Amy Goodman: Corporate media is 'an extreme media beating the drums for war'

Journalist Amy Goodman made the case for independent media at the National Conference for Media Reform in Denver on Saturday, saying the pro-war views of the corporate media networks were firmly entrenched.

"This is no longer a mainstream media, it's an extreme media beating the drums for war," she said after citing statistics about the mainstream media's bias in favor of the Iraq war. "I really do think that those who are concerned about war, that those who are deeply concerned about the growing inequality in this country, those who are concerned about climate change, about the fate of the planet, are not a fringe minority -- not even a silent majority, but a silenced majority, silenced by the corporate media, which is why we have to take it back."

Goodman said the United States was in dire need of major media outlets that were free of a "corporate lens." She noted her own radio program, Democracy Now, sought to highlight the views of those typically ignored or overlooked by corporate media networks.

Goodman also praised former MSNBC host Phil Donahue, who was fired from the network for voicing anti-war sentiments in the run-up to the Iraq war. The incident illustrated how the mainstream media was afraid of challenging the status quo, particularly in regards to war.

Goodman said the country needed a media that showed the images of war. She described debating anything other than "war and peace, life and death" as a "disservice to the servicemen and women of this country, who can't have these debates on military bases, they rely on us."

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube on April 7 by UpTakeVideo, below: