Award-winning journalists and media critic
to discuss money in politics

Amy Goodman, the host of a nationally syndicated television and radio news talk show who was recently arrested at the Republican National Convention for defending reporters who were being harassed by police, will speak at the State University of New York at New Paltz at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 30, in Lecture Center 100. The event is free and open to the public.

Goodman will be joined by journalist Greg Palast and author and media critic Jeff Cohen in discussing, “The Root of All Evil: Money in Politics.” They will all offer a preview of the upcoming presidential election and discuss various related issues, including the war on terror and the economy.

“Goodman and Palast are inspirational journalists who dare to challenge the status quo and refuse to accept the word of politicians and corporate interests as fact,” commented Jeff Fonda, the Student Association vice president, a co-sponsor of the event. “Anyone who has an opportunity to hear them speak should not pass it up.”

Goodman is a well known and popular host of “Democracy Now,” which airs on the Pacifica Radio network and on many public broadcasting television stations. She first came to public attention as a reporter in 1991 when she and a fellow journalist were covering the U.S.-backed Indonesian occupation of East Timor. She and a colleague witnessed Indonesian soldiers gun down 270 East Timorese. Indonesian soldiers then beat Goodman and her colleague.

Goodman’s documentary, “Massacre: The Story of East Timor,” won numerous awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting; the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award; the Armstrong Award; the Radio/Television News Directors Award; as well as awards from the Associated Press, United Press International and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Goodman won major journalism awards again in 1999 when her radio documentary, “Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria’s Oil Dictatorship,” exposed Chevron’s role in the killing of two Nigerian villagers who were protesting an oil spill in their community. Goodman’s “Democracy Now” program is one of the nation’s more popular progressive forums and often includes guests who discuss foreign policy issues.

Palast is a well known investigative reporter, perhaps most famous for his expose in 2000 that indicated that African-American voters had been purged from voter rolls in the 2000 presidential election. Palast won the George Orwell Courage in Journalism Award for his BBC documentary, “Bush Family.” He is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Armed Madhouse.”

Cohen, author of five books, is best known as the founder of a media watchdog group, FAIR, but he also appeared as a commentator on cable television news shows for 13 years. His recent book, “Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media,” recounts his time on television. Cohen recently visited Venezuela, which has been under fire from the Bush administration, and he has been addressing America’s relationship with the oil-rich South American country.

Cohen is currently a professor of media and journalism at Ithaca College. He lives in Woodstock.

The event is sponsored by Democracy Matters, a non-partisan, campus-based group that works to get big, private money out of politics. Other sponsors include the Student Association, the Muslim Student Association, Synthesis, the Political Science Club and the Progressive Academic Network.