Kontext TV interviewed Amy Goodman, the award winning US journalist and host of the grassroots TV news hour Democracy Now about the role of the media, protest movements in the US and the political attitudes of the Americans. Goodman says: If the American people had a say in US policy the country would surely take a different path. But the corporate media in the US have silenced the majority by filtering out dissenting opinions and narrowing the points of views reflected in the media. Media corporations beat the drums for war instead of giving voice to the concerns of the people about wars, torture, poverty and corporate control. The growing inequality lead finally to the protests in Wisconsin and the Occupy movement of which the mainstream press made fun. "There has to be a tipping point and I think we're going to see that. And I think the Occupy movement was only the tip of that tipping point." The violent backlash against critical journalists, Occupy or any kind of dissent is alarming. Goodman was arrested in 2008 when she reported about the Republican Convention. At the same time the US media all too often follow the party line of Washington. So the press kept silent about the US initiated coups against president Bertrand Aristide and the crimes of the Indonesian military in East Timor backed by US governments. Goodman’s investigative reports helped to put pressure on Washington. "We have a decision - every day. Whether we want to represent the sword or the shield." [+]
