Amy Goodman charged with the crime of covering the corporate
private security attacking Standing Rock Sioux protesting Dakota Access
Pipeline.
Amy Goodman has turned herself in to North Dakota
authorities after being charged with criminal
trespassing for covering a private militia’s violent crackdown on protesters
in North Dakota. Goodman announced on
Thursday on her show Democracy Now! “I will go back to North Dakota to fight
this charge,” she said. “It is a clear violation of the First Amendment." Goodman
went on to say "I was doing my job as a journalist, covering a violent
attack on Native American protesters."
Journalism criminalized
On Saturday September 3rd as Goodman was covering
the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline private security guards violently
attacked the protesters. Goodman’s live coverage showed guards attacking
protesters using dogs and pepper spray and showed a dog with blood on its mouth
and nose. Goodman’s footage went viral.
Billionaires’ media ownership
Gone are the days of a vigilant press, here to stay are billionaire
owned infotainment style misinformation.
Billionaire media moguls like Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg were
once an anomaly but now are the norm.
The media has been bought out by billionaires like Amazon founder Jeff
Bezos. Since the demise of the Fairness Doctrine under Ronald Reagan,
billionaires now own part or all of several of America’s influential national
newspapers, including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and the New
York Times.
Allegations are now facts
The fourth estate now publishes allegations as fact, a sort
of lazy journalism that serves its bought-and-paid-for government officials
rather than serving the people. Media
seeks to destroy the lives of those who
lose favor with the government. The
Obama Administration, using the Espionage Act, has indicted or prosecuted six
current or former government employees and two government contractors since
2009. This is unprecedented since under
all other presidents, only three prosecutions occurred under the Act since
1917.
Serving the war machine
The most egregious example of media malfeasance has to be the coverage of the west’s war of aggression
in Syria. As Steve Lendman pointed out
in a recent article “Headlines and commentaries were virtually the same,
shamelessly blaming Russia for vetoing France’s draft resolution—without
explaining its adoption would assure greater war. Nor was Moscow given credit
for its responsible cessation of hostilities draft proposal—despicably vetoed
by America, Britain and France as expected.”
Amy Goodman herself has reported inaccurately on the events
occurring in Syria. A recent guest on DN
was Yasser Munif, an assistant professor at Emerson College in Massachusetts. Dave Alpert described the interchange between
Munif and Goodman as such: “His comments
consistently focused on Russia and the Syrian Army as the sponsors of the
“slaughter” of people in Aleppo. This is the kind of biased coverage one might
expect from the N.Y. Times, MSNBC, or even Fox “News.” The media coverage of the war in Syria will
turn out to be the most shameful episode
in the history of American press.
So Amy Goodman is returning to North Dakota to face charges
of “criminal trespassing” for her raw coverage of a private company’s militia
attacking the Standing Rock Sioux.
Goodman will have the best legal representation George Soros can buy,
but at some point all journalists must be protected from prosecution. Our democracy
cannot survive without it.
By Patricia Baeten
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