Static_ Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back - Amy Goodman, David Goodman (2006).pdf

Torture. Kidnapping. Bogus wars. Illegal wiretapping. Propaganda. Spies in the newsrooms. Oil profiteers. Soldiers who won't fight. Mothers of fallen soldiers Who will.In Static, the bestselling brother-sister team of Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, and investigative journalist David Goodman takes on government liars, corporate profiteers, and the media that have acted as their cheerleaders. The authors cut through the official static to show the truth about war, torture, and government control of the media. Static breaks the sound barrier to present the voices of dissidents, activists, and others who are often frozen out of official debate.Read Static. Become informed. Fight back. Defend democracy.

Still an Important Alternative Voice That Needs to Be Heard
By Steve Koss VINE VOICE on September 18, 2006

Unlike the proverbial lone voice in the wilderness, Amy Goodman's is sounded every day on Democracy Now! with a partner, Juan Gonzalez. Even in New York City, Ms. Goodman and Mr. Gonzalez are hardly able to raise their voices above the media trash heap filled by the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Fox News, the increasingly sensationalist CNN (whose kidnapped baby can we bloviate about today?), the disappointingly ineffectual New York Times, the superficial Brian Williams, and everybody's oh-so-cute CBS newcomer, Sally Fields (You like me! You really like me!). Oops, make that last one was Katie Couric. Democracy Now! languishes in NYC, nearly invisible on public access cable every morning at 8:00.

As they did with their last book, THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULERS, Amy and her brother David have once again provided "the other side of the story" on numerous topics. Their basic premise in STATIC is that the mainstream media have failed miserably in their primary duty - to inform the public while serving as a check against government overreach. Important stories are missed because the media has too often parroted the official government line; in other instances, stories are underreported or simply ignored.

Do you know the story of the shameful rendition by the U.S. government of Canadian citizen Maher Arar to Syra for torturing? Or that of FBI spying on Sarah Bardwell of the American Friends Service Center in Denver? How about those of Karen Ryan, Jennifer Morrow, Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher, and James Guckert - all pseudo-independent journalists paid by Bush II to churn out propagandistic pseudo-news reports? Or Ken Tomlinson's shameless attempt under Bush II's behest at a right wing coup of PBS? Or the American government's appalling record of democracy subversion in Haiti?