Twenty years of Democracy Now! in review
February 19, 2016 10:26 AM   Subscribe

Twenty years of Democracy Now! (alt link, transcript) Currently an hour-long television and web broadcast, the award-winning news program began on the radio on February 19th, 1996 on the eve of the New Hampshire presidential primary. Previously.
posted by XMLicious (38 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
I consider myself pretty damn liberal and Democracy Now! is too liberal and biased for me. I've always considered them the best example of Fox News of the left.
posted by ShakeyJake at 10:37 AM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


when the news program cites via campesina instead of the brookings institute <<<
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:55 AM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


I agree with ShakeyJake. Sometimes I catch an interesting segment on DN, but the overall tone is exteremely grating for me. There's also something about the audio production that makes me cringe - like, there's a blaringness as if people are too close to the mic, etc.
posted by Miko at 10:58 AM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Democracy Now's like the Fox News of the left except minus millions of viewers and billions of dollars in revenue so yeah, good job guys, you really got a fair criticism in there

I like that actually progressive media like it exists and I especially love that it's kept up with the current discourse on intersectionality. it was there that I first watched the Eric Garner video in full and it was there that I first saw the Tamir Rice shooting in full

but, in the same way that I tend to ignore the political commentators that I don't trust on mainstream media, I tend to keep myself pretty cool about trusting their 'experts'. but I'm happy that they are still in production and have a voice and that they can push the dialectic even a little bit against the tide of Fox and Koch sponsored media
posted by runt at 11:04 AM on February 19, 2016 [28 favorites]


I like that it exists, too, I just don't want to listen to it.
posted by Miko at 11:07 AM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Love that 2000 Bill Clinton call-in freakout. They should replay that more.
posted by RogerB at 11:09 AM on February 19, 2016 [7 favorites]


yeah, I suppose it should be pointed out that their video production quality is probably geared towards longterm sustainability (ie low values) rather than the BA DUM BA DING [3D animation of logo] NOW HERE'S A HOLOGRAM OF PUFFY WHITE FORMER FRAT BOY IN A SLICK SUIT LIVE IN FRONT OF A CAREFULLY SELECTED AUDIENCE WITH WIRELESS MICROPHONES THAT ARE BEING BALANCED IN A SUPER PRO STUDIO interspersed with ad segments for Coors Light and Phoenix University that are paying a couple thousand per minute

which is just to say that I feel like the frequent stutters, awkward pauses, and bad audio levels are a pretty forgivable thing but since I'm speaking as a listener of amateur hour podcasts and youbutt vids, I suppose my attention to aesthetic details aren't very universal
posted by runt at 11:15 AM on February 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


Fox News of the left

Yeah, perfect equivalency there, champ, they've got exactly identical commitments to rigorous investigative journalism. We could sit here all day remembering the times when Bill O'Reilly and Tucker Carlson got arrested and beaten by US police for reporting on protests, or nearly killed doing on-the-ground reporting on massacres by authoritarian governments across the world that no other American news source would touch…
posted by RogerB at 11:19 AM on February 19, 2016 [35 favorites]


I've gotten into Democracy Now! via my wife, who listens/watches it every morning, and now it's a welcome part of my day. I like the simple, medium-fi production, and the point of view.
posted by jjwiseman at 11:24 AM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Thanks for this post! I'm extremely grateful for Democracy Now. I very much appreciate having a single media source on the left that isn't co-opted or outright directed by corporate funding. I find their production values refreshing, personally - I hate that slick overproduced stuff.

Their recent segment with Ta-Nehisi Coates on reparations was especially great.
posted by dialetheia at 11:27 AM on February 19, 2016 [10 favorites]


I hate that slick overproduced stuff.

There's a happy medium of decently balanced audio. I don't know why they can't do it - even small-time podcasters can. About 10 years ago I helped start a LP community radio station and this was the first syndicated show we wanted to put on. It drove the engineers crazy.

I caught that Ta-Nehesis Coates segment in the car, and it was really great.
posted by Miko at 11:30 AM on February 19, 2016


Love Democracy Now! Just thought I'd chime in with that before the thread gets bogged down at the beginning by one general opinion of it. You know those threads, where you don't even participate after reading the first 10 comments because it's annoying, disheartening and not worth the trouble. I have a similar reaction to the corporate media. . .

So, if anything, Democracy Now!, regardless of your politics, is great in that it provides an alternative to the thousands of hours of mind-shaping media that is sponsored by the powerful for their benefit.

Also, on balance, which has proven to be closer to the truth, Democracy Now! or Fox News? Hell, let's say Democracy Now! and MSNBC? That's a real question . . . Another question . . . which one, even if you disagree with them, leans more towards having your best interest (or if you're a powerful person - the common person's best interest) at heart?

Even I sometimes roll my eyes at some of their reporting and some of the guests (especially when it feels they are pandering to their aging babyboomer base of donators). The ten billionth [insert 60s folk singer here] show is a small price to pay for what they put out the rest of the time.
posted by the lake is above, the water below at 11:33 AM on February 19, 2016 [5 favorites]


I'm fond of how consistent their intros are.

"Welcome to Democracy Now, the war and peace report, I'm Amy Goodman."

Twenty minutes later:

"...and I'm Juan Gonzalez."
posted by Beardman at 11:40 AM on February 19, 2016 [8 favorites]


What I really wish they'd do to forestall the inevitable and extremely tiresome talk of ideological "slant" and poor production values is just put together a big list of their scoops. If people want to talk about journalistic professionalism, DN! can easily oblige them. Honestly I'd be surprised if there were many media outlets in the world with a better major-story-broken-per-dollar ratio than DN! — I often wish they'd take "professional" credit for this better, instead of leading with the Chomsky and Zinn endorsements or Goodman and Gonzalez as personalities or just letting people drown in all the filler segments. Maybe there ought to be a fan wiki or something for this case to be assembled.
posted by RogerB at 11:43 AM on February 19, 2016 [8 favorites]


Not a fan of Democracy Now, but I'm glad it's out there. Overtly progressive media outlets -- especially on radio and TV -- are hard to come by in the US, and efforts to build them haven't done well (RIP, Air America). Even Democracy Now is probably the only worthwhile program on the absolute shitshow that is the Pacifica network.

At the same time, let's remember the real asymmetries between progressive and conservative media consumption. The right gravitates toward Fox News, but the left is all over the place. And they consume mostly middle-of-the-road stuff like CNN or stuff with an inflection of liberalism like MSNBC. Overtly progressive media doesn't rate nearly as highly (although Democracy Now/Pacifica isn't mentioned in that Pew survey). This is why equating Democracy Now with Fox News, positively or negatively, is off-base: American liberals, by and large, don't seem that interested in media with an explicit party line, as opposed to media that more neutrally discusses the things they care about.

There's a lesson to be learned here, by the way, for the Democratic primary contest.
posted by Cash4Lead at 11:53 AM on February 19, 2016 [5 favorites]


Best thing on Pacifica, that's for sure.

Well, except for Roy of Hollywood's show. And Ian Masters' Background Briefing.

Okay, THIRD BEST thing on Pacifica!

(Meanwhile. Pacifica... ? They had a good thing going in the late 90s, at least at KPFK, with some professionalism, a decent afternoon drivetime lineup, and so on, but there seems to have been a purge in 2002, or so. The crisis is neverending at Pacifica: "The network’s biggest star – Amy Goodman, host of the independently produced Democracy Now! – is also its biggest creditor. She is owed an estimated $2.1m in unpaid broadcast fees." Oy.)
posted by notyou at 11:55 AM on February 19, 2016


don't seem that interested in media with an explicit party line, as opposed to media that more neutrally discusses the things they care about.

Wait, do people really believe that CNN and MSNBC are neutral? Seriously?
posted by dialetheia at 11:57 AM on February 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


Democracy Now's like the Fox News of the left

I call bullshit. DN and Amy are like...uh...people reporting factual stuff. AG is a blessing.
posted by j_curiouser at 12:01 PM on February 19, 2016 [7 favorites]


Wait, do people really believe that CNN and MSNBC are neutral? Seriously?

Well, neutral by their own lights, at least. Hidden biases are another matter.
posted by Cash4Lead at 12:01 PM on February 19, 2016


"Welcome to Democracy Now, the war and peace report, I'm Amy Goodman."

I've always wondered... I know what Democracy Now is, I know who Amy Goodman is, but what the hell is the war and peace report?

Also, I think it's close to time for Amy and Juan to retire. There are some days where they seem almost incapable of getting their lines out. And their "backup" hosts are awesome.

The comparison with other news networks is silly. DN has by far and away superior coverage of the news, certainly when calculated via bang for the buck, but maybe even on an absolute basis.

My only complaint with DN is that they are too centrist. They bring on a lot of policy experts, but I would appreciate more guests with radical left commentary. Perhaps I'm one of the few, but I really think they're missing an opportunity there.
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 12:16 PM on February 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


I'm not confident that DN can tell me about the latest products, services, business trends, and up-and-coming tech startups I need to know about with the same balance and objectivity CNN and MSNBC can.
posted by XMLicious at 12:27 PM on February 19, 2016 [12 favorites]


When CNN and MSNBC are touted as left wing media, there's a whole bunch of side-eye. Sure, they're not Fox, but with exception of a few reporters/hosts, they're hardly far left media.
posted by Kitteh at 12:28 PM on February 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


The Fox News of the left analogy is like drawing an equivalency between Kale and Bullets.
posted by nikoniko at 12:32 PM on February 19, 2016 [12 favorites]


Many people find Kale unpalatable and not very tasty - that said, it is nutritious and when massaged properly can be delicious in salads. Bullets are used to kill things, or make holes in things. Fox News is trying to feed us bullets.
posted by nikoniko at 12:38 PM on February 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Amy Goodman is great.
posted by Flood at 1:06 PM on February 19, 2016 [8 favorites]


I'm in a red area of a red state, and somehow the local NPR station started carrying Democracy Now some years back. Despite quite a bit of push back from listeners, they apparently get enough pledges when it's on to keep carrying it. This is beyond a breath of fresh air. (No pun intended.)

I'd say that my groan-per-hour frequency is about the same when listening to Democracy Now as it is to All Things Considered. Although for rather different reasons.. ATC is so cutesy, so inside the beltway, and has such a low opinion of their listeners much of the time. DN is often uncomfortably unfiltered, in a "here's 40 minutes of Chomsky on a cell phone!" kind of way.
posted by joeyh at 1:25 PM on February 19, 2016 [9 favorites]


Even Democracy Now is probably the only worthwhile program on the absolute shitshow that is the Pacifica network.

An aside, but KPFA's Letters and Politics is often excellent.

Also, if you have any interest in electronic music or just glorious, sui generis late night weirdness, there's Crack O' Dawn - which absolutely could not exist on any other network.
posted by ryanshepard at 2:25 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Twenty years, wow. In a pinkish area of a relatively red state, I've heard alot of bewildered comments about the Dem candidate race: Where is all this anger coming from? How is Bernie firing up the crowds? It's not like he's the next Obama - he's an old, white dude! Is socialism really that much of a draw? I try to explain that (working backwards chronologically) a)sustained obstructionism from the very rich, very powerful right looks exactly like oppression from elites grasping to maintain control, b) the reign of Dubya really, really did a number on the amount of goodwill young lefties were willing to extend to the middle/moderate right, c) there was always a progressive undercurrent that wasn't at all satisfied with Clinton's much-vaunted 'third way', and d) demographic reality's a bitch. The resurgence of the left has been bubbling up for awhile, from my point of view, and hasn't really started cooking yet. YMMV.
posted by eclectist at 3:02 PM on February 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


Great derail to start this thread...

It is consistently amazing that DN's ONE hour of early morning coverage can outweigh an ENTIRE WEEK of 24 hour continuous cable bullshit in terms of information...

Where the hell were you going to listen to actual writers/journalists, foreign leaders, or alternative economists in segments that lasted more than three to four minutes? And on the shoestring budget and operation they have?

Maybe I'm old enough to remember when people used to say that political arguments *required* flashy good lookin spokespeople, expensive sets, and establishment guests for legitimacy. WHAT COMPLETE BULLSHIT. Americans let their religious adoration of Television absolutely ruin their sense of perspective.

Thank god for DN! Seems like the only thing holding this place from becoming the truly murderous, war hungry, and ignorant machine, and if you don't see that when I don't care for ya.
posted by brainimplant at 3:55 PM on February 19, 2016 [9 favorites]


DN is a good source of news. That is, one of many. It marries an annoying smugness and self-satisfaction with lefty news that borders on conspiratorial. But it does some good reporting. Part of my feelings about it, I suppose, come from being called a corporate stooges from its admirers because I like NPR and PBS.
posted by persona au gratin at 5:44 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


And Ian Masters is great.
posted by persona au gratin at 5:45 PM on February 19, 2016


I'm always reminded that Amy Goodman--no spring chicken--was in new orleans before some of the response. that interview with Malik about the body is so haunting and so telling. She's also a compelling public speaker.

DN! knows how to find the best guests. Radio and TV are full of regular commentators, but DN! seems to put a lot of effort into finding new voices--or popularizing marginal voices.

So yes, someone should do a scoop-per-hour of content, DN! would be up there.
posted by eustatic at 6:37 PM on February 19, 2016 [5 favorites]


I agree with ShakeyJake. Sometimes I catch an interesting segment on DN, but the overall tone is exteremely grating for me. There's also something about the audio production that makes me cringe - like, there's a blaringness as if people are too close to the mic, etc.

I find the show to be auditorily (aurally?) completely unlistenable. Something about how they pitch the sound hits me in a nails-on-a-blackboard way. I can read transcripts just fine, but listening makes me tense. But I'm glad it is out there in the media spectrum, and it is kind of amazing how consistent they have been for so long.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:50 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


So you're literally making a tone argument?
posted by euphorb at 8:55 PM on February 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


So you're literally making a tone argument?

In this case, yes -- I'm fine with the political tone, but not at all with how the voices sound. It's something that has been constant since I first heard it more than a decade ago, so it transcends whatever changes in technology have happened in that time.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:03 PM on February 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Love me some Democracy Now! Big fan of it getting airplay during rush hour as well.
posted by oceanjesse at 11:20 AM on February 20, 2016


I check out DN almost every day to see what they're reporting on, though I don't usually watch the whole show, and often just skip it entirely, depending. Regardless, I am grateful that they're doing the kind of reporting that they're doing.

Last week they dedicated an episode to the Flint Water Crisis, which they've been covering since the beginning because they were one of the few news organizations already reporting on the city’s unelected emergency manager:

"Thirsty for Democracy: The Poisoning of an American City"

That one hour provided more information on the crisis than any of the cable news channels have done all year, as far as I'm concerned.
posted by homunculus at 8:05 PM on February 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


Earlier today Radio New Zealand interviewed Nobel laureate José Ramos-Horta, former prime minister and president of East Timor/Timor-Leste, now a U.N. official. After talking about the Dili Massacre, audio from which appeared in the DN! episode in the OP:
José Ramos-Horta: But in '91 some journalists were there; not only Max Stahl, Amy Goodman—

Wallace Chapman: Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!?

José Ramos-Horta: Yes, she was there in Dili at that time. She was also bashed up by the Indonesian military. And Amy Goodman more than any American journalist has done tremendous for Timor-Leste.

Wallace Chapman: Is that right?

José Ramos-Horta: Ever since. She is a great personality today in the U.S.

Wallace Chapman: A great show too!

José Ramos-Horta: Great show. A great woman; I saw her recently. Every now and then when there is an opportunity, an angle, she brings up Timor-Leste again.
Ramos-Horta mentions that in the last few weeks the remains of his brothers who died in the late 1970s during the beginning of the Indonesian occupation have been found.
posted by XMLicious at 3:51 PM on March 13, 2016


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