The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3637 - Trump's Non-Strategy in Iran; The Essential Role of Independent Journalism w/ Amy Goodman

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

It's News Day Tuesday on The Majority Report   On today's program:   Pete Hegseth responds to critics who claim there is no strategy behind this war on Iran with proof that there is no strategy for this war on Iran.   Donald Trump hosts a group of children in the oval office to talk to them about nuclear bombs, the stock market and the Nobel Peace Prize.   Amy Goodman, journalist and host of "Democracy Now!" and subject of the new documentary, "Steal This Story, Please!" joins the show to discuss the film.   In the Fun Half:   Tim Miller from The Bulwark joins three streamers for a conversation about Democratic messaging in the midterms, in which he promotes economic populism and argues for creating distance from the Kamala Harris–Joe Biden–Hillary Clinton triumvirate.   Ezra Klein on the distinction Bernie Sanders raises between ideology and common sense — and the need to make government work better.   Tucker Carlson claims to a New York Times interviewer that he never called Donald Trump the antichrist, unfortunately for Tucker, she had receipts   All that and more.   To connect and organize with your local ICE rapid response team visit ICERRT.com The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: ZOCDOC: Go to Zocdoc.com/MAJORITY and download the Zocdoc app to sign-up for FREE and book a top-rated doctor AURA FRAMES: Exclusive $25-off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/MAJORITY. Promo Code MAJORITY SUNSET LAKE CBD: Now through May 11th, you can save 35% on all CBD and THC Gummies when you use code Mom26 at SunsetLakeCBD.com Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech On Instagram: @MrBryanVokey Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.  

You know, no one seems to believe me, but Mother's Day is just days away. You can check your calendar. It's May 10th this year. Paul Revere over here. Yeah, exactly. I'm the prophet. No, Mother's Day is just a few days away, and let's face it. Mom's put up with a lot, long days, sick kids, endless unpaid domestic labor.

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26. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five-time award-winning majority report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA on the program today. Journalist, host of Democracy Now, subject of the new documentary, steal this story, please. Amy Goodman will be joining us. Also, on the program today, U.S. claims to ceasefire holds as U.S. and Iran exchange fire in the Strait of Hormuz. It's a primary day in Indiana and Ohio. Supreme Court allows Louisiana to bypass the normal certification waiting period on the Voting Rights Act ruling so the state can begin to unwind racial gerrymander. protections. UAW to hold strike authorization vote at Stalantis ram plant. The VA is investigating

four employees for speaking to the press in the wake of the Alex Preddy killing. The Department of Education investigates Smith College for admitting trans women and the U.S. kills two more boaters in boats in the Caribbean. Florida adopts a new gerrymandered congressional map, adding four congressional seats to Republicans facing an immediate lawsuit. Speaking of lawsuits, the Department of Justice to drop its case against agrostats. That's a huge meat price fixing case dropped just before it goes to trial, supposedly going settle. And lastly, Rudy Giuliani still not dead. All this and more on today's majority report.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Newsday Tuesday. Newsday Tuesday, but you know, the reason why I hesitated after I read the date is I also realized Cinco de Mayo. Oh, party time. Okay. I didn't mean to bring everybody down, but I mean, it just struck me. No. Is there something I don't know? No, I don't know what. No, I don't know what to say about it. I just, I don't, I don't have anything to say about Cinco de Mayo. So I just, I just, I'm sitting here. Okay. All right, great. Well, let's have fun, though, shall we? Yeah, the, um, our chemistry is just phenomenal. Yes, it's going really well.

There, uh, has been exchange of fire in the strait of Hormuz, uh, the U.S. ran a boat through it, supposedly. Very difficult, obviously, to get, um, actual information. Iran, uh, supposedly struck the UAE. it is unclear what the U.S. strategy has been from really day one. Once Israel had assassinated the top leaders of Iran, it's clear now that the U.S. was under the impression that the country would topple and there would be some type of revolution that would usher in a strong man dictator, Shaw. None of that seemed to happen.

And since then, the United States has been floundering around spending billions upon billions upon billions of dollars on a daily basis. They have suffered major attacks at their bases in the region, U.S. military bases. they have hidden that fact from the American people reported only over the past couple of days. And here's Pete Hagsith back on the podium trying to tell the rest of us who are total idiots that the U.S. has a secret strategy and you just can't figure it out. Alexander Angersoll, One American News. Do you assess, Mr. Secretary, do you assess what's left of this?

small boat fleet to be a significant threat or a nuisance to be managed? And then secondly, what is your message to critics who say that the U.S. doesn't have a strategy in this mission? Well, any threat needs to be taken seriously. And just like those six attack boats that the chairman mentioned were taken seriously and dealt with before there were any real threat to the American military vessels that they were approaching. And that is small craft like that are all that Iran has left. their ability to get close with a destroyer of the capabilities that we have is limited, but we're going to take it very seriously and kinetically, quickly. We're not going to allow a threat to gather.

And I can tell you, even from just this morning, the strategy remains laser focused. In fact, what I think you see from Project Freedom is that we're not allowing ourselves to get distracted. This is a separate and distinct effort, temporary nature that we plan to hand over the world. The world has expressed a desire to be a part of this as is often the case. Pause for a second. This is getting so deep into ridiculousness. I keep waiting like, okay, well, no, I'll just address that point. I'll just address that point.

So just so you understand what he's saying here. And we'll get back to the degradation of Iran's capabilities in a moment. What he's saying here is that we as a, that the military mission is laser focused. but we're doing a side mission, which is to... With a side laser. Which is a distinct mission, not interfering with the laser focus that we have over here. There's a side laser. And the side laser is something called Project Freedom,

where we are going to protect boats going through the state of Hormuz. except for we won't be doing it because the Europeans have expressed a desire. They want to come to my party. Well, they'm so popular. They want to, but they have yet to check their calendar. Yes, they haven't already yet. I would love to come. Honestly, it's just with the kids and I have relatives coming into town.

It's a month out. I'll say maybe. work and we'll see. I'm coming down. And where have I heard Operation Freedom before? I mean, in everything that we've ever done. I mean, they need to dust off the mission accomplished banner in the basement of the Pentagon so that they can just give Trump some aesthetic victory and get us the hell out of this.

But this is, it wouldn't matter if we succeeded in this because this is a side mission, which is not. involved in the laser focus mission that we're engaged in. Got it. Just go back a little bit so we can hear. I mean, what's amazing, I have to say, in terms of like the Pentagon reporters pool, and I don't even know if we have any real reporters in there anymore because of the document you had to sign. One America is asking the tough questions. Is there a capacity not to break out in total laughter?

It just goes to show you that like with a couple of flags, a jacket and a tie and a comb. Anybody can look like they know what they're talking about in that context. But what he is saying is absolute gibley garbage. I mean, it's like there's nothing. Yes. Like this, it's like impossible to sort of like be able to sort of juxtapose what's actually coming out of his mouth and the power that he has. Go ahead. A destroyer of the capabilities that we have is limited, but we're going to take it very seriously. And kinetically, quickly, we're not going to allow a threat to gather. And I can tell you,

even from just this morning, the strategy remains laser-focused. In fact, what I think you see from Project Freedom is that we're not allowing ourselves to get distracted. This is a separate and distinct effort, temporary nature that we plan to hand over the world. The world has expressed a desire to be a part of this, as is often the case, or maybe almost always the case, American leadership is required. So the president was willing to undertake this, send commercial ships through, send destroyers in, provide this red, white, and blue bubble of protection, and encourage the world to step up. Because ultimately, this waterway is, as I said, far more crucial to the rest of the world, and they need to have the ability to defend it. So I think this is a reflection of a laser-focused

strategy, actually. Yeah. So in other words, folks, If you are laser focused in getting this specific job, one of the things you can do is if you have other stuff you got to do, just make it a different project. Somebody else's job. I am laser focused on, honey, I am laser focused on finishing this garage. I have a side project that I'm not combining with this so I can retain my laser focus. and that is to watch the football game on Sunday. Now, it's temporary. It's temporary.

It's temporary another job that I have. But, you know, there's a lot of people. I'm doing it for everybody else in neighborhood. And they've expressed interest in getting involved too. So I'm laser focused on this job. I just have a separate job that is in no way commingled with this job, therefore laser focused on that job. And incidentally, what did he say about degrade?

aiding Iran's capabilities. Could you just pop up this headline from? Oh, yeah, yeah. This is from, I think it was a couple of days ago. Yeah, right? Pentagon intelligence says Iran retains key military capabilities contradicting Trump exit claims. Well, this is actually interesting because we've seen now throughout this war that Trump

has a impulse and a propensity to believe the more rosier intelligence assessments that he's getting about Iran's capabilities. And in my conversation with Jeremy Scahill and in just reporting that you've seen, you see that the Israeli assessments of both the damage that has been done to Iran and the weakness of the regime have been something that Trump has been, or has absorbed and has wanted to believe, and that's a big reason why we're in the situation right now. This, this, you know, constant kind of downplaying of their resilience and their capabilities. Benjamin Netanyahu had tried to sell presidents on this. I saw Obama was doing a victory lap in the New Yorker about how Netanyahu gave him the same exact proposal and he turned it down.

But Trump's ego is what it is, and he was sold that this could happen. We should also add that supposedly the intel reports are that Iran remains one year away from a nuclear weapon, which is dramatically different than a week away. And based upon past experience, that one year really means three years. And we know that to the extent that they have enriched uranium that they have stockpiles of, all of that, virtually all of it, is a function of Donald Trump getting out of the JPCOA. Yeah. And the fact that I don't know if you saw, but yesterday Iran kind of released their expanded map, which they're looking at in terms of like their territorial control of the Strait of Hormuz.

And very boldly, it included the coastline of the UAE, which is the Gulf state that's most closely associated with the U.S. and Israel at this point. and they're bombing the UAE. They're kind of, you know, understanding that they can make the Gulf states that are aligned with the U.S., both necessary for the transport of oil, but also because they're doing these corrupt deals with Trump himself, that if they target the UAE specifically, they're able to make the United States feel pain. So the strength of their position is underscored by the fact that they feel like they can say, our control of the straight, yes, does expand into the UAE and what are you going to do about it at this point? So, like, Hegseth can stand up there with his hanky with the American flag on it, which, I don't know, wasn't that supposed to be a desecration?

Does he blow his nose into that? He blows, he dabbs after he blows something else. You know, I mean, that, like, it is, we are, Trump keeps trying to project strength, but there's, There's nothing on the ground that indicates that the United States is gaining any advantage here, and that military solutions have proved effective whatsoever. Like, Iran has taken real hits to their infrastructure, but Iran also for decades has shown the capacity to withstand severe economic pain themselves because of the United States sanctions. The West does not have that capacity.

They don't have that resilience in that way. There was a bunch of strikes on the Fujera petroleum facility, which the UAE was using to bypass the Strait of Hormuz up here, instead just a pipeline right here. But of course, this is still Iran, and that is still within striking distance. Right. None of this stuff works. Tommy Tomo Flink says, calling her my side chick, so my wife understands that I'm laser-focused on her. Tommy, Tubby Tomerville says, I believe Pete Hagsith misspoke and meant to say he was Yeager focused. Meanwhile, Donald Trump was expressing, you know, this happens often, I will say, I will cop to the fact that there are times where I'm stressed.

There are times where I am upset about stuff at work or whatever it is. and it comes out in my relationship and dynamic with my children because that's inevitable. And here I think we see Donald Trump. I don't know why he was exposed to children or children were exposed to him. But here he is in the Oval Office. Clearly, you get a sense of what his anxieties are, not necessarily what these kids are. It's weird, but you'll see what I mean. And I know it's too bad, but I had to do it.

We can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. You might be too young for this. I don't know if I want. They probably know better than most people. But you can't let a bunch of lunatics have a nuclear weapon. Or the world would be in trouble. The world would be in trouble. So we just hit records on the Dow.

We're supposed to be run in five. six years. Somebody said it couldn't be possible to reach 50. Look at the kid. Just like looking around like... And I reached 50 in the first year. And then I reached 7,000. And by the way, just said a new record. The S&P just said a new record. It's looking at their

nails. Is there more to this? Is there more to this? I can get you more if you want. I definitely do. It is I mean, look at the little kid in the yellow. She's like just, I mean, like all these kids are disassociating it is really unbelievable and he's sitting there rambling on about like i don't want to terrify you but you all could die yes but the good news is something that

you have no idea about is doing good you should know about the Dow by now um yeah it's but he also is betraying what he's really concerned about here which is the economy and Not even the economy. It's the stock market. The stock market. But he can only do so much market manipulation for so long when we're dealing with literal physical shortages of commodities. I mean, this is going to continue to get worse because he cannot take the off ramps that have been provided for him. And even the good deals that were in front of him, again, we talked about this with Jeremy Scahill.

And you picked up on this back at the time, Sam, with the Omanis, who are traditionally, the mediators between the U.S. and Iran on the issue of nuclearization, that it seemed like Trump got a better deal than the JCPOA even at the time. And he turned it down because Wiccoff and Kushner, well, Wiccoff is an idiot and doesn't have the technical knowledge to understand it. And Kushner is apparently calling Benjamin Netanyahu after every freaking meeting. So like, you know, this is just a clown show over there in addition to the fact that they have no respect for human life and have underestimated the Iranians in ways that I think you can boil down to racism in many instances. Yeah, it's hard to know whether Whitkoff and Kushner are purposely sabotaging the

talks or just doing so by their total ignorance. And at the end of the day, I don't know that it makes a difference. I mean, just the idea that these two would show up with no experts, no understanding that they need experts. I mean, that seems like design. But again, I don't think that we can overestimate the level of incompetence in this administration. This guy who is president, you just see like what he's doing in this instance here with the kids. He's out of his mind. That doesn't mean that he's not capable of, well, he's not capable of tying his shoes.

I'm sure that he's not capable of doing that. But it doesn't mean he's not able to function. It just means that his decision making is completely off the charts with anything that might benefit a broader agenda than just what benefits him. Just play this towards the end there. Yeah. Trouble the world would be in trouble. So we just hit records on the Dow. It was supposed to be done in five or six years.

somebody said it couldn't be possible to reach 50 on the Dow, and I reached 50 in the first year. So there you go. And then I reached 7,000. And by the way, it just set a new record. The S&P just set a new record. It said much higher, 7,500. But they said even harder than 50 on the Dow is getting to 7,000 on the S&P. We did that by the end of the first year, all before the end of the first year.

Gary, so thinking that, they said we couldn't do it in four years, and we did it at the end of the first year. And then you ever have this? And then I said, I called all my people and I said, we just said every record in the book. The economy's going great. Pause it for a second. Don't take it down. He's like talking to the kids.

I know. He's complaining to the kids. And every one of them is looking at a different direction. Wow. I'm shocked. I got to say that Donald Trump, associate of Jeffrey Epstein, would be giving special attention to children in a room full of adults.

What else? and it ever ended a war. And the person that won the Nobel Prize, Maria, she's a great person, she said, I don't deserve this. This deserves the President Trump. There's never been a man that deserves the Nobel. He ended eight wars, including India, Pakistan,

which would have been a nuclear war. Eight of them. Pause it. And if you've had, if you've ever had a grandparent with dementia, you understand what these kids are feeling right now. Like, it's just like, what is going on here?

Well, you understand what, like, I guess that's Lindy. McMahon back there and RFK how many times do you think they've heard him say this exact same thing about the Dow? Right. But now he's somehow pivoted to the Nobel Peace Prize.

And the woman from Venezuela. Who? Noah Sindegarde. Former like Metz picture. Oh my God, that is Noah Sindergard. Yeah. I just keep on the back left there. Thor.

I called everybody in Gary and I said, you know what? We just broke every record. And now we're going to take a hit because we have to make a journey down to Iran to take the nuclear weapon. They would have had a nuclear weapon. Okay. Honestly, this is just too insane and too upsetting to see. In a moment, we're going to be talking to Amy Goodman, journalist, host of Democracy Now and subject of the new documentary. Steal this story, please.

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It is a real honor to welcome back to the program. I know, at least in some of the iterations of this show, a journalist host of Democracy Now. Subject of the new documentary, steal this story. Please, Amy Goodman, Amy, such an honor to have you here. It's great to be with you, Sam and Emma. I'm so honored myself. Let's just start. Now, I know, obviously, you were the subject of the documentary.

You did not make the documentary. The documentary was made by Oscar-nominated filmmakers, Carl Deal, and Tia Lesson. But the title of the documentary is both a reference to an Abby Hoffman book, I believe, but also sort of like the, I don't know. the central thesis of like your work in many respects. We just talk about that because, you know, and we'll talk more a little bit about the documentary as well, but speak to that. Well, it's really our motto, right?

I think an exclusive is a failure. If we're the only ones telling the story, what counts is that it's shared in the world. Steal this story, please. and whether we're talking about the standoff at Standing Rock in North Dakota, I thought when we went to cover this epic struggle that we'd be elbowing our way to the front with all the media there, because this was a big moment when Trump was running against Hillary Clinton, but the network reporters were not even asking them about climate change in the debates. And we were the only ones there.

So when the indigenous people took on the Dakota Access Pipeline, we videoed the dogs that were unleashed on the water protectors, their nose and mouth covered in blood. And we posted it online and suddenly the media did pick it up and it was broadcast around the world. Or most recently in Minneapolis, Al Yeraman. She is a young woman who, was driving her car to the doctor, which she did all the time. And she's disabled. She's autistic. And she was stopped by immigration agents. They ripped her out of the car as she was shouting, I'm disabled.

I'm disabled. Has a cane. And they said, too effing late. But they used the full word like the president of the United States does. And they ripped her out. They really hurt her, her shoulders, her tendons. They sent her off to the whipple detention. Center. When she got out, we had her on. Because, you know, our motto is to go to where the

silence is. And it's often not silent. It's raucous. It's rowdy. It just doesn't hit the corporate media radar screen. We are on the show. And she talked about what happened. And then Ilhan Omar, the Somali refugee congresswoman, the only one in the U.S. Congress who Trump calls garbage. I mean, he calls a whole Somali community garbage in Minneapolis. she invited Alia to the state of the union. And Alia was still ailing, but this was so important she felt to go. So she goes to stadium. When I heard that, I said, okay, we have to have you on again the day after. And she was in the galley next to, you know, all the congressmen invite people. So she was between a mayor, a guest of someone, and a police chief. And as all the Republicans were standing up, sitting down cheering, standing up, sitting down cheering, the longest speaking,

ever, right, that President Trump gave. And if it was a Democrat, it would have been the same, just the other party. When he started denigrating the people of Minneapolis, she stood up in silent witness. And she was dragged out again. And she was arrested and she went to jail. And we'd already invited her on, not knowing this stuff. She came on the show the next day. She said, I'm wearing the same clothes I wore to the State of the Union because I was just released from jail. And she told her story for the second time, not only in Minneapolis, but in the U.S. Congress, what happened to her. And then the New York Times, Washington Post, the networks all picked it up because she is telling her own story.

You know, Sam and Emma, I'm so sick of the pundits on all the networks who know so little about so much explaining the world to us and getting it so wrong that when you have an authentic voice, people care. And so everyone picked it up. This is so important to understand what is actually happening to real people that might be your cousin, your aunt, your uncle. You know, that's what we do. And we say, steal this story, please. Well, when you say might be your cousin, might be your uncle, I mean, what democracy now is so essential in doing is elevating voices who are often demonized or stereotyped. And often as a way in particular to manufacture consent for continued war, from the issue of Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people to your current coverage of that, to really more the beginning of your career where you went to East Timor, which is covered in the documentary, that's a consistent theme here. And I'd love if you could talk about your experience there in 1991 when you were covering

the Indonesian occupation of East Timor where over a 24 or 25 year period a third of the population was slaughtered you just ascribe in the documentary seeing a little boy explode behind you from gunfire you and your colleague were

beaten at the time and you had to bury the videotapes from the recordings that you got of this massacre in a mass grave and had to retrieve them later. I mean just talk about that experience. Well, this was 1991. Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and commenced

one of the great genocides of the late 20th century. December 7th, 1975, Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kittner, no, Gerald Ford. George. Kissinger. Yes, Ford and Kissinger. Went to Indonesia, and met with the long-reigning dictators Suharto. They gave the go-ahead for the invasion. They flew out to meet with Marcos. And Indonesia invaded by land by air and by sea, East Timor. And over the next 17 years, there was not a mention of East Timor and NBC, ABC, CBS.

Now there's more media in the world, but those were the big TV gatekeepers at the time. So this really matter. Until November 12th, 1991. So we went there. I went with my colleague, Alan Nairn, an award-winning journalist who is doing a piece for the New Yorker magazine. And a UN delegation was going to come to East Timor to investigate the human rights situation, a true hell on earth. But we later learned at the behest of the U.S., the delegation didn't come.

And so November 12th, people were just desperate. They had dropped out of workplaces, their homes. They'd gone into the Catholic churches of the country so they could speak to the delegation. Now they had no protection. When we had first arrived two weeks before, a young man named Sebastian Gomez had been killed on the steps of the church. And so this is the two-week commemoration on this day. They first went to Mass in Daly, the capital of East Timor. There were so many thousands of people.

The priests had to hold the communion outside. And then they marched to the cemetery where so many young and old were buried. And we followed them. We were talking to them saying, why are you risking your life? I was only doing radio at the time, interviewing them. And when we got to the cemetery, the Indonesian soldiers marched up 10 to 12 abreast, holding their USM 16s at the ready position. Alan and I decided to walk to the front of the crowd.

We always hit our equipment. I put my tape recorder in my bag. because people would be arrested or disappeared or killed if they were caught talking to journalists. Now I slung my tape recorder over my shoulder. I held up my microphone like a flag. Alan put the camera above his head. We walked to the front of the crowd. We knew they had committed other massacres.

But we thought maybe they wouldn't do it in front of Western journalists. They marched up. They swept around the corner past us. And without warning, hesitation or provocation, they opened fire on the crowd, gunning people down from right to left. We, they surround, a group of them surrounded us. They beat me to the ground. Alan threw himself on top of me to protect me.

They took their USM 16s, used them like baseball bats, slam them against his skull until they fractured it. So we're laying on the ground. Alan's covered in blood. They put the guns to our heads. They're screaming, Australia. They wanted to know if we were from Australia, about 300 miles away.

And we knew what that meant. They'd stripped us now of everything. When Indonesia invaded East Timor, there were five Australian journalists with, among other networks, Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC, and they put them up against a house and they executed them. They never had to pay a price for killing them. We believe because Indonesian Australia would later divide up the oil spoils and the Timor gap. Oil is a source of so much pain in the world. So as they stood there with their guns to our heads, we shouted, no, we're from America, America. I threw my passport at them. It says America.

And finally, they took the guns from our heads. We think because they would have to pay a price for killing us that they never had to pay for killing the Timorees. Their weapons were from the United States. They moved on. We got into a record. Red Cross Jeep that pulled up. Dozens of Timorese jumped on top of us to escape this killing field. We got to a hospital. The doctors and nurses started to cry when they saw us, not because we were in worse shape than the Timorese. The Indonesian military killed more than 270 Timorese on that day.

But the doctors and nurses cried because they see us as Americans in two ways. As the sword and the shield, the sword because all too often our country provides weapons. to human rights abusing regimes or uses them themselves, like in Iran. But also is the shield. They see Americans as we're the only ones who can tell our government not to give those weapons over. And that day, they saw that shield bloodied. We were able to get to the airport because we knew we couldn't stop the massacre there.

So if we could only get word to the outside world, that may be the killing. would stop. At the airport, we got onto the only plane that was leaving that day. We walked out onto the tarmac. The military was there. Alan was just had electric charges going through his body, and we had to stop. And I said, I want to stop because we couldn't let them know we were at the massacre site. I said, I just want to take a look at this beautiful country. And we got on the plane. When we got on the plane, the flight attendants gave me a silver bowl of water and said, clean him about Alan, because he was, the blood was now dripping down his neck. We got from East Timor to Bali, which is considered paradise, you know, on earth. It is a part of Indonesia. We got,

remember, continental airlines, we were able to get on that flight, flew to Guam, were able to get word to the outside world, a massacre has taken place, flew to the United States. When Alan got out of the hospital, he held a news conference of the National Press Club and said it was U.S. weapons that were used in this massacre. And, you know, a nationwide movement grew up the East Timor Action Network. I'm very sad to say a great activist who is very active in that John Miller just recently passed. But in 1999, the people of East Timor in a UN-sponsored referendum got to vote for their freedom. And as Indonesia burned the country to the outside, burned the country to the ground, East Timor, the Republic of Timor-Leste, became one of the newest nations in the world. And it really taught us,

as we stood there on the day that they celebrated their independence, that we have a decision to make every day, every hour of every day, whether we want to represent the sword or the shield. You know, I mean, I remember I was not in this business at that time, but I remember those reports of yours at that time. And I feel like that was also sort of the real beginning of people to see Henry Kissinger as a war criminal. I mean, that was like, you know, it's hard for me to assess by, you know, that time. I had just recently graduated college.

But that really seemed to be where people started to examine his giving. Sweto the green light on all of this. Of course, there was 1973, another September 11th, 1970. Yes. Messenger supported, as did Nixon at the time, the Allende forces coming to power in Chile, and of course, there was Cambodia. But I also wanted to correct one thing, Emma, when you said we dug the videotape in a

fresh grave. That was one other reporter, Max Stahl, who was there for Yorkshire TV. And as we were standing in the crowd, when the gunfire commenced, he was in the cemetery. And he then dug his videotape into a fresh grave knowing, and he was taken. But later that night, under the cover of darkness, he dug it up and he got it out of the country. And that's the videotape you see and steal this story, please, was Max's incredibly brave videotape of unbelievably brave people who were standing up to the occupation. And I can't encourage people to watch the documentary enough because it really, I mean, it does a great job capturing your work, but it also does a great job of capturing the work. And really, I think, provides an education on both.

stories that people may not be familiar with, but also that there are stories that they're not familiar with. And so both those dynamics are captured, as well as, and it was also great to see Jeremy Skehill that young. But so let me, let's turn from the movie and just sort of, you know, certainly my career in sort of like the, don't do exactly what you do, but I'm, you know, somewhere on that spectrum and much of it, you know, we relied a lot on democracy now, particularly in the early days, but things have changed, not necessarily for the better, but in the media landscape, on one end, it seems like hyper concentration, even though back in, you know, the early odds, there was already, you

know, we had, I think, we would say, like, there's only five or seven media companies, which was at that time appalling. Now there's like two or three. But there's also been sort of the internet and at least different perspectives and people through whether it's, it was blogs and now sort of substacks and through YouTube and Twitch and Instagram. What's your assessment of all that, or is it something that you are like, don't spend too much time focusing on because you have a lot of work to do it on a daily basis? I mean, it goes to steal this story, please. We don't expect people will just come to us.

We go to where people are. So we're on, you know, Instagram, we're on Facebook, we're on TikTok, we go anywhere people are because the stories are that important. And, you know, it's absolutely critical that we go to where the silence is. And it is not really quiet there. It's raucous. It's rowdy. People are organizing. It just doesn't hit the corporate media radar screen. And I don't say the mainstream media, because I don't think it's mainstream. I really do think that those who care about war and peace, those who care about the climate, the fate of the planet, those who care about in a Immigrant crackdown, reproductive rights, LGBTQ issues are not a fringe minority, not even a silent majority, but the silenced majority silenced by the corporate media, which is why we have to rebuild or build a new media system that is truly independent. I mean, that is critical.

I'm traveling the country with the directors, T. Lassen, and Carl D. as this film now has its theatrical release. And I really want to congratulate them because it has done the whole film festival circuit that started in Tell You Ride and won over, what, 15 awards, mainly audience-favored awards, from Santa Barbara to Santa Fe,

from Woodstock to St. Louis, Savannah, Georgia, to Oslo, the Human International Film Festival, and then won grand jury prizes. And now in the theatrical release, it is just astounding. We were in L.A. We always support public media where we go. We hold fundraisers, KPFK in Los Angeles, KPFA, the original Pacifica stations, WPFW and Washington. Oh, Howard University, PBS, because we're on 1,500 public television and radio stations around the country.

Democracy Now is and around the world. And we do Q&DN. after the film. We are headed right now. We're going to be in going down to Austin, then Minneapolis, then headed to Chicago. I'll be with Juan Gonzalez, who's been co-host for 30 years, and then to Milwaukee to the Oriental Theater on Sunday, and people can check the website at Stealhtstory.org where all the theaters are where we'll be. But we were in Baltimore at the Charles Theater on Saturday. night and we came up to the theater and there was um uh the devil wears prada too

and steal the story and a place was packed it's a beautiful theater oh and oh my god like everyone's going to be in the devil's prada and steal the stories can be empty and i walk in and everyone's saying oh we love demarchion i said really and you're going to see the devil wears prada that's so amazing they said what do you mean the devil wears prada we're going to see steal the story so the lines were for the story and I looked up and it said still the story sold out but you could still get tickets for the devil I really never thought actually I'd hear you talk about the devil wears proud of Amy but those words coming out of your mouth fascinating I do like Ann Hathaway yes it's fun it's fun and we we really we don't have too much time with you so I just wanted to make sure I

asked about your experience at the Dakota Access Pipeline here. Because as I mentioned to you before we brought you on air, this was really like, you know, the first thing I did in this field was I went there four or five times covering the standing rock protests. And I just remember some of these tactics. I mean, watching that part of the documentary, you know, the water cannons that were on protesters in frozen temperatures. I mean, the pipeline would buy up every room at the casino that was. was the only place you could stay nearby. And we would have to scramble to find rooms because they were buying up all the rooms so

journalists could not stay there. And I specifically remember how enormous that story was that you covered of the dogs that were stuck on the protesters and attack them. And these were dogs that were hired by private security that the pipeline had hired. And it was that footage that democracy now got that broke through. and then there was a warrant out for your arrest. So I guess if you could just reflect on that period and the attempt to criminalize your journalism during that time.

These protests were happening that we went there, Labor Day weekend. We're covering a protest on sacred burial ground of the standing Rock Sioux, girls, women, men, boys are in front of the bulldozers trying to stop them. They weren't supposed to be excavating that holiday weekend, and a judge was going to rule in a few days. And because they stood there, the bulldozers pulled back, these huge earth-crushing machines. And that's when they pulled out the dogs. They brought out the dogs.

But even though they were bitten, they were gassed. They were the whole thing. They kept moving forward. And finally, the bulldozers, the security guards with their dogs were all left. And we had the video. We showed it. There were in 24 hours, 14 million views on the website. And that's what everyone took.

A few days later, the judge was going to rule on Friday. On Thursday, I didn't know it, but, well, I did know that the governor called out the National Guard in preparation for the judge's decision on what he would do with the standing rock suit. I didn't know they issued an arrest warrant for me. So Friday, we did democracy now. And then me and Nermaine Sheikh, co-host a Macri Schnell, we raced to Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival. They were showing a film about I.F. Stone, the great muckraking journalist. He taught students, if you can remember two words, remember governments lie. If you can remember three words, remember all governments lie.

And they were using, talking about, you know, news organizations in the tradition of I have Stone in the film. So they asked us to do the Q&A. The next day, I'm in Toronto, and I'm speaking at University of Toronto, and on my phone, it says you're under arrest. That's when I learned. And I went, what is this? Some student must have hacked my phone, but so it was a North Dakota number. And I was very nervous. I mean, I didn't think I would be arrested right there. But since I had to go over the border back to United States, if you deal with FBI or the border patrol or police, that's when I could get arrested. I needed to beat the arrest warrant going over the border.

So I just looked up without saying anything in my speech and said, could someone call me a cab? And so I raced to the airport. I did make it back to New York. And I found out, in fact, this was true. And I didn't take it personally. I really thought the North Dakota authorities were sending a message to all journalists do not come to North Dakota. So we went back to challenge the charges. And as I flew in to two North Dakota,

Dakota to Bismarck. I called my North Dakota lawyer, not that I had one before. And I said to him, well, what's happened? He said, they're dropping the misdemeanor charge. I said, thank God. He said, they're elevating to felony. I said, what are you talking about? How much time do I have? They said, three days. You have to turn yourself in on Monday. I said, good. We'll cover the protest. And what kind of time do I face? And he said, oh, it's not terrible, like a year in jail. I said, I don't know about your life, but a year matters. So on Monday, my colleague. What was the charge?

Yes, it was inciting a riot, I think, or and trespassing. And I said, a one woman riot, me. First of all, I'm not that funny. So not a one woman riot. But what are we talking about? What I, what we did was capture what was happening on the ground. And if that causes people to rise up, that is not. That is what journalists do is to capture the image.

And we shouldn't have to get a record when we put something on the record. So my colleague Dennis Moynihan gets a broadcast truck. The show must go on. Monday morning, we did the show from across the street. We were looking at the courthouse, the jail, and the Ten Commandments in between. I interviewed Dave Archambault, the 45th chair of the Standing Rock Sioux at the time. I asked him, have you ever been arrested? You said, yes, for civil disability. I said, what happened? Because I was just about to turn myself in. He said, oh, I strip searched. I was putting in an orange

jumpsuit and I was jailed. I interviewed Dr. Sarah Jumping Eagle, the pediatrician on the standing Rock Reservation. I said, if you ever been arrested, she said, yes, same thing happened to her. Strip search, putting an orange jumpsuit and jailed. How much humiliation can a people take? And as the show ended, more and more Native Americans came to show solidarity and perform ceremonies. And then I got a call. I mean, this was on the homepage of the New York Times, Al Jazeera, BBC, Vogue magazine was covering. And you can see there is no reason to cover me. But it was getting attention.

And a host from North Dakota Public Radio called me, who would, been there forever and said, no way the judge is going to sign off on these charges, it's too much attention, you know, because a journalist was being arrested. So they didn't ultimately sign off on the charges. And I say, I don't like reality TV, but this is the kind when the media shines a spotlight in the right direction. It was not only me, Native Americans who were going to court that day facing felony and misdemeanor charges, they had their charges drop to. This is what happens when the media shines the spotlight in the right direction. And that's the kind of media we need, showing the reality of people's lives on the ground.

Amy Goodman, journalist, host of Democracy now subject of the new documentary. Steal this story, please. Such a pleasure. Would love to have you back soon. So much to talk to you about. But thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Emma. It's great to be with you all. And I catch that still the story, please. It's really an incredible documentary. And anyone who shows up at a theater, you open the door to the next theater because they all look at the theaters before. And they say, well, if they're selling out more than still more than the devil wears Prada, maybe we should open our theaters to them too. And we want to get out the word. It's so critical now when President Trump calls the media, the enemy of the people,

that we show a model of independent media that's based on the support of listeners, viewers, and readers that's truly independent. Amy Goodman, thanks so much again. We will put links to the film in our podcast and YouTube description and at majority.fm. Thanks again, Amy. Thank you. All right, folks. That's it for us today in terms of the free show. Just a reminder, it's your support that makes this show possible.

You can become a member at Join the Majority Report.com. When you do, you only get a free show free of commercials, but you also get the fun half and you can I. I.M. Us. The film really is great. She says that she's not funny. First of all, that one woman riot joke was funny. And she's funny in the documentary as well. I just wanted to point out that in the break

She recognized me by name Even though it's not up there So I feel fairly Oh, you really strut her out like a peacock She can't see it in the pink thing Oh damn I thought it was literary hangover Okay well anyway

She knew me But I'm glad you point out of it By the way I did that innocently I should not have said that I could just let you Feel like she recognized you Yeah That was mean

She did say hard Ryan was pissed Because she didn't say anything goodbye and she did say hi to me. Yeah. Well, if she recognized me, it would be from our humiliating exchange we had at the IFC Center where I failed miserably with trying to bond with her. Oh, that's why there was a frosty atmosphere.

Yeah, exactly. There's the guy who pretended he saw the movie. I have both seen Amy get arrested, which is really funny. Oh, yes. I guess that's true. No, I wasn't there for that, but I wasn't. No, no, we came. I think we, that story, though, causes us to fly back in after that had happened.

We went back to, it's all, you know, it's a little while ago, and I forget exactly, but we weren't there for that now. Yeah. Also, just coffee.coop, fair trade coffee, hot chocolate, use the coupon code majority, get 10% off. Co-op coffee. I will just quickly say that there are a few people that we can interview that make me. like almost slightly emotional because of how cool it is but I get to talk to them. I mean, she's up there.

She's up there. It was like Naomi Klein getting to interview her for the first time was a big deal and then Amy Goodman. Amy Goodman and Air America were pretty important to me when I was in the military. I mean, we... Not your show. Amy, not so much.

But democracy now was really a, in many ways, like a bit of a rudder for us in when we first started out. Janine and I had no idea what we were doing. And much of like what we did, we tried to sort of in many respects emulate, obviously not the same thing, but as a rudder, it certainly was very, very influential on us both. Also, Matt, apparently you scored a huge get

this week too. Yeah, Emma is going to be on left reckoning right after the show. Today, we talk about daily wire layoffs, interesting stuff, curry clip. I mean, it's really, you guys, Sam and Brian would have been invited to, but we decided to keep it to the people whose basketball teams win their series. Wow. Oh, basketball, basketball, okay. Yeah, no, I know what you're talking about now.

Is that well happening right now? It is, actually. It's pretty amazing. Still going on the season? Really? It's actually just heating up for a lot of the contending teams. I deserve this for raining on here.

Amy Goodman Parade. I don't. That is coming up in just about 100 minutes of Rond the Left Reckoning YouTube channel. Go check that out. And follow me on Instagram

at Matt Leck. I am closing in, fast approaching 10,000 followers. Oh, me too. I actually have no idea what my followers are. You don't post anything. I feel like I did. I think I did the other day.

You think you did? Yes. You think you did what? Posted. I think. Oh, you posted? I'm not 100% sure. Let's make sure you know what posting is so you don't make a huge mistake.

I know that I like redid something that somebody. You reposted something. Yeah. Wow. I redid it. Well, Brian was supposed to teach me how to use Instagram. like literally four months ago. Well, it doesn't have that you bolt out of here

like you're in starting blocks after the show. You're supposed to be on top of it. You've really dropped the ball. What are I supposed to show over your door? I mean, look. You're supposed to do a walk and talk with him as he's leaving the building. We bring on Amy Goodman to inspire you.

Did you see the way that she chased down some of those people in the film? Yeah. Same way I chased her down for this interview. Okay. See you in the fun house. Half. Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now.

And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now. But I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on. Hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program. Fun hack.

Matt. Who? Fun. What is up, everyone? Fun pack. No, me, Keen. You did it. Fun pack.

Let's go Brandon. Let's go Brandon. Fun pack. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappointment. Everyone, I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false.

No, I'm sorry. Women's... Stop talking for a second. Let me finish. Where is this coming from, dude? But dude, you want to smoke this? Seven, eight. Yes

Yes It is you Make it is you Who is you No sound Every single Fricking day What's on your mind

We can discuss free markets And we can discuss capitalism I'm gonna go Libertarians They're so stupid though Common sense says of course Gobble de gook We fucking nailed him

So what's 79 plus 21 Challenge men I'm positively clivering I believe 96 I want to say 857, 210, 301, 1 half, 3-8s, 9-11 for instance, $3,400, $1,900, $6,5,4, $3 trillion sold. It's a zero-sum game.

Actually, you're making me think less. But let me say this. Hoop. You can call it satire, Sam goes satire. On top of it all, my favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we've seen you.

It's just the week being weeded out, obviously. Yeah, sundown guns out. But you should know. People just don't like to entertain ideas anyway. I have a question. Who cares? Is enabled, folks. I love it.

I do love that. Got to jump. I got to be quick. I get a jump. I'm losing it, bro. 10 o'clock, we're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulah?

Outrage. Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye. Love you. Bye-bye.