Book Review:  “Exception to the Rulers”
by Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now” with David Goodman

How could you pass up reading a book praised by Michael Moore, Danny Glover, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and now by me, Mary Ruth Aull? “Exception to the Rulers” shines a revealing light on the despicable lack of accounting of the truth and facts by our corporate media. I have coffee every morning with Amy and her co-host Juan Gonzales on “Democracy Now” (DN). I knew the elite media outlets were more entertainment than informative for the most part, but when I turned on DN for the first time, I was also really moved by the contrast of reporting. I am now so much more informed. She is nonbiased and passionate in her work. She was beaten severely in East Timor while covering a story and ended up trying to prevent a slaughter of innocent civilians by the military using weapons from the US. She even had the guts to return years later to do a follow up report of the situation; both accounts are in the book. Her belief is, “go where the silence is.” She is breaking the silence right here in our own country with her media commitment and now with her new best selling book. 

Goodman is a journalist from Pacifica Radio, which was founded in 1949 by Lew Hill who refused to fight in World War II. When Hill came out of detention, he said that he wanted to found a media outlet independent of corporate powers. Yes, the battle for free media is not new! Freedom of the press is the only business protected under the US constitution. Our corporate media today is not serving our democracy. Imagine the different outcome of the illegal invasion of Iraq if we had informed American citizens. “Information is the currency of democracy,” says Thomas Jefferson. We have a propaganda machine with a few big corporations controlling many media outlets and influenced by our government. Goodman gives many examples. A particularly outstanding one was that during pre-war invasion of Iraq, there were 393 pro-war sources interviewed on TV and only 3 pro-peace sources. Why we shouldn’t have a peace supporter for every pro-war supporter, asks Goodman? She points out the many retired generals hired by corporate media. Also interesting is the discussion of the many September 11ths around the world since Chile in 1973, the Carlylse group and the Bush connection with the Bin Ladens and the Saudis.

Her brother David talks about the 4 Rs: “reading, rithing, rithmetic, and recruiting.” Since on more than nearly 20,000 occasions schools had refused recruiter access to students, a section was added to the No Child Left Behind bill to address this, and now schools are becoming extensions of the military. She points out that the military will now quit trying to recruit students until parents call their congressional representatives. There is a lot of information on the lead up to the illegal invasion of Iraq and the tactic used by the war
advocates as well as the action and advocacy for peace by the huge peace movement
globally.

The book is worth reading just for the entertaining and hilarious account of Amy’s experience on a taping of the Sally Jessy Raphael Show. Amy and two other peace advocates were asked to appear with three war supporters and the chapter is called “Things get messy with Sally Jessy!” Other accounts of interest are with Newt Gingrich and his refusal to apologize to American women for calling Hilary Clinton a bitch, and the story of the day president Bill Clinton called to speak to Goodman on her show and she asked him the hard questions as usual. He accused her of being hostile and combative!

The last chapter appropriately calls for the freeing of the media and speaks of her return to East Timor and the way the world sees the United States -- either as the sword, referring to the unjust policies of our government, or as the shield, our power to stand up for justice and to end the blood shed.

Goodman was in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University this past July and spoke to a crowd of about 500 people with interruptions of applause many times. And now we, at the Thomas Merton Center, are so fortunate to award her for her outstanding journalism work on November 18 at the Annual Merton Award Dinner at Station Square.

- Mary Ruth Aull