Democracy Now! is an hour-long American TV,
radio and internet news program hosted by
journalists Amy Goodman and Juan González.
The show, which airs live each weekday at
08:00 ET, is broadcast on the internet and
by over 1,400 radio and television stations
worldwide.The program combines news reporting,
interviews, investigative journalism and political
commentary. The show documents social movements,
struggles for justice, and the effects of
American foreign policy. The show is described
as progressive by fans as well as critics.
Amy Goodman, the show's executive producer
rejects that label, calling the program a
global newscast that has "people speaking
for themselves." Democracy Now! describes
its staff as "includ[ing] some of this country's
leading progressive journalists."Democracy
Now Productions, the independent nonprofit
organization which produces Democracy Now!,
is funded entirely through contributions from
listeners, viewers, and foundations and does
not accept advertisers, corporate underwriting
or government funding.
== Background ==
Democracy Now! was founded on February 19,
1996 at WBAI in New York City by journalists
Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez, Larry Bensky,
Salim Muwakkil, and Julie Drizin. It originally
aired on five Pacifica Radio stations. Goodman
is the program's principal host, with Juan
Gonzalez and Nermeen Shaikh as frequent co-hosts.
Jeremy Scahill, an investigative reporter
and co-founding editor for The Intercept,
has been a frequent contributor since 1997.Democracy
Now! began broadcasting on television every
weekday shortly after September 11, 2001,
and is the only public media in the U.S. that
airs simultaneously on satellite and cable
television, radio, and the internet.In June
2002, Democracy Now! separated from Pacifica
Radio and became an independent nonprofit
organization.
On February 19, 2016, "Democracy Now!" marked
20 years on the air with an hourlong retrospective
look back at "two decades of independent,
unembedded news," with highlights chosen from
over 5,000 episodes. Amy Goodman also published
a book entitled "Democracy Now!: 20 Years
Covering the Movements Changing America,"
and launched a 100-city tour across the United
States to mark the 20th anniversary of Democracy
Now!, with scheduled broadcasts of the show
recorded during her travels.
=== Studios ===
Democracy Now! began as a radio program broadcast
from the studios of WBAI, a local Pacifica
Radio station in New York City. In early September
2001, amid a months-long debate over the mission
and management of Pacifica, Democracy Now!
was forced out of the WBAI studios. Goodman
took the program to the Downtown Community
Television Center located in a converted firehouse
building in New York City's Chinatown, where
the program began to be televised. Only a
few days later on September 11, 2001 Democracy
Now! was the closest national broadcast to
Ground Zero. On that day Goodman and colleagues
continued reporting beyond their scheduled
hourlong time slot in what became an eight-hour
marathon broadcast. Following 9/11, in addition
to radio and television, Democracy Now! expanded
their multimedia reach to include cable, satellite
radio, Internet, and podcasts.In November
2009, Democracy Now! left their broadcast
studio in the converted DCTV firehouse, where
they had broadcast for eight years. The studio
subsequently moved to a repurposed graphic
arts building in the Chelsea District of Manhattan.
In 2010, the new 8500-square-foot Democracy
Now! studio became the first radio or television
studio in the nation to receive LEED Platinum
certification, the highest rating awarded
by the U.S. Green Building Council.
=== Syndication ===
Democracy Now! is the flagship program of
the Pacifica Radio network. It also airs on
several NPR member stations. The television
simulcast airs on public-access television
stations; by satellite on Free Speech TV and
Link TV, and free-to-air on C Band. Democracy
Now! is also available on the Internet as
downloadable and streaming audio and video.
In total, nearly 1,400 television and radio
stations broadcast Democracy Now! worldwide.
== Awards and reaction ==
Democracy Now! and its staff have received
several journalism awards, including the Gracie
Award from American Women in Radio & Television;
the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary
Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's
Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation
and the deaths of two Nigerian villagers protesting
an oil spill; and Goodman with Allan Nairn
won Robert F. Kennedy Memorial's First Prize
in International Radio for their 1993 report,
Massacre: The Story of East Timor which involved
first-hand coverage of genocide during the
Indonesian occupation of East Timor.On October
1, 2008, Goodman was named as a recipient
of the 2008 Right Livelihood Award, in connection
with her years of work establishing Democracy
Now! and in 2009, she, like her frequent guest
Glenn Greenwald, was awarded the first annual
Izzy Award (named after journalist I. F. "Izzy"
Stone) for "special achievement in independent
media." Her co-host Juan Gonzalez was inducted
into the New York chapter of the Society of
Professional Journalists' Hall of Fame on
November 19, 2015.
== 2008 Republican National Convention arrests
==
Three journalists with Democracy Now!—including
principal host Amy Goodman, and news producers
Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous—were
detained by police during their reporting
on the 2008 Republican National Convention
protests. Salazar was filming as officers
in full riot gear charged her area. As she
yelled "Press!" she was knocked down and told
to put her face in the ground while another
officer dragged her backward by her leg across
the pavement. The video footage of the incident
was immediately posted on the Internet, leading
to a large public outcry against her arrest.
When a second producer, Kouddous, approached,
he too was arrested, and charged with a felony.
According to a press release by Democracy
Now!, Goodman herself was arrested after confronting
officers regarding the arrest of her colleagues.
The officers had established a line of "crowd
control," and ordered Goodman to move back.
Goodman claims she was arrested after being
pulled through the police line by an officer,
and subsequently (as well as Kouddous) had
her press credentials for the convention physically
stripped from her by a secret service agent.
All were held on charges of "probable cause
for riot." A statement was later released
by the city announcing that all "misdemeanor
charges for presence at an unlawful assembly
for journalists" would be dropped. The felony
charges against Salazar and Kouddous were
also dropped.Goodman, Salazar, and Kouddous
subsequently filed a lawsuit against the cities
of St. Paul and Minneapolis as well as other
defendants. According to Baher Asmy of the
Center for Constitutional Rights, "[a]ll three
plaintiffs that are journalists with Democracy
Now reached a final settlement with the city
of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the United
States Secret Service, that will resolve the
claims that they had against them from unlawful
and quite violent arrests." The settlement
includes $100,000 in compensation and a promise
of police training.
== 2016 North Dakota access pipeline protests
==
In September 2016, an arrest warrant for criminal
trespass was issued for Amy Goodman after
covering for Democracy Now! the Dakota Access
Pipeline protests during which guards unleashed
dogs and pepper spray on protesters in Morton
County, North Dakota. An arrest warrant was
reportedly also issued for Green Party presidential
candidate Jill Stein and her running mate,
Ajamu Baraka.Goodman elected to turn herself
in. Three days before the court date, the
charges were increased to engaging in a riot,
which carried a penalty of up to 30 days in
jail and a $1,500 fine. On October 17, 2016,
the judge quickly dismissed the charges, but
Morton County prosecutors insisted the case
is still open and that they may pursue further
charges in the future. Goodman asserted the
importance of freedom of the press and said
that Democracy Now! would continue covering
the developing situation in North Dakota.
== Notable guests, interviews, and on-air
debates ==
== 
Listenership ==
According to Quantcast, "democracynow.org
reaches over 395K U.S. monthly people" in
the period 2016–2017. Additional international
and podcast listenership can only be guessed
at, true for all such media, and is likely
to be significant.
== See also ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
The Democracy Now! collection at the Internet
Archive
Democracy Now! on IMDb
