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.”
They also rubber stamp US foreign policy too though
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
Including literally having Adrian Zenz on their program 🤣
what really
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.
They lost me with the Syria coverage.
They aren't what they used to be.