Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman gave a powerful speech on the need for independent media. She gave Pacifica and specifically Egberto Willies a shout-out for representing at Netroots Nation 2025.
Amy Goodman highlights the Pacifica Network.
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Summary
Amy Goodman delivered a powerful keynote address at the Netroots Nation conference in New Orleans, passionately advocating for independent media while honoring her roots at the Pacifica Radio network. She emphasized that independent media serves as a critical counterforce to corporate-controlled outlets, allowing marginalized voices to speak for themselves and challenging dominant narratives that perpetuate war and division. Goodman highlighted the historical significance of Pacifica Radio, founded in 1949 by war resistor Lou Hill, and recounted the dramatic story of KPFT, Houston’s resilience after being bombed twice by the Ku Klux Klan in 1970, demonstrating the perceived threat independent media poses to those who profit from maintaining the status quo.
- Corporate media serves profit over truth: Goodman warned against media outlets “run by corporations that profit from war” rather than serving the public interest, echoing concerns about how corporate ownership shapes news coverage to benefit wealthy interests.
- Independent media amplifies marginalized voices: She stressed that when people can “speak for themselves” through independent platforms, it “breaks down the bigotry and caricatures” that fuel conflict and misunderstanding.
- Pacifica’s radical origins matter: Founded by a World War II conscientious objector who envisioned media “not run by corporations,” the Pacifica network represents a deliberate challenge to profit-driven journalism.
- Violence proves the threat to power: The KKK’s bombing of KPFT twice in 1970 demonstrates how dangerous independent media appears to those who benefit from maintaining existing power structures.
- Financial attacks continue today: Trump’s clawing back of $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting reveals ongoing attempts to defund independent voices that challenge the official narrative.
Goodman’s speech resonates deeply within progressive circles because it articulates a fundamental truth about media power in America: those who control information shape reality. Her emphasis on Pacifica’s founding principles directly challenges the neoliberal consensus that treats news as a commodity rather than a public good. When she describes media as potentially “the greatest force for peace on earth” versus being “wielded as a weapon of war,” she identifies the core progressive critique of mainstream journalism’s role in manufacturing consent for imperial adventures and domestic oppression.
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Amy Goodman’s stirring keynote at Netroots Nation delivered more than nostalgic reminiscences about Pacifica Radio’s storied past—she articulated a theory of media power that strikes at the heart of progressive politics in America. Her speech demonstrated why independent media represents not merely an alternative viewpoint, but an existential threat to the corporate-militarist consensus that dominates American political discourse.
Democracy Now! was founded on February 19, 1996, at WBAI in New York City and originally aired on five Pacifica Radio stations, establishing Goodman’s credibility as someone who has built an independent media infrastructure from the ground up. Her journey from Pacifica’s community radio model to hosting a daily TV/radio news program that pioneered the most significant community media collaboration in the U.S. provides concrete evidence that alternatives to corporate media can succeed and scale.
The historical context Goodman provides about Pacifica Radio’s founding reveals the explicitly political nature of independent media. Founded by Lewis Hill, a World War II resister who came out of detention camps and said there has got to be media not run by corporations that profit from war, Pacifica was conceived as a direct challenge to the military-industrial complex’s media apparatus. This origin story matters because it demonstrates that independent media emerges not from market failures, but from political necessity.
The bombing of KPFT Houston represents perhaps the most dramatic illustration of independent media’s perceived threat to established power. The station’s transmitter was bombed and destroyed by the Ku Klux Klan on May 12, 1970, two months after going on the air, and bombed again on October 6, 1970. The bombing was carried out by Jimmy Dale Hutto, a Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan, who objected to the Pacifica station’s Progressive forum. KPFT became the only radio station in the United States whose transmitter was blown up, a distinction that speaks volumes about the perceived danger of allowing working-class communities and people of color to control their own narrative.
The station’s resilience after these terrorist attacks embodies the progressive principle that justice movements cannot be destroyed through violence alone. Donations and support to rebuild came in quickly, demonstrating grassroots solidarity that corporate media lacks. When Goodman noted that the KKK leader called the bombing “his proudest act,” she identified something crucial: those who benefit from systemic oppression understand that independent media poses a genuine threat to their power.
Contemporary attacks on independent media have evolved from dynamite to defunding. Goodman’s observation that Trump eliminated $1.1 billion already allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting reveals how financial strangulation has replaced physical violence as the preferred method for silencing independent voices. This shift reflects the sophistication of modern power structures, which understand that economic pressure can be more effective than confrontation in limiting media diversity.
The progressive implications of Goodman’s message extend far beyond media criticism into fundamental questions about democracy itself. When she argues that independent media allows people to “speak for themselves,” breaking down “bigotry and caricatures,” she describes a process that directly threatens the manufactured consent upon which corporate capitalism depends. Democracy Now! goes beyond the rhetoric and party politics offered by the mainstream media, instead highlighting grassroots efforts to enhance and ignite democracy, representing what genuine democratic discourse might look like.
Goodman’s vision of media as potentially “the greatest force for peace on earth” versus being “wielded as a weapon of war” provides a framework for understanding how information warfare functions in contemporary politics. Corporate media’s role in legitimizing military interventions, from Iraq to Libya to ongoing proxy conflicts, demonstrates how profit-driven journalism becomes complicit in violence. Independent media’s commitment to amplifying voices from affected communities—”a Palestinian child crying out for food,” “an Israeli grandmother,” “an uncle in Afghanistan”—creates empathy that makes war more challenging to sell.
The financial model of independent media also represents a progressive alternative to corporate capitalism’s commodification of information. Democracy Now! provides daily global news headlines, in-depth interviews, and investigative reports without any advertisements or government funding, relying instead on listener support. This “people-powered” approach, as Goodman describes it, creates accountability structures that corporate advertisers and government funders cannot manipulate.
Progressive movements have always understood that controlling the means of communication is essential for challenging power structures. From the underground newspapers of the 1960s to today’s independent podcast networks, alternative media provides spaces where radical ideas can develop without corporate gatekeeping. Goodman’s celebration of this tradition reminds progressives that building independent media infrastructure is not auxiliary to political organizing—it is political organizing.
Her acknowledgment of various independent outlets, from Current Affairs to Free Speech TV, demonstrates the ecosystem approach necessary for sustainable media alternatives. Rather than relying on single personalities or platforms, the progressive media landscape requires diverse voices and funding mechanisms to resist co-optation and ensure message continuity.
The urgency in Goodman’s call to “take the media back” reflects the accelerating concentration of media ownership and the rise of algorithmic manipulation through social media platforms. As progressive movements face increasingly sophisticated propaganda operations, the need for truly independent media becomes more critical than ever. The choice, as Goodman frames it, is between media that serves people or media that serves profit—and that choice will largely determine whether progressive values can compete in the marketplace of ideas.
