AMY GOODMAN: Mr. President, are you there?
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: I am. Can you hear me?
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, we can.
GONZALO ABURTO: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re calling radio stations to tell people to get out and vote. What do you say to people who feel that the two parties are bought by corporations and that they are — at this point feel that their vote doesn’t make a difference?
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: There’s not a shred of evidence to support that. …
AMY GOODMAN: President Clinton, U.N. figures show that up to 5,000 children a month die in Iraq because of the sanctions against Iraq.
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: That’s not true. That’s not true. And that’s not what they show. …
AMY GOODMAN: The past two U.N. heads of the program in Iraq have quit, calling the U.S. policy — U.S.-U.N. policy “genocidal.” What is your response to that?
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: They’re wrong. They think that we should reward — Saddam Hussein says, “I’m going to starve my kids unless you let me buy nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and biological weapons. If you let me do everything I want to do, so I can get in a position to kill and intimidate people again, then I’ll stop starving my kids.” And so, we’re supposed to assume responsibility for his misconduct. That’s just not right. …
AMY GOODMAN: Many people say that Ralph Nader is at the high percentage point he is in the polls because you’ve been responsible for taking the Democratic Party to the right. …
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: What is the measure of taking the Democratic Party to the right? That we cut the welfare rolls in half? That poverty is at a 20-year low? That child poverty has been cut by a third in our administration? … That the schools in this country, that the test scores among — since we’ve required all the schools to have basic standards, test scores among African Americans and other minorities have gone up steadily? Now, what —
AMY GOODMAN: Can I say what some people —
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Let me just finish.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me just say —
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Let me — now, wait a minute. You started this, and every question you’ve asked has been hostile and combative. So you listen to my answer, will you do that?
AMY GOODMAN: They’ve been critical questions.
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Now, you just listen to me. You ask the questions, and I’m going to answer. You have asked questions in a hostile, combative and even disrespectful tone, but I — and you have never been able to combat the facts I have given you. Now, you listen to this.
AMY GOODMAN: That was President Clinton in a surprise call to WBAI on Election Day in 2000. The White House would later call me and say they were thinking of banning me from the White House. And I said, “But he called me. I didn’t call him.”
What is the measure of taking the Democratic Party to the right? That we cut the welfare rolls in half?
:yes:
kicks poor people off welfare
"We did it! We cut the welfare rolls in half!"
Due to "evidence" of a chemical that can be used to synthesize nerve agents but that ALSO is used in the legitimate production of various pharmaceuticals, being found not even in the factory, but in a soil sample taken "somewhere nearby" Its like blowing up a farm with the reasoning that their having fertilizer is "proof they were constructing bombs"
BTW though, just so you know Monica Lewinsky has pretty adamantly put forth that although it was a completely inappropriate abuse of his position of power, that their relationship was consensual and not rape. I'm only bringing this up because she's actually gone out of her way and made a bit of a deal that she dislikes when people refer to it as rape, and would prefer people respect her wishes in that regard. https://archive.thinkprogress.org/you-shouldnt-tell-monica-lewinsky-she-was-raped-deb93e2f15ab/
I think she was arrested in Indonesia in the 90s covering the Clinton administration selling arms there to supply their genocide.
Do you remember the Ben Shapiro interview on the bbc with Andrew Niel(a UK conservative ghoul)? Ben was literally offended at the fact that Niel was asking him difficult questions. Ben called Niel a liberal at one point, to which Niel laughed because he's very obviously not.
American media is significantly more fucked than other capitalist nations...our journalists just lob our pundits & politicians questions with which they dunk. Anything that might offend the delicate sensibilities of the American interview subject is contentious.
Another good bit from them is the interview with Norman Finkelstein vs Alan Dershowitz. It's just great to have Dersh get fucking dunked on.
The one where Finkelstein calls Dershowitz out for basically plagerising his entire book? lmao
Yeah where he gets called out for plagerising the book Finkelstein got known for absolutely debunking. The book that claimed Palestinians just like showed up to leech on the greatness of Israel.
Dershowitz is such a fucking crybaby the whole time, too. He pitches a fit off the get-go about "muh ad hominem," and then refuses to let Finkelstein speak for more than 10 seconds without interupting.
THEN, and this is the kicker, he uses the fact that a book put out by AIPAC uses similar quotes as a defense of his work...literally doing Norman's work for him.
What he did after that interview too with accusing Finkelsteins mother of being a Nazi collaborator shows the cowardice and evilness of Dershowitz
Is there anything you're referring to outside of the Uyghur camps? Just curious.
One funny moment was when Boots Riley was on and he brought up Tiananmen square saying "actually the protestors there were students & of the managerial class" and Juan Gonzales was like uhhhh and pivoted. I love Boots but he wasn't exactly correct there, either way it was funny to see that exchange.
go watch their coverage during US imperialism's Libya adventure, Goodman and DN! were no different than any corporate news outlet, basically parroting State Department lines. Their regular guest for Libya was Juan "cruise missile leftist" Cole (not his real name btw). Who was basically cheerleading the rebels leading up to the NATO bombing and assassination of Gaddafi.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2011/08/30/meet-professor-juan-cole-consultant-to-the-cia/
DN! basically did a repeat of shilling for the State Department for Syria. Demonizing Bashar, I remember they had one of Bashar's former fellow Medical student bashing Bashar and calling for a no fly zone. DN! did a whole segment prasing the CIA/NED White Helmets. The day after Trump launched missiles at Syria, DN! brought on a female Syrian-American "activists" on, she was angry at Trump, NOT because Trump fired missiles at another Middle Eastern country. No, the "activist" was angry at Trump because Trump targeted an empty runway. She wanted Trump to bomb Syrian into the stone ages. Absolutely bizarre for a supposed independent "progressive" news outlet.
Their China coverage is shit too, giving Zenz entire segment, having a literal Uighur State Department asset, having lib HK politicians on begging Trump for help and they will air Pompeo attacking China but will never run China's response to these attacks.
Even their former co host, Aaron Mate has called out DN! for their pro-imperialist coverage.
DN is also parroting the US government line on the uyghurs in China, which is disappointing
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/7/26/china_xinjiang_uyghurs_internment_surveillance at 39:06 lmao I didn't even realize Zenz actually had such a German accent.
Thanks, great summary!
It's disappointing to read, Amy & DN have been one of the early outlets that led to my radicalization, kill your heroes I guess. I do still read it, but I'm glad to know a bit more about the criticisms.
After the fall of empire all of our genocidal tendencies will be (hopefully) historical cannon. To a multi polar future without US hegemony 🥃
Reminds me of when Morocco was hosting COP22 (2016 United Nations Climate Change Conference) in Marrakesh and gave out a ton of journalistic visas, so Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! took advantage of the chaos to fly into Western Sahara instead and put out several days of unprecedented reporting on the oppression of Sahrawi people there.
Amy Goodman is the only good living American journalist. Prove me wrong
Mike Prysner, Abbie Martin, and Robbie Martin. Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton.
I mean she's kinda sketch in that Democracy Now basically repeats US govt propaganda/regime change stuff now. They literally had Adrian Zenz on their show.
huh? I feel like there are plenty of good journalists. like, what about the investigative reporters over at propublica? they've broken some major stories over the years.
I knew about this but I didn't know it was their first broadcast. Cool
