And she said, “Well, I am interested. Keeping tabs on that.” Me and Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar weren’t the only journalists arrested. By the way, Nicole and Sharif had run out because they saw a large protest and a phalanx of riot police. They had done their job — if they hadn’t gone out from the TV station we were working at in the Twin Cities — they wouldn’t have been doing their jobs. So, they rush out and cover what’s happening, and the police took Nicole down. “On your face!” they said. And they grabbed her camera and film. Which ultimately, I think is what they wanted anyway. Then Sharif, they kicked twice in the chest; they took him down. Now, I had just gotten on the convention floor at the RNC. It’s not easy to get there. But I get a call [that] they’ve been arrested — we have to get them freed. I raced down the street with another journalist who was filming me at the convention, Rick Rowley, and got to the corner where they were. They were down on the ground; I was desperately looking for them and trying to tell the police, “I’m here to ensure that our reporters are free.” And then they arrested me . So, we were three reporters arrested; but we weren’t the only reporters arrested. Amy Goodman arrested while covering the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sept 1, 2008. (Democracy Now!/Rick Rowley) I think by the time I spoke to Katie Couric, there were about 40 reporters arrested. So, I said to her, “Are you covering the arrests of journalists?” Also, there were scores of protesters who were arrested. She said she was interested in it. She did care about it, but the [RNC] program was so packed with videos and speeches, that’s where her network wanted her to focus. But, so often, that is not the news. That may be what they want you to look at, but what is often the news is what’s outside, the uninvited guests. There’s the people with passes on the convention floor; you’ve got to get there. There’s getting into the corporate suites; that’s the corporations who paid for the convention. That’s important to try to track that down, right? Follow the money. And you have to go from the suites to the streets, where the uninvited guests are. That’s critically important. In fact, that’s the masses of people. And it’s important to talk to them. That’s where we live. Tia and Carl, why did you decide to make a film about Amy Goodman and “Democracy Now!”? TL: We knew that there is an appetite for true-crime stories and for celebrity stories. And we figured, here’s a celebrity who goes after true crime! Crime in the corporate suites — not in the streets. Or wrongdoing perpetrated by public officials. It’s a no-brainer. Amy is an extraordinary journalist. We couldn’t believe there hadn’t already been a film made about her. Thirty years of reporting that has been consistently powerful, compelling. She’s broken ground in many cases. “This is a time when we need information.” Of course, when we saw this archive, eyewitness footage, field recordings, we were sold. Starting with her eyewitness to the massacre in 1991 in East Timor. She’s in the footage. She and Allan Nairn, who were there reporting together, when the Indonesian military slaughtered nearly 300 civilians. So, time and time again Amy has been in places covering events no other media has covered. Because of their coverage, the mainstream media — the commercial media, the corporate media, whatever you want to call it — has not been able to ignore those stories.
We’re making this film at a time when media consolidation is on steroids, affecting everything we see, hear and read in the news. And we have a president who’s attacking the press. He wouldn’t be attacking the press if it didn’t matter so much. This is a time when we need information. The kind of information that Amy and “Democracy Now!” reports every day. So, we’re grateful to have this film in this moment, to have an opportunity to say something in these grave times and to also build community with audiences who want to hear these stories. CD: It’s more than just Amy and “Democracy Now!” and this incredible team of journalists she’s assembled over the years, the hundreds of people who’ve done this work in lockstep with her over 30 years. You ask why a film? Well, Amy Goodman herself has become the spokesperson for why this is important. She’s a very relatable person and in my lifetime, probably one of the most vocal advocates for independent media. Conservative commentators Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson are glimpsed in “Steal This Story, Please!” Is Amy just a left-wing version of them? TL: They’re altogether different animals. Those guys, they’re personalities. They’re opinionated talk show hosts. Amy Goodman reports from the Standing Rock oil pipeline protest in North Dakota in October 2016. (Reed Brody) CD: They’re straight up performers. TL: They’re performers. Amy is a journalist. They may share in a critique of mainstream media bias, but they don’t share what the critique is. Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Tucker Carlson made fortunes spewing hate and right-wing rhetoric and moving this country to the extreme right. Amy is through and through a journalist who cares about the truth. You’re a famous media figure, Amy. Have “Democracy Now!” and the books you’ve authored been a financial windfall for you? AG: “ Democracy Now!” is a nonprofit. That’s what’s important. That’s the kind of media that will make an enormous difference in the world and that’s what I’m focused on, that kind of model proliferating all over the world. What we do at “Democracy Now!” is give people a very full picture of what’s happening based on the voices of people on the ground. Right now, the U.S. and Israel have been attacking Iran, and Israel is now attacking Lebanon. We have brought out the voices of Iranians, Iranian American professors and artists and activists. People who have definitely been the target of this current regime in Iran. This regime killed thousands of protesters. So, you would think that anyone who was trying to topple this regime they would support. But so many of these voices, these people, are so deeply concerned about what the U.S. is doing. Saying that they too have killed so many, starting on the first day with the bombing of a girls’ school in southern Iran. A primary school, killing over 175 people, a dozen teachers, but the vast majority just elementary schoolgirls. They’re saying this will further entrench the regime they are so critical of.
We have to ask bigger questions and have people across the political spectrum raising these questions. We’re seeing it more and more. This isn’t a siloing of a small group of dissident voices and it’s the only people we tap into. We’re now talking about the majority of voices. The MAGA splintering, or at least dividing, over this. Most importantly, I care about the population that is under the gun and how they feel. So often, the corporate network hosts go into the tanks and the jet fighters and say, “What does it feel like to be at the control board and to hit these buttons?” But it’s our job to be at the target end and ask this critical question: “Can we afford war in the 21st century?” The stakes are so high. It’s fair to say that since the invasion of Oct. 7, 2023, “Democracy Now!” provided more extensive coverage of Gaza and the West Bank than any other major U.S. news broadcast. The program often presents a Palestinian point of view. “Steal This Story, Please!” rather details your personal Jewish background. You seem to personify the Jewish progressive tradition. AG: My grandfather on my mother’s side was an Orthodox rabbi. He was the principal of a yeshiva in Brooklyn. My great-grandfather on my father’s side was the Henry Street rabbi on the Lower East Side. They all came from different areas of what is now called Ukraine; it was Poland at the time. They all fled the pogroms. They were lucky — my grandparents, their sisters and brothers — because they survived. But many in the family didn’t survive.
I grew up infused with their stories and with the idea that “Never Again” means never again for anyone, anywhere. I live that all the time, because of my parents and grandparents. And, yes, I come out of a Jewish tradition, but I really think that’s a humanistic tradition. Whether you are Muslim or Hindu or Christian or atheist or agnostic, just that feeling that we are here on this planet to protect each other. “Independent media will save this country.” When I was growing up going to Hebrew school, I was always amazed when I heard stories of non-Jews who saved Jewish families, harbored them in their basements or attics. Why would they risk their lives? And that deeply touched me. In the documentary, there’s this big scene on a sabbath night, a shabbat night, of 1,000 Jews and their supporters, shutting down Grand Central Station, saying “Never Again.” I interviewed a bunch of people there, whether it was an 80-year-old professor from the City University of New York, who said, “What have I got to lose?” or those supporting them. I talked to a young state legislator named Zohran Mamdani , who was there supporting the protesters. He said if he dared get arrested again, he might really be thrown into jail. He’d been arrested the week before.
To hear these peaceful, determined, dedicated voices — that’s our job. Tia and Carl juxtaposed our coverage against Fox’s coverage that night, and they had the same images that we had of these protesters in Grand Central Station. We actually interviewed the people, it’s not just an image. So, Fox is showing you the sprawling protest of people getting arrested, and Fox says – TL: Sean Hannity says: “As you can see, virulent widespread hatred, antisemitism at a level that beyond shocks the conscience.” Talk about alternate reality. AG: [Laughs] It’s just ludicrous. I want to ask you a personal question that’s touched upon in the sequence wherein you visit your century-plus-old grandmother. In the film, your grandmother asks you about a “boyfriend,” and without prying into your private life, what do you feel comfortable saying about how you spend your time when you’re not on the air? What does Amy Goodman do for fun? Are there any significant others in your life? AG: My community are my friends and my co-workers. My pets and my friends’ pets, my friends’ and my family’s children, nieces and nephews. For example, I am a proud aunt, and I think that’s a very particular role in life and I take it very seriously. I love to walk with [my dog] Zazu and listen to books or talk to people on the street. … My life is living in community, and I love to be with people and share love. TL: We’re excited to take this film on the road with her, we’re crisscrossing the country, going to nearly 100 different cities with the film. We’ll physically be in many of them. Each and every time this film screens is an opportunity for communities to get together. What’s so extraordinary and special about watching movies is communing in the dark. And particularly at this moment these are important times to be together. AG: It really makes a difference when people come out to movie theaters. It is a political act to be in these art houses and cinemas because the big distributors are not as interested in documentaries. The way these films get out is just how “Democracy Now!” gets all over the world and picked up by public radio and television stations, because people want it, and they have to demonstrate that. Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, right, directors and producers of “Steal This Story, Please!,” with Amy Goodman and Zazu. (Democracy Now!) “Democracy Now!” is listener sponsored, an exemplar of alternative, independent news. In this period of the Trump regime’s attacks on the news media, what do you each see as the role of “Democracy Now!” and the independent press at this time of increasing repression and censorship? AG: President Trump calls the media “the enemy of the people.” He even — during one of his rallies—pointed at the press corps in front of him and said, “If you took a direct shot from behind me, hit them,” something along those lines. It’s a very dangerous time for the media. As we travel the country, we’re holding fundraisers for public radio and television stations because President Trump more than anyone understands the power of the media. One of the first things he did was lead the charge to defund public media.
Let’s remember where it began — a man who influenced me very much, Bill Moyers, great journalist that he was. He worked with Lyndon Johnson, they signed off on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting because the media was becoming so hyper-commercialized, they said it has to preserve an educational space. That grew the public media movement and stations all over this country. More than half a century later, President Trump eviscerated the CPB, so there are many stations that will go under, especially rural, Native American stations. We want to be there as a support as we travel. Because this is all about independent media. Independent media will save this country. TL: The most profound thing we can all do as filmmakers, as journalists, artists, creatives, as working people, as immigrant rights defenders, they rely on our silence to perpetrate state violence. The degree to which we speak up and speak out, we’re going to defeat this. This film is our way of speaking up and speaking out, in this moment. After your film tour, what’s next for you? AG: To continue to work with “Democracy Now!” A station a week picks up “Democracy Now!” They’re public TV and public radio, in this country and around the world. It’s not just these stations; obviously, there’s the whole digital world. We don’t believe people should find their way to us; we’ve got to get to them. So, we reach out to all social media platforms, there are millions who access us on YouTube, our website, on Instagram, on TikTok. We go to where people are reading, are gathering information, are hungry for the voices that will save us.
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