Amy Goodman reporting on the Dakota Access Pipeline. (image: Democracy Now!)
When Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman (9/4/16) asked security guards at the Dakota Access Pipeline construction project why they were using pepper spray and dogs to attack Native American protesters, the guards soon backed off, taking their mace and attack dogs with them. It was a dramatic lesson in how journalism can defend the rights of citizens.
The state of North Dakota had a response to this kind of journalism: It issued a warrant for Goodman’s arrest, charging her with criminal trespassing. This is an extraordinary action; Jack McDonald, a lawyer for the North Dakota Newspaper Association and for the Bismarck Tribune, told the Tribune that in 40 years of doing media law in the state he’s never heard of a reporter being charged with trespassing (9/15/16).
So how did reporters respond to one of their own being threatened with arrest for doing her job? Mostly, they ignored it. The story was covered locally, in the Bismarck Tribune (9/15/16), and internationally, in the British Guardian (9/12/16) and a mention in the Toronto Star (9/13/16). The Committee to Protect Journalists (9/12/16) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Representative on Freedom of the Media (9/14/16) put out statements calling on the state to drop the charges.
But most national corporate media outlets—the ones who complain about not getting a seat on a candidate’s plane—breathed not a word on North Dakota’s assault on the press’s ability to cover a major story of the moment. (The internet-based Salon—9/12/16—and Mashable—9/11/16—deserve credit as exceptions.) Elite media coverage of a million issues makes clear that they don’t mind taking sides. It’s a real shame they won’t take the side of the right to do journalism when and where it matters.
Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org. You can follow him on Twitter at @JNaureckas.
There’s no sex, murder or Trump in reporting the Pipeline story, so they didn’t cover it. And, since they didn’t cover it (the Democracy Now! video showed no other press in attendance), it didn’t happen.
I’d guess that either Phil Donahue or Keith Olbermann might have covered the story, but they’re otherwise occupied, these days.
Correction: TYT (The Young Turks) reported extensively and supportively.
Vogue and IFEX also covered it
…but they’re not, to my knowledge, major, mainstream media oulets…. I wish they were!
Mr. Naureckas,
It would be great if RSN or CommonDreams pick up your story so it reaches a wider audience. Thanks for your reporting. I am proud and happy to be able to support your work with a donation.
CD kicks people off their comment site if they push for supporting Jill Stein!
Vote Jill Stein!! I voted for Nader and got Bush and Dick. But I still vote what I believe in. I will have to deal with Trumpolitics next. It is a sad world with so much love in the people globally.
In a crisis, we must adopt priorities and not through the baby out with the bath water.
I dearly love our beleaguered earth and detest what supposedly civilized society had to her; but our country needs much more than environmental policy, and Dr. Stein does not have an acceptable plan. So unless you want to elect that greedy, self-serving troll, you MUST not vote for Stein on ” principle”. The ONLY viable alternative is Hillary Clinton regardless of how YOU feel about her. This is not about individual me and you voters. It is about us all. So discarding dirty bath water is fine, unless you discard the baby too.
Stein cannot win this election and she should have known that and run for Congress or Senate instead.
Sorry, my spell checker is an idiot!
In a crisis, we must adopt priorities and not through (THROW) the baby out with the bath water.
I dearly love our beleaguered earth and detest what supposedly civilized society has done to her; but our country needs much more than environmental policy and Dr. Stein does not have an acceptable plan. So unless you want to elect that greedy, self-serving troll, you MUST not vote for Stein on ” principle”. The ONLY viable alternative is Hillary Clinton regardless of how YOU feel about her. This is not about individual me and you voters. It is about us all. So discarding dirty bath water is fine, unless you discard the baby too.
Stein cannot win this election and she should have known that and
Sorry, my spell checker is an idiot. I meant to say throw not through.
That’s the problem with Hillary voters–they think that they represent some lesser evil, when they ARE VOTING FOR the evil that they scorn so much.
L-M Before you write off those of us who will proudly vote for Dr. Stein as fools or, as you call your spell checker, idiots, and vote for Hillary, I would politely suggest that you get a copy of Diana Johnstone’s book, “Hillary Clinton, Queen of Chaos.”
The best that the country could hope for with a Clinton victory, would be a continuation of the same neo-liberal economic policies and the same neo-conservative foreign policies that has brought this country to the miserable condition that it is today. The use of torture, mass violations of the 4th amendment rights of citizens, Presidential Kill Tuesdays, the gulag in Cuba, the complete deregulation of the economy while the keys to the country are handed over to the corporate interests, and the TPP and TTIP that, notwithstanding anything that she now says, will be on Mrs. Clinton’s to-do list–all of these things will continue apace.
The worst fears engendered by the thought of her election is her proven track record of bloodthirsty aggression and war mongering. It is not an exaggeration to say that she is the first candidate for President in my lifetime who has the mental instability to launch a nuclear attack against Russia.
This is not business-as-usual. Please educate yourself further before you cast your vote.
Sorry. I am with Jill. Hillary had her chance and she blew it with me.
Oh contraire! Jill Stein has excellent and very comprehensive platforms for both foreign and domestic issues. If you don’t see it, your eyes are not open.
Hillary would be a disaster. She is the Establishment darling whose orders from the Power Elite are to maintain the status quo beholden to BigBanking, BigCorporate and the MIC (i.e. never ending war). Under her, the wealth divide will continue to grow, and more of our civil rights and freedoms will be lost.
Jill Stein will be on the ballot in at least 48 states. Please do us all a favor and vote for her.
Anyone who does her homework on Hillary Clinton will quickly and plainly see that she is a neoliberal. She has no interest in peace. She has great interest in money and power. She would make a horrible president and neither my wife nor I would vote for her under any circumstances for any office. I’ve done my homework.
Nor would I ever vote for the psychopathic Trump.
The Green party is the right choice – not a perfect choice – but not a foolish choice like the two front-runners.
I
Voted
With my
Conscience
Now I
Discovered
That I
Have no
Conscience
As it
Was ripped
Out of
My scull
I walk into
The voting
Machine
And
Walk out
Without
A vote
The silence of the lambs
Well of course. These people aren’t journalists. They’re stenographers working for the White House and the Pentagon. Calling them “colleagues” is actually an insult to Amy Goodman.
The International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) picked up the CPJ story:
http://www.ifex.org/united_states/2016/09/13/goodman_warrant/
Thank you for this additional reporting.
Have you reached out to the folks at The Intercept? I’m surprised G. Greenwald hasn’t posted something.
More people need to become aware of threats to our civil liberite and good reporting is crucial to that.
Again, thanks.
It has become more difficult for mainstream media to *pick and choose* their stories. Amy Goodman’s rights as a journalist have been violated, as well as the rights of Native Americans and the so called treaty, which has been violated time and time again. The problem is, WE ALL KNOW THIS. Where is the justice in a country where big corporate mouths have the last say? Money and oil seem to win, in spite of right / wrong here. There are very few reporters, like Amy Goodman, who are willing to get in the dirt for the real grit in journalism. She is a true reporter, and for the state of North Dakota to issue a warrant for her arrest is deplorable. It puts in the lime light how America really operates, when their feathers get ruffled. Keep up the good fight, Amy. We need reporters like you, who are willing to go that mile to get the truth out!
Very well stated. Thank you.
Amy Godman is by far one of the best authentic journalists providing actual news and investigative reporting. The fact that the corporate media doesn’t own her or provide her with scripted ‘news’ is the reason other so-called journalists are avoiding her. Deep down they must feel that the have chosen to be media hacks rather than true newscasters.
I believe I’ve seen TV news coverage of this, in addition to the coverage on Goodman’s own show. Surely MSNBC covered it?
We are digging our own graves by just continuing to do what the machine has conditioned us to do: stop thinking critically, turn on the TV and just vegetate to mind-numbing pap, while the First Amendment to the Constitution is whittled away to nothing. It’s like Zappa never existed.
Yep.
Slime on the Radio, Television, Internet.
Oozing along on my living room floor…
Amy Goodman only did it after Jill Stein got arrested–to prove that a tool and disciple of the Dim-ocratic Corporate Machine could get locked up, too!
America needs to wake up to itself. It’s own native population is its salvation. The pathway of greed and injustice will never ever succeed in the long run.
Amy Goodman is a great journalist and only seek the truth but our government do not want truth . It is up to us to stand for truth and wake up from a deep sleep that as been the problem of many Americans . We have to wake up and peacefully fight back to this tyranny as we are loosing more rights everyday . Corruption is the norm nowadays and we cannot take it anymore .
I was arrested about twenty years ago as a reporter for a Native newsweekly at a Minnesota Chippewa Tribe meeting, but eventually won a small settlement against the county that held me on the basis of a bogus agreement with the reservation officials. ND is deeply damaging its reputation and reminding the world why the US brought its framing of Leonard Peltier to this jurisdiction. Amy Goodman will prevail.
Almost on a daily basis I get emails from The Committee to Protect Journalists about some journalists who are being brutalized, and/or murdered, in many countries and I am horrified that it may be creeping in this country. Even though Amy is probably the best known so far, I know that the media has already been shut-up and most cow down to the silent orders, but Amy is different. If anyone was waiting for the main stream media would report this, they’ve wasted their time. It is important though that we individually do what we can to spread the word.
John Nichols of The Nation wrote a piece called, “North Dakota Wants to Arrest Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman for Engaging in Journalism.” https://www.thenation.com/article/north-dakota-wants-to-arrest-democracy-nows-amy-goodman-for-engaging-in-journalism/
Free Press action: http://act.freepress.net/sign/journ_nodapl_goodman/
We certainly voiced our support for Amy and signed the petition. Having said that, please bear in mind that Amy’s situation is shared by many of us. I was recently served a summons for trespassing as well. In my case, for investigating potential Bomb Trains in WMass. I’m sure there are scores of similar situations for other journalists. We all need your support.
In solidarity,
Don Ogden, producer/Co-host
The Enviro Show
WXOJ/Valley Free Radio & WMCB-lp 107.9
WMass
The AP got word from Morton County Sheriff Kirchmeier’s gossip in the AM after the pepper spray and dog attack, to sway the public at large by 6 am, so if the AP got the sheriff lies (remember, none of his people were there), they blindsided everyone with biased news reporting…
Let’s all support Amy, the Dakota Protesters and journalism by meeting up at the protest. Ok?
you did not get Bush, the 300,000 “DEMOCRATS” WHO VOTED FOR BUSH IN FLORIDA GOT HIM IN OFFICE!!!
Social TeaV covered it before anyone as soon as we saw it. We asked for justice when Amy first gave the report. And we stand by Amy Goodman for good work and will stand with “Water Protector’s” to safeguard the only HOME that we all share “The Earth.”
Was it not Amy Goodman who helped us see
that the dogs and dog handlers were ill Trained?
I prefer specifics.
This is heinous! What can we do except keep showing up and spreading the information on whatever media is available. Since our media is already owned by the Koch brothers it’s up to us to keep people informed.
Corporate news won’t go to bat for an independent news outlet.
ah, so now it’s OK for journalists to be the news because it’s Amy Goodman. OK got it.
I am outraged at this warrant and that other journalists refuse to take a stand for freedom of the press.
Precisely illustrating the media is *the* problem… They have literally abandoned their post, deserted their station, fled for more comfortable digs. And they whined and wailed they might not survive if they couldn’t find sustainable revenue sources. Well, they found their revenue, not from Americans but it’s corporations and politicians.
What a total farce the entire self-serving industry, from the larger entities right through many local outlets, have become.
Our Fourth Estate, believed to be our safeguard, will be the one that actually crushes this democracy.
If it weren’t for upstart and formidable news orgs like Goodman’s DemocracyNow we’d be truly screwed… and, yes we all know it could and may well likely get much worse. .
I had hoped for a better reaction from the mainstream media on this, but I guess it speaks more to the corporate control of the media than it does about freedom of the press. I’m disappointed that there wasn’t a firestorm. Sigh.
The last battle corporations have to face before they put a stranglehold on the World’s population is the battle for information. Actions like this, through their political minions, plus the lack of reaction from the MSM, show just how close they are to achieving their goal.
By “colleagues”, I assume you aren’t referring to ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, or any other mainstream media outlet. These propaganda mouthpieces haven’t been with the People for decades, since they put aside their journalism mission to support the Oligarchy.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/world-class-journalist-admits-mainstream-media-completely-fake-we-lie-cia/
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/09/no_author/the-cia-and-the-media/
Amy Goodman’s actions don’t deserve to be upheld. She provokes peaceful crowds into rioting. Instead of reporting news she creates it. In 2008, the police recognized her as a reporter at the RNC convention, and was about to let her go. When this happened SHE provoked the crowds to attack the police, forcing her to be arrested. This year she did the same thing with the same results.
Let me guess; you heard that from the MSM. Wouldn’t be surprising that they’re spinning it that way. Can you provide source citations?
Amy Goodman et. al. were acting in the highest definition of a citizen: reporting a crime being committed. Unlike others who have looked away, run away, ratther than become involved, Goodman and the documentary maker also wrongfully charged, were informing those of us not present at the site of criminal violence and inhuman carnage, that we needed tp rise to the occasion and defend the 1st amendment.