Until Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman showed up with a film crew in 2016 at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, the months-long protests against an oil pipeline’s construction had largely gone unnoticed by the national media.
Within hours, her footage of Native American protesters gained millions of views on Facebook and got picked up by CBS, CNN and other mainstream news outlets.
“Most places love to have an exclusive. Ultimately, I consider that a failure because I don’t want it to be exclusive to us,” Goodman, Democracy Now’s co-founder, host and executive producer, told J. “I want the story to be picked up as much as possible all over.”
“Steal This Story, Please!” is both the motto of Democracy Now and the title of a new documentary chronicling Goodman’s journalism career and the establishment of the progressive, nonprofit broadcaster, which is marking 30 years since its founding.
The film, which was voted the audience’s favorite documentary at the 2025 Mill Valley Film Festival, opens nationwide this month, including at several Bay Area theaters. From April 17 to 22, Goodman will appear alongside the film’s co-director, Tia Lessin, for post-screening Q&As in San Francisco, Berkeley, San Rafael and Sebastopol.
Sprinkled throughout the documentary are glimpses into Goodman’s Jewish upbringing and how it put her on the path to journalism.
Her initial inspiration came from her younger brother, David, who started a “family newspaper” out of their home in Bay Shore, Long Island. Its letters to the editor section in particular served as an analog version of a group chat, where relatives could discuss their conflicting opinions.
Coupled with the influence of her grandfather, an Orthodox rabbi, Jewish experiences helped prime Goodman for her career.
“That was the way that we had conversations about the big issues of the day. It came from my Jewish education,” Goodman, 68, says in the film. “You ask questions, and you take nothing for granted. And the way that you deal with the world is through intense curiosity and not being afraid to stand by your principles.”
A focus on taking “nothing for granted” has extended to Goodman’s coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Democracy Now regularly focuses on Israel with an unsparingly critical lens.
It also features a staunchly left point of view with interviews of prominent detractors of Israel, such as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil and co-director of Israeli-Palestinian grassroots group Standing Together Alon-Lee Green.
“Steal This Story, Please!” includes moments from Democracy Now’s reports following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
Its headlines from that time reflect its point of view: From Oct. 16, 2023, “‘A Textbook Case of Genocide’: Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal Decries Israel’s Assault on Gaza.” From Oct. 24, 2023, “Not in My Brother’s Name: Sibling of Peace Activist Killed by Hamas Demands Israel Stop Bombing Gaza.” And from Jan. 5, 2024, “‘The IDF Should Not Exist’: Meet Meital Yaniv, Former Israeli Soldier Turned Anti-Zionist Organizer.”
Democracy Now has faced accusations of bias for years, including from its own interview subjects.
In 2013, while appearing on Democracy Now to discuss “The Gatekeepers,” a documentary about former chiefs of Israeli domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, Israeli filmmaker Dror Moreh momentarily shifted to express his discomfort with the outlet’s position.
“You cannot portray Israel as the [aggressor] and the Palestinians are the innocent bystander who are always being killed by those aggressive forces,” Moreh told Goodman. “The whole situation is different shades of gray.”
As she contemplated that quote in her interview with J. more than a decade later, Goodman reiterated her outlet’s guiding philosophy: hearing from direct stakeholders, in their own words.
“It’s so important to hear people speaking for themselves, and then people can make up their own minds,” Goodman told J. “You so often do not hear these stories of people who are closest to the story. Instead, the media brings us this same tired circle of pundits who know so little about so much, explaining the world to us and getting it wrong.”
Launched in 1996, Democracy Now first consisted of an hour-long radio show broadcast on nine radio stations across the country. Today, it streams on YouTube, where it has 3.3 million subscribers, and broadcasts to hundreds of TV and radio stations worldwide. Its social media presence includes 1.6 million followers on Facebook, another 1.6 million on Instagram, 800,000 on X and 335,000 on TikTok.
The New York-based nonprofit outlet does not sell ads or seek government funds, instead relying on donations and grants. According to tax records, it has raised over $8 million annually since 2010.