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Friday, February 10, 2012
Amy Goodman in Sacramento
by Tina Armour, published on November 22, 2009 at 7:56 PM
Storyline: Fundraisers
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Journalist Amy Goodman spoke about health care and her new book, "Breaking the Sound Barrier," Saturday at the Coloma Community Center auditorium to an audience of about 100.
Goodman's speech about the health-care system in the United States turned personal. It was dedicated to her mother, who died in October of cancer.
"I felt like we were leaving signs saying 'Do not harm, do not amputate this, do not mutilate'," said Goodman. "The health-care system is sick."
Goodman said her mother, Dorrie Goodman, asked this while being treated in the hospital: "The Chinese learned pain management 3,000 years ago. Why haven't you figured it out?"
According to Goodman, the media doesn't cover anything but the status quo on issues such as health care because it can be summed up and understood in an eight-second sound bite.
"Let's lower the age of eligibility (of health care) to when you're born," said Goodman. "See? I can sum it up in four seconds."
"I got to give this book to my mother before she died and turned it to the dedication page, which reads "Dedicated to my mother, Dorris Goodman, the most remarkable woman I have ever known," said Goodman.
She read a column from the book called "Keifer Sutherland's Grandfather Tommy Douglass: Health Care Reform Needs an Action Hero." She said that "to investigate, President Barack Obama might be tempted to call on Jack Bauer, the fictional rogue intelligence agent from the hit TV series "24."
"Maybe Jack Bauer can save the day," said Goodman. "I think America can do better than this."
Goodman then commented on Obama and the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen.
"Goodman wound down her talk with a wry comment on Obama and the upcoming climate changer conference in Copenhagen
"He hasn't confirmed that he's going," she said. "I know he knows where it is because he was just there pushing for the Olympics in Chicago. I think this is a bit more important."
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However, when she has interviewed Ralph Nader, whom she and others of her news team seem to lionize, she never asked questions about his influence on the outcome of the 2000 election, that sent our nation into eight years of its darkest historic chapter.
For me, this was at least intellectually dishonest, and I wrote to her about it, for to dodge this line of inquiry in light of its contributory effect on that watershed election's outcome, was to deny her role as reporter, dispassionate about those standing in front of her even though they may have similar political sensibilities, particularly with regard to such a salient issue.
That being said, DEMOCRACY NOW is about as clear and understated a news gathering organization as can be hoped for. It lacks the media panache of Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow, who are also amazingly articulate and forthright news presenters and reporters, but Amy Goodman's broadcast is must see TV for all concerned about the pertinent events of the day that affect the lives of workaday people of modest means, including labor and poverty issues, and the nepharious political backstory that MSM just diverts attention away from...
In that regard, she is a great American...