A rare and exciting opportunity approaches for the city of Davis – a chance to become intimately familiar with a form of radio and television that embraces what corporate media brushes under the rug. More importantly, this is a chance to learn directly from the woman who digs it up for us.
Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of the daily, national, independent and award-winning radio and television show “Democracy Now!” She is currently on tour promoting her new book Breaking the Sound Barrier, and will be stopping in Davis tomorrow from 7 to 9 p.m. in Social Sciences 1100.
The event is being hosted by community radio station KDVS 90.3 FM and low-power community radio station KDRT 95.7 FM as a benefit for the two stations. General admission tickets are $20 and student tickets are $10, both available through the Freeborn ticket office.
“We know that many of our listeners absolutely love that we carry ‘Democracy Now!,’ so the ability to bring Ms. Goodman to the Davis community was too good to pass up,” said Kevin Corrigan, KDVS general manager and senior history major in an e-mail interview. “Goodman is one of the most respected investigative journalists that is currently writing, and she constantly covers stories and events that are often not covered in most national papers and on cable news channels.”
In addition to speaking about her new book, Goodman and her book editor, Denis Moynihan, will be at a pre-event reception from 6 to 6:45 p.m. at the International House at 10 College Park. Admission to the reception requires a donation of $100 and only fifty spots are available. A seat at the reception includes a signed copy of Goodman’s book, wine and cheese, admission to the reading at 7 p.m. and some unique meet and greet opportunities.
On the “Democracy Now!” website, Breaking the Sound Barriers is described as a collection of articles that “allows the voices the corporate media exclude and ignore to be heard loud and clear.” Goodman is noted for her ability to debunk “the corporate media’s lies, sound-bites and silence” in this new book.
Jesse Drew, director of the technocultural studies department, will be welcoming Goodman at the benefit before she speaks. As an active participant in the history of independent media, Drew helped to set up KDRT in Davis along with the media collective “Paper Tiger Television” in New York in the early 1980s.
Drew said that Goodman has been able to build her millions of viewers “almost entirely on a new infrastructure of independent media.” To Drew this is an amazing feat, because Goodman has managed it “outside of the confines of corporate media.”
“I think in the last say, 20 years, journalism has been destroyed by the monopolization of news, and news becoming a big business having little to do with journalistic integrity,” Drew said. “I think that independent media is really the heart and soul of journalism today.”
Devin Hohler, a KDVS DJ and senior international relations major, said that independent radio stations are necessary in order to relay the information that big media outlets are leaving out, citing “Democracy Now!” as a prime example.
“[Goodman] gives the listeners pieces of news that may not be captured by large stations, and does so in an engaging manner,” Hohler said. “While KDVS is not solely a news talk station, it still serves its purpose to engage the listeners with topics – be them news, music or debates – which they might not be exposed to otherwise.”
In addition, Goodman has co-authored three New York Times bestsellers along with her brother, journalist David Goodman.
Drew said that the Davis community would want to be interested in her work because of how much she has to say about the world.
“I would say that Amy Goodman, in my opinion, is probably the most ethical, honest and hardworking journalist in the United States,” Drew said. “So I think anyone that’s interested in any aspect of news-telling, journalism [and] media should definitely know what Amy Goodman is about.”
For more information, visit kdvs.org or kdrt.org.
ELENA BUCKLEY can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.
