What's Good About Amy Goodman?

Award-winning journalist Amy Goodman, as she never tires telling audiences all over the country, is “a Jewish American, the granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi and the great-granddaughter of a chassidic rabbi.” She also happens to be a promoter of anti-Semites and anti-Zionists of nearly every stripe.

Goodman hosts Pacifica Radio’s “Democracy Now,” a program carried by 120 radio stations across the country and, increasingly, on public television stations around the world. Her book, The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them, was among the plethora of Bush-bashing books issued during last year’s presidential campaign. She is also a ubiquitous speaker at anti-U.S. and anti-Israel rallies.

Goodman hosted lawyer Lynne Stewart on “Democracy Now” the day after Stewart’s conviction on charges of assisting the efforts of Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman. No surprise there: Goodman was the featured speaker at an April 2003 fund-raising event for Stewart’s legal defense.

Yes, this “granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi” and “great-granddaughter of a chassidic rabbi” did all she could to help a woman convicted of helping a terrorist whose life is dedicated to, among other goals, the destruction of Israel.

Journalists covering Goodman invariably bring up her professed Jewish credentials; articles about her are likely to mention her having “relatives who died in the Holocaust” or that she “spent part of her youth in Israel.” These biographical tidbits were found among words of praise for Goodman on a pro-Palestinian website that proclaims its dedication to countering the “Zionist propaganda machine.”

Goodman, as usual, recited the full list of her kosher credentials when she delivered an emotional eulogy, before thousands of young people, many wearing keffiyahs, for Rachel Corrie at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington. Corrie, the young American woman killed by an Israeli military bulldozer as she tried to block its work of saving Israeli lives, has been lionized in death by the anti-Israel Left, and Goodman’s eulogy was a major contribution to the creation of the Corrie legend. “Your wonderful classmate,” Goodman told the crowd, “was unbelievably brave.”

Strengthening her standing as a critic of Israel to be taken seriously are the tributes Goodman regularly receives from academic and other icons of the Left, and her close ties to many of these people.

Professor Noam Chomsky, one of the most virulent Israel-bashers in America and a friend of Holocaust deniers everywhere, is a close friend of Amy’s. His oracular proclamations are heard frequently on her program. Goodman has described for her listeners the many late night calls in search of guidance she makes to Chomsky, who recently declared that those who speak of anti-Semitism are doing so solely to try to help “a community with 98 percent control gain 100 percent control.”

Professor Norman Finkelstein, best known for his portrayal of Jewish Holocaust remembrance as a rude racket designed to extract a range of goods from the gullible, has called Amy “my very dear and close friend.” It was on Goodman’s show that he repeatedly characterized the large pro-Israel rally held in Washington in 2002 as a “Jewish Nuremberg rally.” His words drew not so much as a peep of protest from Goodman.

Another major Goodman cheerleader is Professor Cornell West, who warned recently that those who would stand up for the Palestinian people must refuse to be “intimidated into silence by the forces of Jewish-establishment political correctness.” West has called Goodman a “freedom fighter.” “There’s simply no one like her and no voice like hers,” he’s gushed.

An article on the website of the leftist organization Nahalat Shalom says of Goodman: “Her words are taken to heart by millions of faithful followers who religiously listen or watch her program every day. Like Miriam and Esther, she has the courage of a one-woman army.”

Goodman recently received the highest possible recognition from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which, in late 2004, bestowed upon her its Islamic Community Award at its tenth annual banquet in Washington, D.C.

Another interesting honor bestowed on Goodman was The Backbone Award, granted to those who “take courageous stands in progressive causes.” A fellow recipient of that prize is Goodman’s good friend Rep. Cynthia McKinney, a Georgia Democrat who in 2004 regained the congressional seat she’d lost two years earlier — a defeat attributed largely to her attacks on Israel and her insinuation that President Bush had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks.

McKinney is a familiar guest on Goodman’s program; the two women share a similar political ideology, as well as a strong interest in the U.S.S. Liberty, an American Naval vessel attacked by Israel, in a tragic case of mistaken identity, in the midst of the Six-Day War.

McKinney has called for congressional investigations into the Liberty case (which has already been looked into on numerous occasions by investigators in the U.S. and Israel, with no credible evidence found of malice on Israel’s part.) On “Democracy Now,” Goodman has given McKinney the chance to expound at length her theories on the Liberty — theories virtually identical to the tripe one finds on countless neo-Nazi and Islamist websites.

Another dear friend of Amy’s is the British journalist and author Robert Fisk. He’s a regular on her show, reporting in from around the world. Fisk at least can be admired for a certain degree of integrity: he’s not one to hide his unadulterated animosity toward Israel. Writing in the Independent about a particular Israeli’s unwillingness to act “reasonably” with regard to the Palestinians, Fisk draws on, and seeks to strengthen and extend, ancient anti-Semitic themes:

“The rabbi’s dad had taught him about an eye for eye — or twenty homes for one stone in this case — whereas my dad taught me about turning the other cheek. Judaism and Christianity had collided. So was it any surprise that Judaism and Islam were colliding?”

Yet another friend of Amy’s is the Australian journalist John Pilger, who proclaimed on her show: “The resistance in Iraq is incredibly important for all of us. I think that we depend on the resistance to win, so that other countries might not be attacked, so that the world, in a sense, becomes more secure. The outcome of this resistance is terribly important.”

Goodman conducted a friendly interview with Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear technician who served eighteen years in an Israeli jail for leaking information about Israel’s nuclear weapons program, by phone shortly after his release. Vanunu, who converted to Christianity in prison, boasted, “The Mossad was very, very angry and upset with my revelations. I made a mockery of them to all the world. The spy organization who was respected in all the world found themselves naked.”

Vanunu told Goodman that he had no regrets about his decision to share Israeli intelligence information, saying that Israel, “which reminds the world ‘Holocaust, Holocaust’ every hour, has built a Holocaust factory.” In the lengthy interview, Vanunu asserted that he was treated “barbarically” in Israel and that the Israeli media turned the Israeli people against him, making them hate him.

If Goodman attracts listeners who may not be motivated by hatred for all things American and Jewish, it may be because of her focus on journalistic freedom. She repeats like a mantra, everywhere she goes, that our mainstream media is “a megaphone for corporate interests.”

Al Jazeera, the infamous Arab news outlet that, typically, called the scandal involving former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey’s private life “an Israeli intelligence operation,” kicked off one of its anti-Israel screeds with a quote by Goodman: “It’s most challenging to go where the silence is and say something.”

That’s certainly a nice idea, and definitely part of a journalist’s job, but what’s actually said should count too. That truth and decency don’t always seem to matter to Goodman was evident from her coverage of the Israeli military operations in Jenin in 2002 — which came in response to a string of suicide bombings across Israel.

Goodman led the charge on the Left that Israeli forces had committed a massacre of civilians. “Amid the Ruins of Jenin, the Grisly Evidence of a War Crime,” howled one headline on her Democracy Now website. “A Massacre Revealed as Palestinians Search for their Loved Ones Amidst the Wreckage of Jenin,” read another.

It turned out, of course, that none of this was true. Even the United Nations was forced to admit that no massacre of any kind had taken place. Once again, those who wish Israel ill had placed their own slanderous intentions far above any respect for the truth.

Goodman, self-proclaimed “granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi” and “great-granddaughter of a chassidic rabbi,” claims to be an advocate for a truly free and independent journalism.

Everything about her alliances and activities, however, points to an entirely different conclusion: That she is an advocate for a very specific, very particular brand of activist journalism — one that views enemies of America as friends and enemies of Israel as the most beloved friends of all.

Jason Maoz is senior editor of The Jewish Press. He can be contacted at jmaoz@jewishpress.com

Goodman is in good company - both grandfathers of Karl
Marx were also rabbis. And yes, believe it or not, Marx
was also anti-Semitic. In a book by the eminent scholar
of Marxism, Bertram D. Wolfe, he cites one instance where
Mark refers to Ferdinand Lasalle (a rival of Marx) as
"that Jewish nigger." So we have racism added to anti-
Semitism! Joe Stalin professed Marxist atheism but got
all his formal education in a Russian Orthodox seminary
where he studied for the priesthood. As the old saying
has it, "We can't choose our relatives but thank God we
can choose our friends". The point is that NO ethnic,
racial or religious group is monolithic in its ideas
and Judaism is no exception.

the fugly skank is a self loathing Jew AND a self loathing democRAT... talk about a twofer!!! it must REALLY suck to be her.

this is a whiny POS, who's voice had all the apeal of scratching a chalk board and has a personality that i'm sure doubles as her birth control... if she doesn't have a lickher license that is

Amy Goodman ... Noam Chomsky ... Mumia Abu-Jamal ... Michael Moore ...

I don't know who's the worst. MM gets the most ink, but Goodman is just flat-out abominable.

One of my fave moments however, was watching Goodman debating John Fund on C-SPAN2/BookTV a while back.

Fund PUMMELED her and totally debunked much of what she had to say.

The article is good, but there is MUCH more to be said about the shameful Goodman (for example: her support for convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal).

I am puzzled by Amy Goodman's pro Palestinian stance. I have been listening to her though for a long time, and have concluded that she is of the persuasion that there is never a need for violence no matter what and that everything can be solved through negotiation, no matter what.
I respectfully disagree with her, but I would never put her in the same boat as Carl Marx. I don't think she's anti-Semitic for her stance. I also don't agree with it. One thing though that would be good for everyone to learn is that you don't always have to agree with someone to admire, listen, or have respect for them. On this issue Amy is absolutely wrong, but on many other issues she's absolutely right. I don't like her stance on this issue, but I do like Amy Goodman.

Essentially, I agree with you. I wasn't suggesting that Goodman was a Marxist but simply facetiously pointing out that as a descendent of rabbis she has something in common with Dr. Marx. And that anti-Semitism isn't unknown to some Jews - paradoxical as that may be.
I think the real problem is that many idealistic (or naive?) people genuinely believe that a quasi-pacifist approach to hostile or aggressive foes is a legitimate position in international affairs. On the contrary, history proves that such a stance actually ENCOURAGES and stimulates aggression and force because it's perceived as weakness.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.