Thursday, January 05, 2006

What's Wrong with Amy Goodman?

By Reza Fiyouzat

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Posted 01/05 | Add a Comment

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  1. Reza, You make some important points. I beleive that Amy is good, but compared to what. Compared to 99% of the rest, she is great; but, I agree that almost no where in the media is the far left ever seen. I have been requesting that we see Ward Churchill, Bill Blum, Mickey Z, and others. I don’t know if that will ever happen. Your criticism could also be applied to C-span, which is one of my favorites.

    Posted by rosemarie jackowski from  on  01/05  at  06:46 PM

  2. Rosemarie, thank you for your feedback. Yes, of course, compared to the corporate media Amy’s a goddess of truth even, but as you imply that’s not the best measuring rod. Also, this idea of ‘the other side of the story’ always being the officials’ version is a real poison for American journalism. And for a program that is supposedly leftist to accept this definition is just too much for me.
    Thanks again, and thanks to Mark for posting the piece.
    Cheers, Reza

    Posted by reza from japan  on  01/06  at  12:28 AM

  3. Sorry Rosemarie, in America there is no ‘far left’.

    If the American ‘far left’ is exemplified, for example, by something like Press Action, then all you really have is criticism in a similar vein (on its very, very best days) to stuff like Le Monde Diplomatique or articles out of today’s Konkret (both of which I read, respect and profit from).

    I know I am off-topic here (this is about Goodman), but let’s look at two powerhouses of the American left: Chomsky and Nader. Although both are fierce critics of the system’s actions, neither tends to delve deeply into the workings of the system itself and advocates ripping the whole thing down, now do they?

    Chomsky (whom I have read regularly for almost 20 years now) savages American policy like no other, but where does he propose action? Nowhere.

    Nader ran for president on the ludicrous premise that one could be anticorporate and not anticapitalist. That’s criticizing the effects of the system with addressing the root problem, the radix.

    Compared to everyday European leftists, their American counterparts largely take the anemic position that criticism suffices.

    Of course, there’s still Monthly Review, which remains pretty uncompromising, but remains more of an academic journal (much like the excellent New Left Review).

    In my opinion, until American anarchists brush up a bit on Marx, they are going to remain critics and little more.

    Posted by Theo from Greece  on  01/06  at  01:46 AM

  4. Theo, I stand corrected. I should have said, “the minuscule far left”. Ward Churchill might be categorized as the far left on some issues but I don’t know if even he has criticized the basic fundamentals of Capitalism. I agree with you that it is almost never that anyone in USA hears any challenge to the roots of the problem. I stand corrected. Thanks.

    Posted by rosemarie jackowski from  on  01/06  at  09:31 AM

  5. Oh Rosemarie, I’m sorry. I think I was in the grumpiest political mood I’ve ever been in yesterday and just took it out on American leftism. There’s a nice piece on Magdoff on CP.

    Posted by Theo from Greece  on  01/06  at  12:34 PM

  6. Theo, No apology necessary. You were right. Thanks for the heads up about CP.

    Posted by rosemarie jackowski from  on  01/06  at  03:27 PM

  7. Theo I have read your criticism about Chomsky before elsewhere.  Granted it was before you had elaborated your grumpiness.  I would respond that the first step in solving a problem is identifying it in the first place.  In this social and political milieu, that is a full-time job which I’m sure involves much personal attack.  Moreover, Chomsky does offer alternatives, sometimes implicitly, sometimes explicitly.  I somehow get the feeling you know this.

    Posted by Tracy McLellan from Chicago  on  01/11  at  09:49 AM
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