AMY GOODMAN AND “DEMOCRACY LATER”
UP FRONT News May 29, 2007
Published by Tom Weiss
Editorial Advisor: Willard Whittingham
“The paper that can’t be bought and can’t be sold.” www.tomsupfrontnews.blogspot.com
With the occasional WBAI posterboy neo-fascist Geoffrey Blank as a conspicuous ex- ample, it is a reality that some of the most rhetorically vocal proponents of free speech are in fact hostile to the First Amendment and are in fact most interested in free speech for themselves and their political friends.
Amy Goodman, the host of “Democracy Now” broadcast on WBAI and elsewhere, who sees herself as the savior of a corporate controlled media, is another case in point. For one thing, someone who gets paid a six figure salary reportedly many times over $100,000 a year, qualifies in some ways as what self-described anarchist Richie Degen somewhat loosely characterizes as a “trust fund radical.”
Amy Goodman is a frequent speaker at anti-War and other left-attracting events. As far as I am aware she is among those who criticize Israel for its occupation of Palestinian lands but has difficulty identifying the anti-Semitism of some of Israel’s sworn enemies such as Iran, Hezbollah - and presumably the local Holocaust denier/neo-nazi, City em- ployee Andy Kellerman, often seen on Saturday afternoons along the traffic island next to Union Square, parasiting onto the Palestinian rights movement.
Amy Goodman is among a bunch of newspeople who, although fully aware of my De- mocratic write-in candidacy for the U.S. Senate against Hillary Clinton, chose to suppress that news, even as my candidacy was reported in Newsday, The Staten Island Advance, The New York Times, The New York Press, The INN World Report, Conversations With Harold Channer and elsewhere in the print and broadcast media. As I recall most of the “anti-Hillary” coverage at WBAI focused on a fraud named Jonathan Tasini, at least one of whose top aides is directly connected to the mega-fascist Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
An appearance by “free speech” advocate Goodman is not entirely unlike a speech by George Bush at least in terms of Q&A with the audience. Some months ago I attended an Amy Goodman talk at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan. The anti-Iraq War content of her very lengthy talk revealed nothing new. Considering the number of times that, in her speech, she patted herself on the back I am surprised that she didn’t sustain an elbow fracture. Although a number of people sitting near me in the audience managed to catch up on their sleep I stayed awake, hoping for a Q&A. As soon as she was done, having fallen short in her attempt at topping Fidel Castro for length of oratory, she picked up her papers and walked off the stage to sign copies of one of her books and make some more money. I went over to her, re-introduced myself and asked her why she didn’t allow for a Q&A. She did not answer.
Democracy Later.
* * * * * * *
Published by Tom Weiss
Editorial Advisor: Willard Whittingham
“The paper that can’t be bought and can’t be sold.” www.tomsupfrontnews.blogspot.com
With the occasional WBAI posterboy neo-fascist Geoffrey Blank as a conspicuous ex- ample, it is a reality that some of the most rhetorically vocal proponents of free speech are in fact hostile to the First Amendment and are in fact most interested in free speech for themselves and their political friends.
Amy Goodman, the host of “Democracy Now” broadcast on WBAI and elsewhere, who sees herself as the savior of a corporate controlled media, is another case in point. For one thing, someone who gets paid a six figure salary reportedly many times over $100,000 a year, qualifies in some ways as what self-described anarchist Richie Degen somewhat loosely characterizes as a “trust fund radical.”
Amy Goodman is a frequent speaker at anti-War and other left-attracting events. As far as I am aware she is among those who criticize Israel for its occupation of Palestinian lands but has difficulty identifying the anti-Semitism of some of Israel’s sworn enemies such as Iran, Hezbollah - and presumably the local Holocaust denier/neo-nazi, City em- ployee Andy Kellerman, often seen on Saturday afternoons along the traffic island next to Union Square, parasiting onto the Palestinian rights movement.
Amy Goodman is among a bunch of newspeople who, although fully aware of my De- mocratic write-in candidacy for the U.S. Senate against Hillary Clinton, chose to suppress that news, even as my candidacy was reported in Newsday, The Staten Island Advance, The New York Times, The New York Press, The INN World Report, Conversations With Harold Channer and elsewhere in the print and broadcast media. As I recall most of the “anti-Hillary” coverage at WBAI focused on a fraud named Jonathan Tasini, at least one of whose top aides is directly connected to the mega-fascist Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
An appearance by “free speech” advocate Goodman is not entirely unlike a speech by George Bush at least in terms of Q&A with the audience. Some months ago I attended an Amy Goodman talk at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan. The anti-Iraq War content of her very lengthy talk revealed nothing new. Considering the number of times that, in her speech, she patted herself on the back I am surprised that she didn’t sustain an elbow fracture. Although a number of people sitting near me in the audience managed to catch up on their sleep I stayed awake, hoping for a Q&A. As soon as she was done, having fallen short in her attempt at topping Fidel Castro for length of oratory, she picked up her papers and walked off the stage to sign copies of one of her books and make some more money. I went over to her, re-introduced myself and asked her why she didn’t allow for a Q&A. She did not answer.
Democracy Later.
* * * * * * *
posted by Tom Weiss at 11:28 AM
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