Last week was an interesting one for Goodman as she continued her focus on celebrities -- interesting and telling. For example, Monday had a segment on news broadcaster Walter Cronkite who had passed away at the age of 92. For this segment, she brought on Danny Schechter who worked with Cronkite at Media Channel and Robert Parry who once worked for The Associated Press and used to float the most lurid notions at Sarah McClendon's home -- a place where so many conspiracy theories ran wild it was difficult to stand out but Bob Parry managed to. And he managed to stand out on Democracy Now! where he repeatedly attacked Cronkite for various supposed crimes but, unlike Danny, Parry never worked in commercial broadcast television so his 'judgments' were, as usual, suspect at best.
Goody joined in, tossing out this or that -- including pledged Barack Obama delegate to the 2008 DNC Convention Norman Solomon trashing Cronkite for not coming to the realization that Vietnam was 'lost' sooner. (It was lost before it began.) As Barack continues to reveal himself as a Corporatist War Hawk, remember to judge Norman by the standard he did Cronkite. And remember that he wasn't present but Goody kept pushing him into the discussion.
Some might say, "Well she was being a moderator and playing devil's advocate." What's Walter's crime? We're not aware of repeated accusations of child molestation. We're not aware of any cash settlements with children making accusations. Point? Where was Amy Goodman during her segments on pedophile Michael Jackson? She booked two fans to discuss him and then she went on to allow the ridiculous Miss Havisham to slur the victims.
Contrast that with the way Cronkite was ripped apart by her and one guest.
Amy Goodman lacks both Mary Hart's legs and wit, so she should probably drop the celebrity 'journalism.' Throughout last week, when not covering dead authors of bad books and Jackson Browne, she finally found a topic to get passionate about: Henry Gates Jnr.
Before we get to that, we need to establish Goody's 'journalistic' creed. March 15, 2005, Democracy Now! aired a segment which briefly noted media persecution:
Laurie Garrett: I mean, look at how the media convicted Richard Jewell of the Atlanta Olympic bombing, when it turned out, of course, that he was completely innocent. Look at how quickly the media moved to try and convict Steven Hatfill of being responsible for the anthrax mailings, when, in fact, he is free today, the judge has actually given him the right to interrogate his accusers from the media and to demand "how do you claim knowledge that I committed these events?" And then, of course, the Wen Ho Lee case in Los Alamos Laboratory, where a Taiwanese American scientist was accused of feeding discs of information to the Chinese government. Nobody ever explained why a Taiwanese would be helping mainland China. That alone should have caused some serious skepticism. But, of course, ultimately the judge in that case not only threw out all the charges against Wen Ho Lee, but particularly castigated The New York Times for their coverage and for having basically convicted him on the pages of their newspaper.
Amy Goodman: Very interestingly, that was right before September 11, 2001. If people were asking what was the FBI doing before, why weren’t they investigating these guys that ended up in the United States that perhaps were part of the September 11 attacks, well, maybe they should look at how many of them were going after Wen Ho Lee.
In one of her three increasingly bad books (all cut and pasted with brother David), Goody felt the need to weigh in on the media persecution of Wen Ho Lee. Static finds her (and brother David) recounting the events wherein The New York Times' James Risen and Jeff Gerth were guilty of media malpractice and helped railroad the innocent Wen Ho Lee. She (and brother David) insists that the stories had: "Every ingredient, that is, but one: the truth." She describes what took place as "a political and media witch hunt" which was objected to by just "a handful of reporters" and when the case fell apart:
Two weeks after Lee was released from jail, the New York Times published a sixteen-hundred-word editor's note, "The Times and Wen Ho Lee." Now, finally, was the time to come clean. But the Times blinked. "On the whole, we remain proud of work that brought into the open a major national security problem of which officials had been aware for months, even years," the editors wrote. "But looking back, we also found some things we wish we had done differently in the course of the coverage to give Dr. Lee the full benefit of the doubt." The Times concluded that "the blame lies principally with those who directed the coverage."
Two days later, it was the turn of the Times editorial page to search its soul. It largely defended its actions in running numerous editorials that vilified Lee. It was a non-apology that merely allowed that "we too quickly accepted the government's theory that espionage was the main reason for Chinese nuclear advances and its view that Dr. Lee had been properly singled out as the prime suspect."
So at least, at one point, Amy Goodman grasped media witch hunts were wrong and objected to them . . . when conducted by others. At one point. Maybe she's changed her mind? After all she had James Risen on as a guest of her July 13th broadcast and she never asked him about Wen Ho Lee. If she didn't change her mind, that would make her a real whore. Oops, May 18, 2006 she had James Risen on her program and she didn't ask Risen about his media witch hunt of Wen Ho Lee then either so, most likely, she is a whore (Static was published in hard cover on September 5, 2006).
Which brings us back to John Ford plays. But Goody's interest last week was in launching a witch hunt and the players were in Massachusetts bringing to mind Arthur Miller. In this update of The Crucible, Goody Liar worked overtime to launch a witch hunt and smear a person's name. She did it by lying, she did omitting key facts, and she did it because she's trash. Not a journalist, just trash.
Tuesday, Goody Liar first hit on what Stan's dubbed JuniorGate:
One of the nation's most prominent African American scholars, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., has accused police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, of racial profiling after he was arrested in his own home late last week. Gates is the head of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and American Studies. Gates arrived at his home in Cambridge last Thursday afternoon to find his front door jammed. As he tried to pry it open, a neighbor called the police department and reported that a robbery was in progress. Gates grew frustrated when an investigating officer did not believe he was the owner of the home despite proof of residence. According to a police report of the incident, Gates called the officer a racist and said, "This is what happens to black men in America." Eventually Gates was handcuffed and taken to the police station. Gates was charged with disorderly conduct.
Goody Liar, estranged from the truth. Gates and his driver pried open the front door. Of a home that had a break-in Harvard's campus police had handled shortly before the incident with Gates. (The home belongs to Harvard, not Gates.) A possible burglary was reported (not robbery, she's one dumb f**k that Amy Goodman), the police responded. They entered the home through the broken door and asked Gates to identify himself. He did not do so immediately. "Eventually Gates was handcuffed . . ." After the police were leaving, 58-year-old Gates followed them out onto the porch and began yelling at them. Facts is hard for Amy Goodman.
Wednesday, Goody Liar was continuing her witch hunt:
And in Massachusetts, Cambridge police say they’re dropping the disorderly conduct charge against leading African American scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Gates was arrested in his home last week after he had to force his way in to overcome a jammed front door. A neighbor had called police, thinking Gates was a robber. Gates reportedly presented his proof of residence and said, "This is what happens to black men in America." He was then handcuffed, taken to the police station, and charged. Cambridge police have called the incident "regrettable and unfortunate," but Gates is demanding a full apology. Gates says he plans to use the incident to bring attention to racial profiling in the US criminal justice system.
Notice yet again that in Goody's 'telling,' Gates' arrest is never explained. You sort of wish for police brutality at this point -- not aimed at Gates, but you kind of wish one of the police at the Republican National Convention had pulled out their mace and just sprayed it all over. It might at least give her sorry life an excuse for existence.
She wasn't done. Before presenting a pre-taped interview with Carl Dix "of the Revolutionary Communist Party" and The Matrix' Cornel West (over a week old by that point), Goody declared (still on Wednesday):
In Massachusetts, Cambridge police say they're dropping the disorderly conduct charge against the leading African American scholar, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Professor Gates was arrested in his home Thursday after he had to force his way in to overcome a jammed front door with the help of his driver. A passerby called the police, thinking Gates was trying to break in. When police asked Gates for identification, he reportedly responded, "Why? Because I’m a black man in America?" He handed them both his Harvard ID and his Massachusetts driver's license, which listed his address. He was handcuffed, taken to the police station, and charged. Cambridge police have called the incident, quote, "regrettable and unfortunate," but Professor Gates is demanding a full apology. He says he plans to use the incident to bring attention to racial profiling in the United States.
The arrest of so prominent a figure as the head of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Studies has reignited debates about racism in the so-called "post-racial" era of Barack Obama’s presidency.
Goody Liar is just a s**t stirrer trying to inflame the country with her 'racism' reports. She did it with Jena when she decided that what the parents were telling her wasn't right (as a White woman, she apparently knew better than an African-American woman) and dropped it from the narrative. She repeatedly refused to offer a balanced presentation, she repeatedly presented Gates as a victim even when events were far from clear on that.
Barack Obama made an ass out of himself Wednesday night in what was supposed to be his press conference on health care. Barack enabler Lynn Sweet (Chicago Sun-Times) asked him about the Gates arrest and Barack responded. It took the attention off health care and created a huge distraction in the week that the administration was supposed to be doing their big health care push. Thursday, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez (lose the ridiculous mustache Juan, you look like a pimp) devoted the program to the health care press conference and issue but, for the first segment, they started with? Barry's remarks on Gates:
Lynn Sweet: Recently, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was arrested at his home in Cambridge. What does that incident say to you, and what does it say about race relations in America?
Barry O: Well, I should say at the outset that Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here. I don't know all the facts. What's been reported, though, is that the guy forgot his keys, jimmied his way to get into the house. There was a report called into the police station that there might be a burglary taking place. So far, so good, right? I mean, if I was trying to jigger into --well, I guess this is my house now, so it probably wouldn't happen. But let's say my old house in Chicago -- here, I'd get shot. But so far, so good. They're reporting. The police are doing what they should. There's a call. They go investigate. What happens? My understanding is, at that point, Professor Gates is already in his house. The police officer comes in. I'm sure there's some exchange of words. But my understanding is, is that Professor Gates then shows his ID to show that this is his house. And at that point he gets arrested for disorderly conduct, charges which are later dropped. Now, I've -- I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. And that's just a fact. As you know, Lynn, when I was in the state legislature in Illinois, we worked on a racial profiling bill, because there was indisputable evidence that blacks and Hispanics were being stopped disproportionately. And that is a sign, an example of how, you know, race remains a factor in the society.
Democracy Now! continued playing Barry, but that's more than enough -- no one needs his non-stop vanity ("I am standing here as testimony to the progress that's been made"). When the clip finally ended, we were treated to Goody Liar's sour little face as she declared, "President Obama talking about his friend, renowned Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, who was arrested in his home last Thursday." Looking like the cat swallowing canary, Goody failed to explore what it means when the chief executive of the federal government, someone whom the US Justice Dept reports to, calls out a police department. Goody Liar wasn't concerned with that. She just wanted to continue her non-stop witch hunt.
Friday, she offered:
In Massachusetts, the Cambridge police officer who arrested the leading African American scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., last week is refusing to apologize. Gates was detained in his home after he forced his way in to overcome a jammed front door. A neighbor had called police, thinking Gates was a robber. Gates reportedly presented his proof of residence and said, "This is what happens to black men in America." He was then handcuffed and taken into custody. Cambridge police have dropped a disorderly conduct charge, but the officer, Sergeant James Crowley, has rejected Gates’s call for an apology. On Thursday, Crowley said that Gates had provoked him and that an apology would "never come." Gates, meanwhile, appeared on CNN, where he said the experience had sensitized him to the vulnerability of people of color to racial profiling.
Henry Louis Gates: "But what it made me realize was how vulnerable all black men are, how vulnerable all people of color are, and all poor people, to capricious forces like a rogue policeman. And this man clearly was a rogue policeman."
The Cambridge Police Department has backed Crowley's refusal to apologize and criticized President Obama for saying they had "acted stupidly." Obama responded Thursday in an interview with ABC News.
President Obama: "I have to say I am surprised by the controversy surrounding my statement, because I think it was a pretty straightforward commentary, that you probably don’t need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who's in his own home."
Of course, Gates was handcuffed outside the home. Gates walked out there on his own, yelling at the police (as observed by witnesses) and was arrested. Despite having made it to the porch fine and dandy, Gates immediately insisted he couldn't get around without his cane. Officer Crowley went back into the house and got the cane for him. Not exactly the behavior of the terrorizer that Goody (and others) would have you believe Crowley is.
Goody Liar launched a witch hunt and did so at a time when there were two versions of what happened in the house: Gates' version and the police version (police plural). Goody Liar didn't know what happened. Goody Liar didn't care. She was only interested in stirring s**t and promoting hatred.
Why are we on the left so easily lampooned and stereotyped? Because of people like Amy Goodman. Before facts are known, she's crying "Racism!" And she's far from the only one. In the midst of media drama, Bob Somerby (The Daily Howler) addressed the nonsense and attempted to offer a rational voice last week:
Only we don't seem to know what happened at Professor Gates' house. Everybody else seems to know. Only we don't.
We can imagine various possibilities, of course. We can imagine that Office Crowley had a bad day. We can imagine that Professor Gates had a bad day. (Shocking, we know. But everyone has them.) We can imagine they had bad days together. (It happens, described as a "perfect storm.") But in open embarrassment, we’re forced to admit it. We don't really know what happened.
Luckily, we have professors and pundits for that. As always, our pundits all know they should say the right thing. But in the current case, even the professors have begun to chime in. We'll suggest you consider an unconventional yet obvious framework in assessing their work.
[. . .]
But as Professor Bobo continues to "imagine," he imagines this story only one way. He imagines it as it has constantly been imagined in the course of our tragic history. As he "imagines," the account of the rich/famous/wealthy party is simply assumed to be accurate. The account of the fellow with working-class roots isn’t even described, although it exists on-line. Indeed, the wealthy fellow's account is credited even when it doesn’t seem to make all that much sense. The working-class fellow's account disappears --when it portrays the wealthy fellow having perhaps a bad day. (To read reports from Crowley and another officer, click here. Like Bobo, we don't know if these reports are accurate.)
Since Professor Bobo wasn't present that day, his account is truly remarkable. He keeps imagining what "maybe" occurred, telling us what is "possible." As his account proceeds, the behavior of one person gets more and more noble; the behavior of the other goes the other way. But then, this story has always been imagined this way. The wealthy planter's story has always been truthful. The account of the grimy field hand has always been tossed away.
To see a variant of this story enacted, rent and watch In the Heat of the Night. The wealthy, influential man expects belief when he tells his story, among his orchids. But Poitier/Steiger are prepared to imagine the tale in other ways.
And isn't it something and so very telling of the 'creative' class as they rush to the assumption that the wealthy person is telling the truth and the working class person isn't? Isn't it very telling.
What are the scariest words in the English language for gas bags? "I don't know." But we don't know. We don't know what happened in the house. (We know Gates walked out to the porch on his own and yelling based on police reports confirmed by eye witnesses.) And we're not embarrassed to say we don't know. We're not afraid of waiting for more information before weighing in on what happened inside the house and we're fully aware that more information may not be forthcoming.
"I don't know." The gas bags couldn't say it and neither could Barack. If he hadn't had such a high opinion of his psychic abilities, the country might have stayed focused on the health care plans as the White House intended. That didn't happen. And, in fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared last week that there would be no vote before the August recess thereby puncturing Barry's dreams and, in fact, his public assurance that a vote would take place before the recess. Barack had political capital to spend and he blew it. He blew it by weighing in on a topic he knew nothing about (as evidenced by his 'factual' recounting). He allowed himself to go off topic and, in the process, torpedoed his own health care plans.
That might have been a news story Democracy Now! could have explored but they wanted to stage a witch hunt instead. They didn't cover Iraq (headlines are not "covering," it's tossing out a few sentences). They didn't cover much of anything. But they did stage a daily witch hunt and, in doing so, Amy Goodman demonstrated she has no journalistic ethics. She can write (with her brother) many more bad books criticizing others but her Last Journalist Standing pose grew tired and embarrassing some time ago.
She doesn't know what happened inside the house but that didn't prevent her from playing Abigail Williams all last week. At the end of the text of his play, Arthur Miller explains, "The legend has it that Abigail turned up later as a prostitute in Boston." We'd argue Goody's half way there.
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This commentary is part of an ongoing dialogue on this topic within the TCI community. Numerous pieces in community newsletters have addressed it. Stan has addressed the topic here, here, here and here, Betty covered the topic here, Trina here.