YES Magazine

I stumbled across an article about "Democracy Now", which is a worthy read.

Link to YES Magazine

(An excerpt from this article)

CAROLYN: Do you see the launching of Air America as competition?

AMY: Oh no. The people at Air America are proud partisans, which is very different from what we do. But it’s absolutely critical in this age of the greatest media consolidation our country has ever seen to have different voices out there. I use the analogy of the Italian restaurants on my corner in New York City. When I first lived there, there was one Italian restaurant on the corner. Then across the street another Italian restaurant opened. The first Italian restaurant was terrified that they would lose business. But the business only grew. And then across the street another Italian restaurant opened. It only brought more people to that corner, because they knew it as an area to get Italian food, and it helped all the restaurants. Helping build diverse media outlets is about shoring up a democratic society.


(Another excerpt)

CAROLYN: The corporate media give you a measure of notice and grudging respect, but in the middle of a generally admiring Washington Post profile you’re described as “beaming from some alternative left galaxy.” How far out of the margins do you think your work reaches?

AMY: I think that we’re reaching mainstream America. People across the political spectrum respond to our work. In Tampa, when we did the event there, 2,500 people packed the performing arts center. Tampa Bay is the home of Centcom, the U.S. military’s central command, and of McDill Airbase. Soldiers come out to our talks. In fact, I just had to take a call from a soldier as I was talking to you. Soldiers, military families, people in intelligence, government employees who are tired of information being manipulated and misrepresented, conservative Republicans who deeply care about issues of privacy and corporate control and an out-of-control war budget, all respond to our work. We’re reaching out way beyond any easily categorized population. I don’t think the lines are as easy to draw any more, as the growth of Democracy Now! shows.