 Good evening. Welcome. Well, thank you. That's undeserved, but thank you I'm Tom Green president of Vermont College of Fine Arts, and I just want to welcome you to Historic Alumni Hall tonight and what should be a terrific event When my friend David Goodman over here emailed me probably three or four weeks ago and told me that he and Amy and Dennis were gonna be on a Book tour in Vermont and looking for a place to bring people together and thought the college might be a good choice and I I jumped at it because I can't think of a More important time than to be having the kind of conversation and dialogue that they're gonna be having tonight So I just want to welcome you. I'm gonna introduce David in a moment But first I want to acknowledge that our good friends from Bear Pond books for my money the best independent bookstore in the country are here over here tonight It's the only place I buy books unless I'm traveling and they have copies of this So please both support this important book and also your local independent bookstore And now it's my pleasure to welcome and introduce David Goodman. David is an award-winning independent journalist He's the best-selling author of 10 books host of the public affairs radio show the Vermont Conversation a contributing writer to mother Jones He lives here in Vermont and if any of you have ever attended the local spelling bee fundraiser You know that he and I are both people who usually go out in the first round David Goodman Tom could you just come back and spell Kyros Kiro before you leave? Well, it's great to start off kick off our National book tour here at home my home in front of so many Familiar faces and friends and family Dennis Moynihan and Amy my sister the three of us who collaborated to bring out this book Because it really did take three of us to tell the story of democracy now over these past two decades Are gonna be traveling all over the place just Speaking and sharing some of these stories and some of the important messages about independent media and especially It's importance and role today But first being in front of a hometown crowd. It's an opportunity for me to thank a Special person who has made this book and all my books possible With her patience and that is my wife Sue Minter You know Sue's courage to Nasity and vision to make the world a better place Inspires me to do the same thing in the work that I do writing books So thank you for all you've done for all of us this past year sue And normally, you know authors apologize to their spouses and families for the time away But you were a little busy this last year too, so I think we're even now, honey And also to echo Tom's comment about bear pond books one of the things we do when we travel is to work with independent bookstores, which are these Sanctuaries of descent all over our country and bear pond books Upholds that tradition in the most wonderful way We're so lucky to have this bookstore at the heart of our community And I think it's part of what makes our community so vibrant and so smart So thank you Claire and Amanda and everyone 20 years ago my sister came home as she often did to get tell us her latest Project, let's say to tell the family and to get our feedback and at that time Amy was the news director at WBAI in New York a one of the five Pacifica radio stations of one of the largest community radio stations in the country, so She was you know already busy with that, but this was something different. It was a show to cover to be the grassroots view of the 1996 presidential election that was the reelection campaign of Bill Clinton This was new for Pacifica and the idea was instead of going to the corporate suites for the views of the pundits and the powerful Democracy now would go to the suites but first Amy let us know that this show about this show and told us yeah, so it's going to be called democracy now and I told her as her brother I felt I should be perfectly candid and told her that is the worst name you could imagine for a show You have to do this by stealth, you know, just like the election show or You know fun with Amy just a totally stealth approach You just fly under the radar you can do all the same things, but you know a show named democracy now It's just never gonna last Well, we saw then what we've seen so often since which is Amy's Instinct to buck conventional wisdom even when it comes from her dear brother and the rest of her family So that show was an experiment. It was supposed to last eight months start in February and wrap up Oh a day or a week after the election and call it good So here we are 20 years later Somebody else will have to do the math how many shows that was what began as a radio show on nine Stations around the country and you should have seen this operation it was in the garret of a firehouse in Manhattan and Amy would have hanging tape masking taped each day The front pages of all the newspapers and she would be referring to them and rustling papers But still doing the job that you've many of you know that she's does today But it was in this and there was also a brass fire pole And that's how they would she would travel to get downstairs and the other producers they jump down the fire pole So underscoring the urgency of the mission there Well, they've since graduated and it is now democracy now is Both of course a TV show and a radio show and on the internet. It's on 1400 stations worldwide seen by millions on the internet and has really come to be a Staple in many of our diets of the news that we consume that we don't see or find elsewhere and Why did this catch on why did it was there the demand for democracy now? Greater after the election or at least as great if not greater than it was during that election of 1996 Well, we can thank the corporate media for that The void left by the corporate media created the opening that democracy now has filled The corporate media which has for so long been a cheerleader and a megaphone for the powerful Instead of what the media is supposed to do Challenge those in power and for many of us probably, you know one of the most visceral examples of that was the Iraq War in 2003 and 4 well, we really can't say it's ended when the You know the admission the Bush administration and the media were in what we describe in a previous book Static as a propaganda two-step in which the White House released Catchphrases like the smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud the White House leaks it to the New York Times the New York Times publishes this image Where it's you know in big bold call-out quotes in their story and Dick Cheney goes on the Sunday talk shows to say The smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud in Iraq But don't take it from me take it from the New York Times Where helpfully the national security correspondent at that time Judith Miller had Essentially been his mimeograph machine to put this kind of propaganda into play And we know the disastrous consequences of this the lies cost lives and that toll Continues to this day as we still incredibly 2017 this is 14 some years later. We are still in Iraq and Part of the mission as Amy has often described it is to go to where the silence is To go to the target end to the communities that have been targeted in these wars and Put the microphone in front of the people there It's a very different perspective when you don't have crosshairs on you But are in fact just treated as a human being whose lives matter Well, it was this media landscape was the perfect Setting for a guy named Donald Trump to waltz into a couple of years ago Trump understood our media better than the media understood it this Almost a cartoon character out of reality TV With his package of alternate facts and great theatrics and name callings and insults misogyny and xenophobia Essentially had the corporate media of this entire country at his back and call. In fact, there was a study done not long ago Which calculated that Donald Trump was given one billion Dollars of free airtime during the primary season and so a public that may have been only marginally paying attention to what's going on is just being inundated Constantly with the messaging and you know that kind of saturation Bombing works when it's coming through every possible airwaves that that you are tuned into so the Trump proved for this kind of media environment absolutely irresistible You know Courage in the world of journalism is not something that happens in hindsight Courage is something that happens when it matters telling talking truth to power and Challenging those who are speaking and speaking inconvenient truths at those times. It's not a comfortable place to be Amy has certainly found that in her travels We have as part of our new book that chronicles the 20-year journey of democracy now whole section called an independent reporter's rap sheet and I know this rap sheet really well as her brother because oftentimes the first call from the police stations or the military barracks in Indonesia was to our house mom dad Amy's arrested again and There's someone on the phone from the Indonesian Embassy saying they want to kick her out of the country So, you know, that was 1991 when she and her colleague Alan Nairn witnessed a massacre in East Timor and reported on it and Almost paid with their lives Alan had his skull fractured by the Indonesian troops who were bashing him with US-made weapons But this has continued Amy was arrested in 2008 and roughed up at the just recovering covering the Republican Convention in Minnesota and More recently When she was in North Dakota covering the Dakota access pipeline protests that I know she's gonna speak more about So no, it's not a place that one Goes to going to where the silence is It's not silent for the journalists who go there. That's for sure So for all these years Democracy now has been the beating heart Connecting a far-flung movement around the world It's a voice that reassures all of us that you are not crazy and you are not alone and so For that I Tipped my hat to democracy now and to my sister who I'm very proud to Introduce and hope for another 20 years of raising hell and bringing us the news and shining a bright light I know all there is out there to see Here's Amy Honor it is to be here To be at this college to be in this state to be with my family my wonderful talented journalist brother David my Remarkable dynamo of a sister-in-law sue mentor and all that she represents and does in the world my nephew Jasper the great sports broadcaster and high school student And Dennis Moynihan over there in the corner who usually Addresses gatherings, but we are writing our column as we speak. That's due today a weekly column on the latest news and That happened today, and so we're a little behind We just got word that our thorough Hernandez who is a Mexican immigrant who's lived in Denver for many years Who took refuge? Sanctuary in the Unitarian Church two years ago And we went inside that church to speak with him and his children He faced deportation under the Obama administration But because of tremendous pressure Finally the Department of Homeland Security gave him a letter that said he was no longer a priority For deportation he wanted to show good faith Arturo did and so he said if they will give me this letter I want to walk out of the church proudly Continue to work with my brother-in-law and a tile business they have and be an example to other people who've taken sanctuary and churches around the country and Step out of the shadows and he did that and has been with his family for two years until today He and his brother went to their tile Storage facility ice had staked them out and picked Arturo up So right now his advocates like the American Friends Service Committee are Outside the ice facility Demanding to be able to speak with Arturo. I was just speaking with Jen Piper of AFSA She's outside the facility and She told me she spoke with ice today that Arturo had this letter that said he was not a priority for deportation and Ice told her that this letter doesn't stand anymore under the new administration that they have no priorities and So Arturo is inside Now just last week Dennis and I were in Denver celebrating independent media there and Just before we flew out we went to that same church where we had visited Arturo two years ago And there we met with Jeanette Vizguera She's also a Mexican immigrant She's been in this country for more than 20 years and said she thinks she has filed more tax returns and Then the president of the United States. In fact, she holds up her 2016 tax returns and asks the president to do the same But she took refuge in the church in February. She got scared. She's four kids her older daughter is DACA is a dreamer is Legally allowed to be here, but Jeanette was frightened because she saw Danielle Ramirez another dreamer here legally in Washington State picked up and she thought, you know, she's going through the process, but Yes, she could be picked up for deportation And so she took refuge and we visited her there with two of her four children her youngest Zuri who's six and Roberto who's ten an elegant slight feather of a boy speaks perfect English and he stood next to his mother his teacher had made a lithograph of Jeanette very beautiful with her Mayan features and he was going out to march with Zuri and Others in this Cesar Chavez parade last weekend in Denver and to hold this lithograph picture of His mother that says at the bottom keep family is united as we talked he kept his arm around his mother who was sitting next to him as he stood and He said that his mother couldn't march with him or even step outside or even take out the garbage at the church And so he said I am my mother's voice These are the families that so many in this country celebrate. This is the best of our country and it brings out the best in neighbors and communities and This is the hope of the United States so we left Jeanette came back to New York and Time magazine announced the hundred most important influential people of this year you know who's on the list Jeanette Vizcata and Dennis my colleague at democracy now and co-author of the book with David and I Lives in Denver Raced over the church when this was announced. I mean the response there was incredible she can't really step out though and they held a news conference and Time magazine just had its gala and all the celebrities were there celebrating all the important people who were there Jeanette couldn't join them and so I talked to Jen Piper of AFSC she said we had our own time gala last night in the church So that was last night all the festivities and this morning Artura was picked up Now what's really interesting about what's happening is who is coming together to protect? immigrants Jeanette told me she'd gotten a number of death threats and so the police chief came to her the Denver police chief She obviously couldn't go to him and he said I will protect you you just tell me you show me these threats And I said well what gives you hope to net she's now been in the church for two months and she said Because there's so many more people so many thousands of people who are expressing their support They so far outnumber the people who are threatening my life and the mayor of Denver has expressed His support and the local congressman Jared polis has expressed his support in just a few weeks ago my co-host on democracy now and I Juan Gonzales went to a meeting in New York in a non-descript office building I mean hundreds of people were packed in it was not your typical Everyday activists who are so noble in devoting their lives to making the world better But it was state legislators from around the country. It was mayors. It was city council members Who are coming together as a new form of resistance? How do we support each other in defying the US government? They were saying in providing sanctuary to the most vulnerable and not colluding with or collaborating with ICE This is really amazing and it's moving on up Among elected officialdom Arturo and Jeanette are targeted but they have hope because of people like you here and all over the country Now I Am so proud to have worked with Juan Gonzales for these 21 years of democracy now from the very beginning and last year he became the first Latino journalist in New York to win to be inducted into the New York Journalism Hall of Fame. Oh, it was a wonderful ceremony in midtown Manhattan and who were the people who were being inducted Leslie Stahl and Charlie Rose and Juan Gonzales, we were all there to celebrate him His speech put everyone else to shame He stood up reflecting on his life as a columnist at the New York Daily News where he just retired after 29 years But he kept with his other DN democracy now He said To the gathered crowd I figured my modest Contribution would be not writing about outcast neighborhoods, but from them not simply to entertain but to change Not after the fact but before it when coverage could still make a difference I've tried to use as many of my columns as possible to probe the injustices visited upon the powerless Yes, the rich and famous are also victims on occasion But they have so many politicians lobbyist lawyers gossip columnist and even editorial writers ready to jump to their defense that they'll always do Fine without my help He said I prefer the desperate unknown reader who comes to me because he or she has gone everywhere else And no one will listen more often than not I come across unexpected gems human beings whose tragedies Illuminate the landscape and whose courage Hopefully inspires the reader to believe that there is indeed some greater goods served by a free press Then just chronicling or influencing the ouster of one group of politicians by another And I think Juan Gonzalez Very much embodies the mission of democracy now when he retired We were on another book in community media tour just last year So I couldn't go to all the celebrations, but everyone packed in Every all of the elected leaders I would be getting texts as I was giving talks Oh Governor Cuomo just walked in and then when he left Mayor de Blasio came in they hate each other So they wouldn't be seen in the same place at the same time And I was saying wait a second as I was reading this to crowds look at these politicians, you know senator Schumer All of these politicians were coming in but we're supposed to be separate from the state What does this say about one but you know I think they all wanted to see with their own eyes that this man was truly retiring to prove it to Themself because what's our job as journalists? David and I our first book was the exception to the rulers and Our second book was called static and the reason we called it that is even in these high-tech digital times with digital Radio and high-tech television all we get is static that veil of distortions and lies and misrepresentations And half-truths that obscure reality when what we need the media to give us is a dictionary definition of static criticism Opposition unwanted interference. We need a media that covers power not covers for power a Media that is the fourth the state not for the state and we need a media that covers the movements that create static and make history and so You know as we travel the country the news keeps breaking at a hellish pace right now and I use that word advisedly but Just in the past weeks if you tune into democracy now, how many of you listen to or watch or read democracy now Fantastic and for those of you who aren't raising your hands I'm equally excited because now you can discover a new universe and I think that universe which you may will be a part of Very much represents the majority Because I really do think that those who care about war and peace Those who are concerned about the growing inequality Not just between the rich and the poor, but the rich and the rest of us Those who are concerned about social economic racial injustice who are concerned about climate change the fate of the planet are Not a fringe minority not even a silent majority But the Silenced majority Silenced by the corporate media, which is why we have to take the media back I mean you think of What you get on the networks The small circle of pundits who know so little about so much Explaining the world to us and getting it so wrong The power of democracy now why it grew from nine community radio stations in 1996 and then we're supposed to well You know wrap up and we'd move on to other projects and now is broadcasting on 1,400 public television and radio stations around the country and around the world 1,400 and a station a week is picking us up somewhere Tomorrow and Friday will be broadcasting from Vermont public television where we broadcast and I don't know how many of you watch But do all of you have our flyers and you can pick up gobs of them afterwards We've made many to share with all of your friends that tell you where you can get democracy now Oh on the PT plus and Vermont public television where we're going to be broadcasting from tomorrow and Friday Tomorrow we'll be talking with congressman Peter Welch about the latest news the top stories around tax reform and the corporate taxes that President Trump wants to cut from 35% to 15% it's believed it will lead something to like a through two trillion dollar deficit I mean isn't it his party that are the deficit Hawks? and We're going to be speaking with Jen Piper in Denver about what's happening with Arturo and we'll wrap up tomorrow with Madeleine Cunan to talk about women in politics and where they are and Who gets represented in this country and what are the obstacles to that? Representation and then we'll move on from there We're giving talks tomorrow in Bennington at noon and then tomorrow night in Burlington And then we head off on Friday to Washington We'll do a five-hour broadcast Saturday from the people's climate March You can tune in from 10 to 3 at democracy now dot org Hundreds of thousands of people are expected last weekend. We did the same kind of broadcast that had a main stage This won't even have speakers in that way And it was the March for science at the National Mall in front of the Washington Monument. It was amazing Thousands of people came out in the downpour and it was really wet And I was especially inspired by the young girls who were there Aspiring scientists and science enthusiasts and all the people who care about fact based Evidence and that being challenged today some of the signs That people were carrying at the March for science ice has no agenda. It just melts There's no planet to be Champion evidence-based policies. Oh and a woman was holding up a sign proud and high and It said I'm with her and there was an arrow to mother earth so I Interviewed a 12 year old girl named Hazel from Oregon who's suing the Trump administration but she sued the Obama administration before that she's one of a group of Young people under 21 who are saying to the elected officials of this country you are endangering our lives Through these fossil fueled policies that have to change That's really the hope This mass resistance that we are seeing everywhere. I mean and the acceleration of it you have President Trump's inauguration. He by the way had a respectable crowd there 180,000 people or so That's a pretty good size But he didn't like the fact that the media pointed out the next day that it was about 10% the size of President Obama's in 2009 who had about 1.8 million people And so he simply said it was a lie You know it just Exposed the administration because we saw the pictures, but they don't deter this president now I fear that Comparing it to what happened nine years before took away from what happened just the next day it got a little less attention and that was the same year the same weekend the same place Three times the number of people came out mainly women and their allies in Washington, DC over 500,000 people Challenging the Trump administration that had just been inaugurated and that wasn't the largest crowd I think in Los Angeles it was 750,000 people I saw Kerry Washington the actress at Sundance We go there every year to cover the documentary track and she had just given a speech She said it was just astounding in Park City, Utah where Sundance takes place I mean there were 10,000 people in the streets and I understand in Montpelier. I Understand from a very reliable source. Oh, who was one of the speakers? I mean you're talking 20,000 people they had to shut down the interstate right not to allow people right here. I Mean we've never seen anything like this and you go from that to Muslim ban one right that President Trump tried to impose to prevent refugees from seven Muslim majority nations This was imposed so rapidly with such little discussion or evaluation for the basis for this except for Xenophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment that Thousands of people came out from all over the country to JFK Airport to Dulles Airport to Los Angeles Airport I mean this wasn't organized He was creating the threat to national security. Have you ever seen this many people come out? I mean you had senators and judges at Dulles who were being roughed up by security who came to say what is happening I spoke to the lawyer for the ACLU who went to court to challenge the ban on that Saturday He went into court and the judge stayed the ban and he came out There were a thousand people expressing solidarity just at the Brooklyn courthouse I mean that is the sentiment that we learned in this country That is the beauty of a country that has grown up and been shaped by mass movements From the abolition movement to the women's suffrage movement from the women's rights movement to the LGBTQ movement to the Environmental movement to the racial economic justice movement all of these movements Helping to push us forward and I don't think they can really be set back And so a judge in Seattle stopped Muslim ban one. What did President Trump call him that so-called judge? Now, I think we're engaging in this country in a massive civics lesson little kids older people and most importantly Perhaps the president of the United States He's the CEO of a real estate empire and remains so and he's used to what he says goes You know the janitor doesn't get to say no to mr. Trump. So who is this guy in Seattle? they call him a judge but and Then because that ban was stayed and he understood that he was stopped They introduced ban number two and that brought the seven Muslim majority nations down to six and then a judge in Hawaii Said no and this perhaps is even more astounding You had the Attorney General of the United States just last week Jeff Sessions speaking on a right-wing radio show Saying how is it possible that a man on an island in the Pacific? Can stop the president of the United States? I mean who must learn about the three co-equal branches of government, right? He represents the Justice Department. It is the American way I was thinking the only people that might have been encouraged by what he said was the sovereignty movement in Hawaii Who are saying yeah, we don't want to be a part of you either? I haven't yet interviewed them So that's what's been happening and then in the last week We heard about this threatened mass killing in Arkansas Eight men in 11 days to be executed by the end of April Why? They're on death row. They've been there for many years But Arkansas's supply of midasalum Part of the execution cocktail was going to expire By the end of April Now when I first heard this I thought is this possibly means not you know the wheels of justice rolling forward is It is because a drug is going to expire and I thought what exactly does this mean if a drug Expires and you're not supposed to take it. So is it they're afraid it will kill them? Or maybe it's just not going to be effective anymore and So they attempted something that hasn't been attempted in this year in years In years and that is this series of double headers Now I know being the ant of Jasper Goodman what a double header is but It's not what I thought It is double Executions slated one set after another the first two were stayed and Then the third prisoner was killed and he was killed He was executed the case went to the Supreme Court And I think it was one of the first acts if not the first act of the new Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch to weigh in in a five to four decision and that paved the way for his Execution and now this past Monday The double execution That did take place We spoke with the Guardian's chief reporter Ed Pilkington about the shocking double Execution Arkansas carried out Monday night marking the first time in nearly 17 years Any state has killed two people on the same day at 7 20 Arkansas time in the evening 52 year old Jack Harold Jones was pronounced dead in the death chamber at the Cummins unit State prison Infirmary workers had spent more than 45 minutes unsuccessfully trying to put a central line into his neck According to a court filing during Jones execution He was moving his lips and gulping for air which suggests he continued to be conscious during the lethal injection Lawyers for the second man Marceau Williams filed the last minute appeal for a stay of execution following Jones killing Arguing Williams could also experience a botched painful death a district court judge initially granted a temporary stay of Williams Execution but then allowed the execution to go forward Williams was pronounced dead at 10 33 p.m The executions came after legal challenges reached the US Supreme Court which rejected a stay for Williams The only justice to dissent in this ruling was Justice Sonia Sotomayor The last double execution carried out in the United States was in the year 2000 in Texas that was on Monday now one of the people will be interviewing in the next few days on democracy now is a Judge in Arkansas who stayed on Easter on Good Friday Who stayed? Who ruled on behalf of a drug company called McKesson? They said their drug that's used as part of the execution cocktail that Arkansas misrepresented what they wanted it for They said they wouldn't use it to kill someone The company said but Arkansas didn't tell them it was gonna be part of the execution cocktail The judge ruled in their favor and then walked outside to the governor's mansion in Arkansas and Layed down on a cop. He's an African-American judge He was protesting the death penalty He did it in court in one way and then put his body on the line the judiciary and Arkansas have removed all death penalty cases from his purview This all brought to mind What we do on democracy now going to where the silence is and a couple of years ago We went down to Georgia to try to cover an execution. We didn't know if it would take place I mean, I believe if there are executions in this country, we should be broadcasting them That sounds gruesome and horrific, but most people don't realize in this country How alone we are in the industrialized world when it comes to imposing the death penalty? You know part of the reason that this state Arkansas was trying to rush these executions is Because the drug supply to kill people is running out overall The reason that the drug is expiring and they can't get more is the drug companies Around the world are saying you can't use our drugs for death It started with the European drug companies the European Union forbid these companies from providing Execution drugs and this goes back to World War two. Yes, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer The Nazis did use gas to kill the Jews and other dissidents Millions of people and that's what that's about and now American companies are saying no as well and this comes out of movement building at every level and I do think if people saw the images saw what's done in their name well at least then they'd get to decide So I want to go back to 2011 that year that the bottom rocked the top You know you go to the Tunisian Revolution at the end of December 2010 when a young man named Muhammad Bouazizi came out of university had no opportunities Was starting to sell fruit and vegetables in the marketplace the authorities stole his scales He was so frustrated by the lack of opportunity. He set himself on fire That sparked the Tunisian Revolution that overthrew the dictator Unfortunately supported by the United States and that sparked the Egyptian revolution and you know what that was all about for 18 days A million people gathered in Tahir that was in Cairo and millions throughout the country until they threw out their dictator Mubarak what's happening now in Egypt is another story and we continue to cover it with by with our supreme Journalist Egyptian-American reporter Shreve of Belkadoos who reports to us from Cairo But that I think partly contributed to the uprising in Wisconsin that took place in the winter of 2011 remember 150,000 people they occupied the state capital because the governor Scott Walker wanted to bust the public unions He assured the police and the firefighters. He wasn't going after them But he was gonna go after the nurses and the teachers now the problem for governor Walker was that The nurses and the teachers were married to the police and the firefighters and so Everyone rebelled and many of those that rebelled had actually voted for him We raced to Madison, Wisconsin. We interviewed the biggest guys. I'd ever seen the Oshkosh prison guards I said, who did you vote for and they said governor Walker, of course So I said so who are you protesting here and they said governor Walker, of course He didn't tell us he was gonna do this and outside in the snow 150,000 people in the freezing cold and one gentleman with white hair and glasses was marching with a sign IRS auditors against Walker and you knew he was in trouble And you had Egyptians calling in their orders for pizza to Madison pizza parlors to provide to the people who are occupying The capital and then you move forward to the summer of 2011 the ring around the Rose Garden in Washington DC 1200 people arrested like Bill McKibbin Co-founder of 350.org at Middlebury College where we were just speaking earlier today. Oh Naomi Klein read every one of her books This changes everything capitalism versus the climate the shock doctrine the rise of disaster capitalism No logo taking aim at brand bullies now. She's writing a new book on Donald Trump She'll be at the people's climate march in Washington as Bill McKibbin is down there already And they were getting arrested over the Keystone XL Now it wasn't Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or President Barack Obama that wanted to stop the Keystone XL But they ultimately after enormous pressure and years of protest Finally said no to the building of the Keystone XL We'll get to where that stands today And then you move from August September to September 17 thousands of people Flooded in to Zuccotti Park. This was Occupy Occupy Wall Street people with signs of every color and stripe The corporate media first didn't cover them at all and then they mocked them You know like one of these people represent, you know They've got signs against the death penalty against war against inequality against climate change and I thought oh my god The media is listening. Yes, all of those issues. That's what people cared about. They saw it as their weakness I saw it as their strength And they said where are their leaders They can't even decide who they want to lead them They said the media said but it isn't a leaderless movement. It was a leaderful movement I remember Erin Burnett got her start on CNN out front the show She said she was going to the people when her first reports was down at Occupy Wall Street and it was called seriously But it was very serious The police may have eviscerated the encampments over a series of months not only in new york But all over the country at the Occupy encampments But if you think that oh that fizzled to nothing I think you're seriously mistaken Occupy occupied the language You hear the word 1% and 99% they're not talking milk And everyone knows that You change the language you change the world And among the signs that people carried as they marched into Zikati Park was I am Troy Davis and too much doubt Troy Davis On september 21st 2011 Troy Anthony Davis was scheduled to die We were reporting live from the grounds outside Georgia's death row in the town of Jackson awaiting news about whether the u.s. Supreme court would spare his life I am Troy Davis had become the rallying cry for a growing international movement to stop his execution the effort had grown and now included Oh prosecutors prison wardens Exonerated death row prisoners of former u.s. President and the pope This is a story of a struggle against death That refuses to die Troy Anthony Davis grew up in savannah with his mother and father a korean veteran and his three sisters On the night of august 18th 1989 18 year old Troy African-american went charlie brown's pool hall with a friend and the parking lot outside Red coals a neighborhood tough was arguing loudly with a homeless man named larry young several witnesses testified later Cole's pistol whipped young Pool hall patrons came outside joined other bystanders to see what was going on Troy Davis tried to intervene in the fight but fled when Cole threatened him with a gun At a quarter after one in the morning Mark mcfail a white off-duty savannah police officer who was working as a security guard at a greyhound bus station next door Came outside to break up the fight Gunshots pierced the summer night Moments later mcfail lay dying with a bullet wound to the head and another to the heart He never drew his gun mark mcfail was a hero cop He was trying to save a homeless man who was being pistol whipped the question was who murdered him Red coals Went to the police station accompanied by a lawyer and identified troi davis as the shooter But the day after the shooting davis was four hours away in atlanta with his cousin looking for a job While he was there the police launched a high-profile manhunt splash troi's picture across newspapers and tv Davis's panic family alerted troi that authorities were looking for him his sister martina a heroine She was a persian gulf army nurse, but she was suffering from breast cancer. She came home and She sees what's going on. She says troi we've i'm gonna come get you and we're gonna go back troi is 18 years old And so they go together to the police station and troi says it's just a case of mistaken identity They don't even go in with a lawyer. He's immediately taken in he's held for two years and then in 1991 At the age of 20 troi anthony davis was convicted and sentenced to die davis would spend the next 20 years half of his life on death row During that time seven of the nine non police witnesses recanted or changed their testimony many saying they were intimidated By the police there was one man who would not change his testimony The one who most of the others had fingered as the shooter read coals And so on august 21st on september 21st 2011 the day troi davis was scheduled to die His lawyers filed requests with the u.s supreme court for a stay of execution The world watched to see whether davis's final appeal would be granted of course We were the only news outlet to broadcast live continuously from the prison grounds in jackson and let me tell you how that happened We raced down to jackson georgia We came on to the prison grounds We saw some satellite trucks on the edge and the prison guards told us we you know when you cover this You have to do it like the big boys do it We got the biggest satellite truck that was there CNN would be using it fox had just used it and I was very annoyed because the truck our satellite truck was late The prison guards said when the truck comes you put it over with the other satellite trucks And so we waited and waited and finally the satellite truck came They came on to the property. They rolled down the window. Yeah, I didn't know these guys They came in from Atlanta and they said miss goodman. Where do you want the truck? I said well The guards had set up a protest pen. They would allow 150 protesters. They would be the Human rights leaders like the head of amnesty the head of the NAACP the family like martina kareya Who is now in a wheelchair in the last weeks of her life? Oh, she was honored as a leading light with nancy polosi in washington a woman who championed health care and mammograms for women with breast cancer She was quite a remarkable dynamo who is now devoting her life to saving her brothers Um So they were all there and then there were thousand people outside the grounds Oh, the students from more house and spellmen from atlanta holding candles the historically black colleges people from all over the world We weren't going to just be put off to the side We couldn't I wasn't just going to speak for five or six hours We wanted to speak to the people why they had come So when they rolled down their window and said miss goodman, where do you want the van? I said well the prison guards are saying you have to put it and said where do you want the van? And my annoyance started to dissolve I said well I was thinking of putting it right by the protest pen and they Barreled the satellite truck over to the pen the prison guards came running over and these guys got out of the truck Our van operators the cameraman They were bigger than the ashkosh prison guards in wisconsin and the prison guards backed off And then they took the microphone they handed to me and they said where do you want to broadcast? I said I think right up against the rope here so that I can reach the people And they said they formed a semi circle around me kind of protective shield with their cameras and they said start the show And so we started at six o'clock In the afternoon Now the department of corrections in georgia had given us a press packet. It was very thin It described what would happen to Troy that day He could visit with family until three o'clock, but then they'd have to clear out for a routine physical Routine physical So down the street was the church where the human rights leaders massed And one of them was eddubo's who was the president of the georgia chapter of the NAACP he said Routine physical so that they can make sure he's physically fit so they can strap him down So they can put the murder juice in his arm make no mistake. They call it an execution. We call it murder Now right before that a texas man on death row had attempted suicide They raced him to the hospital got him better and then they executed him so Davis had turned down the special supper the last supper You know a condemned prisoner gets to eat anything he wants and choose it And he said no to that so the press packet described exactly what he would be offered the standard fare It said quote grilled cheeseburgers oven brown potatoes baked beans coleslaw cookies and a grape beverage and then the next page was A white sheet and it just had four lines on it in big letters You know my dad was an ophthalmologist an eye doctor and I was so used to those eye charts that you know You read as it gets small. This is what this look like Except the lines were one or two words The first line said pentobarbital Then panchuronium bromide Potassium chloride an adivine and parentheses a sedative the pentobarbital Anesthetizes the panchuronium bromide paralyzes the potassium chloride stops the heart Davis refused the sedative and the last supper by 7 p.m. The u.s. Supreme court was reportedly reviewing davis's plea for a stay The case was referred to supreme court justice clarence thomas who hails from pinpoint georgia a community founded by freed slaves That's near savannah where troi had grown up Needless to say the supreme court denied the plea davis's execution began at 10 53 p.m A prison spokesperson delivered the news to the reporters outside time of death 11 0 8 p.m The eyewitnesses to the execution stepped out According to an associated press reporter who was there these were troi davis's final words You know strapped down to a cross like gurney his arms and his legs and the injection put in his arm And justice he's about to die they pull back the curtains on the window where the audience is The ap reporters said what He told them What he said to the audience He said i'd like to address the mcfail family let you know despite the situation you're in I'm not the one who killed your son your father your brother I am innocent the incident that happened that night was not my fault I did not have a gun all I can ask is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth He said I asked my family and friends to continue to fight this fight And then he turned to his executioners And said for those about to take my life god have mercy on your souls. May god rest your souls The state of georgia took davis's body to atlanta for an autopsy charging his family for the transportation On troi davis's death certificate the cause of death is listed simply as homicide As we stood on the grounds of the prison just after troi davis was executed the georgia department of corrections threatened to pull the plug on our broadcast The show was over I was reminded of what mahatma ghandi reportedly said when asked what he thought of western civilization He said I think it would be a good idea That was September of 2011 But things started to look up in december around another issue climate change You know democracy now covers all the u.n. climate summits and from copenhagen to cancun from durbin in south africa to doha from Poland to peru this year. We were in paris were the only national broadcast to be there every day Next year will be in bon germany why you might say waste the fuel what happens at these u.n. climate summits It's more what happens outside the summits the thousands of people from the most directly affected areas of the world like the 15 year old boy from the maldives who looked into our camera and copenhagen and said you are Drowning my country or the people of sub-saharan africa who said you are cooking our continent The u.s. Is the historically greatest? Greenhouse gas emitter we have a responsibility Not only to the rest of the planet but to what's happening in our country as well And in durbin of 2011 there was a little breach The people in the outside some of them were invited in They were the young people to address the world body at the end of the cop the conference of parties And i wanted to read the words of a young woman who the young people chose as their spokesperson Anjaliya padurai she was a student at college of the atlantic in bar harbor main She ascended the stage and looked out over the dignitaries and the scientists over the bureaucrats and the world leaders And she said to them I speak for more than half the world's population We are the silent majority. You've given us a seat in this hall, but our interests are not on the table What does it take to get a stake in this game lobbyists corporate influence money? You've been negotiating all of my life. You've failed to meet pledges. You've missed targets You've broken promises, but you've heard this all before She said we're in africa home to communities on the front line of climate change the international energy agency tells us We have five years in the window for the window To avoid irreversible climate change closes the science tells us we have five years maximum. You're saying give us 10 The starkest betrayal of your generation's responsibility to ours is that you call this ambition Where is the courage in these rooms? Now is not the time for incremental action in the long run These will be seen as the defining moments of an era in which narrow self-interest prevailed over science reason and common compassion She said there is real ambition in this room But it's been dismissed as radical deem not politically possible Stand with africa long-term thinking is not radical What's radical is to completely alter the planet's climate to betray the future of my generation and to condemn millions to death by climate change What's radical is to write off the fact that change is within our reach 2011 was the year in which the silent majority found their voice the year when the bottom shook the top 2011 was the year when the radical became reality and then she quoted nelson mandela Who said it always seems impossible? Until it's done She looked out Over the mass body and said so distinguished delegates and governments around the world governments of the developed world Deep cuts now get it done And there was applause throughout the hall and the president of the cop of the un climate summit even said from the stage On a purely personal note I wonder why we let not speak half the world's population first in this conference, but only last So she had an enormous made an enormous impression in the next year We saw angeli in doha at the next un summit. She was outside and I said angeli are you coming into the summit? And she said no, I've been banned But I want to stay with climate change as I wrap up this talk and then I really look forward to speaking to people individually It's so wonderful to be working with bear pond books to be back together again And we're signing our latest book. It's the paperback edition of democracy now 20 years covering the movements changing america We are hoping it will make its way up the new york times best-seller list The only reason the times prints the words democracy now is when you know, it's actually just a scientific calculation and they're forced to do it But also when you get on these best-seller lists, you get into libraries people who go into bookstores not like bear pond But bookstores that just sell the best-seller lists Will see something different and it really provides a roadmap to a different universe that I think encompasses the majority of people If you get two books, you might want to give a graduation gift or a birthday gift or give one to a library We have these wonderful dvds that we're offering as a gift They're my last interview with gnome chomsky two weeks ago and was done with wan gonzalez in our studios in new york or The oscar nominated film dirty wars by former democracy now producer jeremy scahill and you can choose one of those And you don't have to get any books you could just come up say hi And if you want have story ideas email them to stories at democracy now dot org You can also sign up for a daily digest list I think they've been going through the crowd But you can also simply text the word democracy now one word to 66866 Democracy now without a space to 66866 and you're signed up for our daily headlines and our news alerts But staying on the issue of climate change as we move from the march for science to the people's climate march this saturday I wanted to end with the dakota access pipeline This remarkable historic struggle that has taken place in the last year You know it began on april 1st 2016 when the unofficial historian of the standing rock su ladana brave bull allard in north dakota opened up her property along the cannonball river To resistors not to they don't call themselves protesters. They call themselves water protectors. Why? They were resisting the 3.8 billion dollar dakota access pipeline owned by energy transfer partners that would take Fracked oil from the back and oil fields of north dakota through south dakota iowa Illinois and then it would link up with the pipeline to the gulf of mexico The standing rock su feared that this pipeline going under the missouri river the longest river in north america Could pollute This water supply for some 17 million people downstream not only native americans But for so many americans And so they waged this struggle and it's become the largest unification of native american tribes in decades Tribes from south america central america the united states the first nations of canada All gathered That first resistance camp called sacred stone then became two and three. There was the red warrior camp and thousands came native and non-native allies And it grew through the months People engaged in civil disobedience trying to stop this pipeline from being built. It went through the summer Now this is the time Of the election season And when you think about it in the general election when the i don't really call them journalists the news personalities on television led the debates not once Did they ask presidential candidate about the issue of climate change that will determine the fate of the planet even when This historic gathering was taking place in north dakota We went to north dakota labor day weekend In the midst of the election and that was even late right it started in april But we were continuing to cover it before we went but then we were on the ground My colleague lura goddess dener who's here We went together with denis moinehan and as well john hamilton and we made our way to north dakota That weekend labor day the native americans didn't think that the company would be building the pipeline because it was a holiday weekend But they were gathering performing Ceremonies we were filming and then we are following a group of native americans who are going to plant their Native flags on the area of their sacred burial grounds A judge was ruling in the case and he was going to rule the next week And he asked the tribe if you say this is your sacred burial ground prove it Show me a map where you say the mounds are So the standing raksu provided the map designating the areas They gave that map the judge gave it to energy transfer partners and on that saturday of labor day weekend As the native americans went to plant their flags They saw the bulldozers operating at full tilts where they hadn't been before They'd leapfrogged over vast areas of land to get to the part that they had mapped out The judge was going to decide in a few days. Were they destroying The facts on the ground and then it would be a moot point the following week The people were horrified. They were enraged the first to Go up onto the property where women with their children to challenge the bulldozers And they were demanding they pull back One bulldozer two three four five and these are heroic stands It's really dangerous to be in front of a bulldozer. That's moving massive weight of dirt I have to say at that moment as we were filming and I was seeing this happen I thought back to march 16th 2003 three days before the us invasion of iraq in a different place in gaza in rafa A young woman from evergreen college in washington named rachel quarry Was standing in front of a palestinian pharmacist home with a big orange vest like construction workers where Trying to stop a us bulldozer made by caterpillar company that was operated by the israeli military from bulldozing their house sparing witness She was with the international solidarity movement and she was crushed by those mounds of dirt and she was killed And that's what came to mind when I saw the native americans come up on this land How terrifying it actually was but they wouldn't stop and the bulldozers did stop as a result and they started to pull back And that's when the security guards of the dakota access pipeline unleashed dogs On the water protectors dogs They would push them into the crowd And even the dogs would pull back and their guards would throw them into the crowd and they would bite their way out And we filmed a dog with his mouth and his nose dripping with blood We posted that video online that night and within 24 48 hours there were 14 million views on facebook We went back to new york It was a horrifying scene that day we interviewed wanona laduk who's speaking right now in new york at union theological seminary the Great native american leader from the white earth reservation in northern minnesota She was there with her tp and we talked to her and she said the governor at the time of north kudu was jack dowell rimpel She said governor dowell rimpel. You are not george wallace. This is not alabama. This is not 1965 We are through So we went back to new york continuing to report on this and then thursday night the judge was going to hand down his decision on friday The governor called out the national guard It didn't look good for the native americans the next day. It didn't look like the justice that the the judge was going to rule on their Be half. Oh, and they did something else. Uh, the authorities issued an arrest warrant for me I didn't know this at the time, but that's what they did. So on friday We flew up to torano for a premiere of a film at the in torano international film festival and their main shake and i co-host on democracy now It was a film about the muck raking journalist i.f. Stone Who told students if you're going to remember two words remember governments lie and if you're going to remember three words All governments lie and that's the name of the film and then it talked about independent news organizations like democracy now And matt tiebe of rolling stones So matt came up as well and we spoke after the film and the only reason i went up I thought this is a chance to talk about the dakota access pipeline that we had just covered that weekend People in canada deeply care about first nations and the next day We were invited to speak at the university of torano in the middle of my speech there. I got a text I got a text And it basically said you're under arrest. I had no I was in the middle of the talk just like I get it right now This text that I just got said looks like peter welch can do friday democracy now We need him tomorrow though, but we'll deal with that later Laura we have to get on this but anyway But this text that's a little less ominous than what I saw in washington in torano It said there's an arrest warrant for me and this is the first I was learning of I didn't know the number It was a north dakota number. It turned out I was a lawyer in north dakota. I don't know if this is some kind of scam I'm looking out on the people my talk and I didn't think I should say anything because you know If there's an arrest warrant for you don't necessarily get arrested way to way to way But if you have to deal with police or the fbi or border guards or that's when you get picked up And I thought if I could get to the airport and get over the border before this arrest warrant goes into the system And so I said could someone call me a cab? I know it's a little precipitous some in the middle of my talk, but if just someone could Get me to the airport, please And so I went to the airport and I did come into new york and I didn't take this arrest warrant personally I really think that it was a warning to all journalists Do not come to north dakota And that's why journalists needed to flock to north dakota and I was particularly concerned about younger independent journalists If they hear that a journalist gets arrested and there were many who did get arrested It just makes it harder and they're more afraid to actually go out because they can't afford to go to jail Or whatever it means the stakes are so high and that's not what it should be in this country That celebrates freedom of the press freedom of assembly freedom of thought Freedom of expression So we flew back to north dakota a few weeks later Called their bluff on this arrest warrant and as we landed in bismarck on a friday afternoon The prosecutor announced that he was dropping the charges Oh, he was going to charge me again And I would be arraigned the following monday on more serious charges a riot charge Which could land me a year in jail So well, that was going to be the following monday. It was friday And since I had to be there for that well, we would cover the protests through the weekend And it is amazing these protests the water protectors going through the back roads prairie lands of north dakota Marching young people elders women All marching together and then they confront The militarized sheriff's department. I mean this is what's recycling in america today The weapons and hardware from afghanistan and iraq are given to the police departments of this country We saw it in ferguson after the police killing of michael brown And we see that the sheriff's department in north dakota. What are they doing with tanks with m wraps with these vehicles That terrify that Terrorize, you know, just a few weeks ago. We had on democracy now in our studio in new york norm stamper He's the former police chief of seattle at the time of the battle of seattle in 1999 The police department of seattle met the protesters protesting the world trade organization Then they were high school kids who'd learned civics lessons about Passing laws in their country and afraid the world trade organization would Overturn the laws of democratically elected legislatures. They were environmentalists. They were unionists. They were doctors They were nurses. They were farmers from around the planet all protesting in seattle and they were met with tear gas and rubber bullets and police and robocop gear And norm stamper was forced out the police chief of seattle as he should have been And he said he made the worst mistake of his life He said he soon understood that these were his neighbors And that it was this level of militarization of his force that separated him. He said i forgot Who these citizens were? I saw them as the enemy And norm stamper now fights against this and police departments all over the country And so here are the elders and the children and they're walking the back roads challenging the building of the dakota access pipeline and When they confront this militarized sheriff's department Sometimes they hold out glasses of water They say we're doing this to protect this not only for our children, but for yours On monday morning, we did our show in front of the mandan courthouse And jailhouse. They're right next to each other only separated by the 10 commandments in between And we broadcast from church property across the street. So it was our backdrop and then after the show I would turn myself in And we interviewed the chairman of the standing raksu tribe dave archambault And I asked him he had been arrested first time ever in his life Low-level misdemeanor civil disobedience What happened to him when he went to jail? They said oh, they strip searched me and they put me in an orange jumpsuit for a low-level misdemeanor I had interviewed dr. Sara jumping eagle the Pediatrician of the standing raksu reservation Of course she was one of the first to be arrested because she cared about the health of her Children on the reservation She was stripped searched put in an orange jumpsuit and put in jail. I mean the humiliation at every level Hundreds of native americans arrested And at the end of the show Many native americans came in solidarity as the hours went on and we were about to be arraigned And then the judge decided not to sign off on the arraignment and that was the end of the charges for me But that was only because of the international spotlight and the pressure of the international media because a journalist was being arrested Fortunately, there were a number of native americans who were facing misdemeanor and felony Charges that day that were dropped because of that attention That is the power of the media I believe in reality television. I mean not the kind you get today But showing the reality on the ground that is what we need Then we need a media that tells the truth And that's why we were in north dakota. So let me talk about what happened Um the foreign after that that week After labor day when the video came out president obama was in laos And he held a democracy forum for young asians Around the continent the last person to ask a question was a young woman from malaysia. She raised her hand. She had president obama What about the dakota access pipeline? No american journalist had asked president obama about this I mean largest gathering in decades of native americans And he spoke eloquently about oppression of native americans over the years in the united states and then actually addressed her question And said actually I have to go back and ask my team about the dakota access pipeline And reportedly he did come back that week. He came back to Washington and I understand he saw the video of the dogs On friday the judge handed down his decision that friday after labor day. He ruled against the um tribe And the justice department lawyers i imagine were about to pop their champagne quirks It was the obama justice department that had prevailed over the tribe But it wasn't 15 minutes later That an unprecedented three agency letter from the army corps of engineer justice and interior Said that they weren't going to move forward at this moment with the pipeline So the justice department preempted their own lawyers in court and this clearly was coordinated by the white house they would look into where was native american participation and Whether there was an environmental impact statement all of that and then in december of 2016 was the final three agency letter that said they weren't moving ahead. They would look into rerouting and the Standing rock sue had prevailed until Donald trump took office and one of his first sacks in office Who was to move forward an issue the final permit for the dakota access pipeline to be built under the missouri river And say he would be reviving the keystone excel pipeline that had died years ago What we see in washington is an oily garky Right you have rex tillerson the head of the state department who is former head of the largest oil corporation in the world xn mobile. You have scott pruit the former oklahoma attorney general who sued the epa 14 times now You know oklahoma hardly ever saw an earthquake now. It is the land of quakes from fracked gas And then you have governor perry who's now secretary of energy governor perry ran for president twice He was bankrolled to the tune of six million dollars by kilsey warren the ceo of energy transfer partners that owns the dakota access pipeline He went on the board perry of energy transfer partners as soon as he stepped down his governor only stepped off the board to become secretary of energy But there is a force more powerful and it is all of you all together people all over this country Including trump supporters at the time of the election people across the political spectrum Who are saying we have to reevaluate where we stand today? Whether it's around corporate taxes or around the environment whether it's around racial justice These are all critical issues And it's absolutely Imperative no matter where you stand That you be engaged that you take action That you take responsibility At the march for science so many of the marchers were wearing pins that said Science not silence And let's end there But back a few decades in world war two To a brother and sister in germany named hans and sophie shoal They were not jewish. They were german christians and Together with their professor. They said what can we do in the face of the nazi atrocity? And they thought the best they could do was to get word out So the germans would never be able to say they didn't know And so they put out a series of six pamphlets and on one of those pamphlets were written the words We will not be silent They got these pamphlets out everywhere under cover of darkness in church yards in alleyways in market places in school yards They would drop them And then hans and sophie and their professor were caught by the nazis. They were charged. They were tried They were convicted and they were beheaded But that philosophy that motto Should be the Hippocratic oath of the media today Should be the Hippocratic oath of us all today We will not be silent democracy now