Democracy Now! host demands independent media

Iraq might be halfway across the world, but Democracy Now! wants all Americans to know about its geography, its collection of cultures, and what the U.S. military continues to provide for the Iraqi people.\nAmy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, a daily independent radio and television news hour broadcast on more than 240 radio and TV stations in North America, brought her book tour to the Hoosier heartland Thursday night at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre on 114 E. Kirkwood Ave. Bloomington residents, students, and guests packed the two-story auditorium to advocate for genuine democratic thinking, in a mass media dominated world. \nDenis Moynihan, outreach coordinator for Democracy Now!, said local independent media providers WFHB radio station (93.1) and CATS community programming are "great" -- the reason for a celebration event that evening. Moynihan said Iraqi and U.S. "casualty pictures" are broadcast on the Al-Jazeera television network and other European television stations all day and night.\n"We see a fireworks display on night scope," he said. \nMoynihan said he believes the world perceives the U.S. Operation Iraqi Freedom as "tasteless" because they see Iraqi "kids blown apart" and "limbs blown off." War would be eradicated for a year if American audiences viewed images of "the face of war," Moynihan said. Instead, we see a "target on them looking down" and we don't see "people on the ground." \nMoynihan's conclusion introduced the video projection of an independent documentary film narrated by Goodman. \nThe independent media propaganda film lambasted both the "Corporate coverage of the war" and "The Video War Game," which Goodman claims reduces the people's voice to irrelevancy through live footage mixed with live recordings and dialogue. A mainstream media outlet, Goodman told the audience, is merely an "opinion piece" and not a journalist "spelling her heart out."\n"We see romantized pictures (of war), soldiers on sunsets," she narrated. \nThe film proposed the idea that honest coverage of the war needs to involve peace activists invited to panel discussions with retired military generals. Goodman said in the film she is especially troubled by reports about the "kind of bomb" and the "kind of plane" used in the War. She called for mainstream media to instead invite doctors on their shows to report about the medical effects of the bomb on the bombed population. \nGoodman's other narration throughout the film entwined with live footage mixed with live recordings. A particular archived live footage clip included Michael Moore's "shame on you Mr. Bush" acceptance speech, which drew a wild applause and partial standing ovation from the crowd. \nThe film further reminded the Bloomington audience of the "Wild West" perception of the Middle East broadcast by mainstream media that fueled the bull's eye symbol hovering in front of then Iraqi-dictator Saddam Hussein's face before the U.S. involved itself in war throughout the region.\nDemocracy Now!'s contribution to "The Video War Game" ended with mixed-in live footage of elite Spanish journalists laying down the tools of their trade -- pencils, notebooks, cameras, cables, microphones -- in the street to protest military strikes against international journalists in Iraq. \nGoodman's first call to business when she approached the microphone was to ask for the house lights to be brought up so she could better see the audience. She gave an immediate "shout out" to Boxcar Books located at 310 South Washington St. and other independent book stores in Bloomington -- places she called "national treasures to be protected."\nGoodman also called for the audience to donate superfluous funds to Pages for Prisoners, a Bloomington group also located at 310 South Washington St. that "gives hope around the country." She also said the U.S. is run by corporations with "nothing to feel and everything to sell our children."\n"People from targeted communities is who we need to hear," Goodman said. "Media is the most powerful institution on earth -- more powerful than bombs. If we lived in a just society, who would be behind bars and who would be free? … There are more than 5,500 (current U.S.) soldiers refusing to go to Iraq."\nGoodman continued speaking about U.S. international relations ranging from her perception of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's dealings with South American regims in the 70s and 80s, American-sponsored military coups in Haiti and retired U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark's war rhetoric.\nIndiana Daily Student Publisher David Adams said he believes the role of the media is protect freedom of speech for all people. Adams said student journalists, in particular, need to learn to search for the truth in every story they pursue - a quest that often calls for the reporter to ask questions of all sides. \nGoodman called for journalists to refuse "pentagon labels" and continue their quest to hear the peoples' voice. She said the "role of reporters is to go where the silence is."\n"What society do you want to live in?" she asked the frenzied audience, whose applause grew noticeably louder and more frequent throughout the evening.\nThe anti-war perspective and call for independent media concluded with Goodman signing copies of her new book and a seemingly bewildered audience -- stunned in facial expression and stiff in posture -- stumbling through the front doors.