Speeches by Izzy Award Winners

I was able to hear the speeches made by Amy Goodman and Glenn Greenwald at the State Theatre on Tuesday night on WEOS.org. WEOS broadcasted the Izzy Award between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. today.

Jeremy Stone, son of I.F. "Izzy" Stone, made a short speech at the beginning of the ceremony. He believes that Goodman and Greenwald possess the journalistic qualities of I.F. Stone. (I can't agree more.) Goodman started her own media outlet--Democracy Now!--just like I.F. Stone started his own newsletter--I.F. Stone Weekly. She accepts no money from corporations or the government, and neither did I.F. Stone in order to preserve his independence. Lastly, Goodman gives a voice to the voiceless just like I.F. Stone did. Greenwald reads government documents closely, and I.F. Stone is famously known for that. Greenwald is always challenging the government and questioning what it does, and I.F. Stone did the same.

After that lovely opening, Greenwald took to the stage. The remark he made that most hit me was how the term independent journalism is redundant. Journalism is supposed to be independent. Its purpose is to tell the facts and nothing else. But today's journalism doesn't do that. Instead reporters allows corporations and the government to control what they write. Why? Because mainstream reporters see it as their role to uphold today's institutions and "maintain the status quo," instead of challenging institutions and creating change in society. Mainstream reporters failure to do their job have lead to the creation of independent journalism.

Afterwards, Goodman gave her speech. Her main point was that the media needs to express all points of the spectrum. Right now, the media only express one point of view instead of all of them. Any mainstream reporter who tries to express the other side of the story is silenced. For example, Phil Donahue had a show on MSNBC, and he was against the Iraq War. His show was the top rated show for MSNBC, but it was cancelled on the eve of the invasion of the Iraq War, because it went against the media's pro-war campaign. This was allowed to happen, because corporations control the media. Corporations aren't concerned about telling the facts; they are concerned about making money. Those who stand for the values of journalism must take back the media.

I believe Greenwald and Goodman exemplify what is good about journalism. They are concerned about telling the truth, challenging the powers that be, and telling all sides of a story. They won't let anyone or anything compromise their values and beliefs. I can only hope to be as good of a journalist as them one day.