Breaking the Sound Barrier [Paperback]

Amy Goodman (Author), Bill Moyers (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this collection of her best online columns, award-winning investigative journalist Goodman showcases a broad knowledge of history and a carefully considered point-of-view, left-leaning but driven by principles rather than party affiliation. A talk radio host and columnist, Goodman takes an anti-establishment stance that eschews experts and sound bites to get to the center of highly charged stories: illegal detention of journalists at the 2008 Republican National Convention, murder by the thousands in East Timor, silver-tongued politicians and executives caught in lies, and more. Fans may be disappointed that no new material has been included, but those unfamiliar with Goodman's work will discover a bold voice that refuses to mince words regardless of the topic or target, along with a wealth of behind-the-headlines reporting.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

"Amy Goodman has taken investigative journalism to new heights of exciting, informative, and probing analysis."—Noam Chomsky

"You can learn more of the truth about Washington and the world from one week of Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! than from a month of Sunday morning talk shows. Make that a year of Sunday talk shows. That's because Amy, as you will discover on every page of this book, knows the critical question for journalists is how close they are to the truth, not how close they are to power."—From the Preface by Bill Moyers

Amy Goodman, award-winning host of the daily internationally broadcast radio and television program Democracy Now!, breaks through the corporate media's lies, sound bites, and silence in this wide-ranging new collection of articles. In place of the usual suspects—the "experts" who, in Goodman's words, "know so little about so much, explain the world to us, and get it so wrong"—this accessible, lively collection allows the voices the corporate media exclude and ignore to be heard loud and clear. From community organizers in New Orleans, to the courageous American soldiers who've said "No" to Washington's wars, to the victims of torture and police violence, we are given the extraordinary opportunity to hear ordinary people standing up and speaking out. Written with all of the fierce intelligence and passion for truth that millions have come to expect from Amy Goodman's reportage, Breaking the Sound Barrier proves the power that independent journalism can play in the struggle for a better world, one in which ordinary citizens are the true experts of their own lives and communities.

Amy Goodman is an award-winning investigative journalist and syndicated columnist, author and the host/executive producer of Democracy Now! airing on nearly 800 stations worldwide. Goodman is the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize' for "developing an innovative model of truly independent grassroots political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media.". Goodman is the co-author with her brother, journalist David Goodman, of three New York Times bestsellers: Standing Up to the Madness, Static, and The Exception to the Rulers.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: Haymarket Books; First Edition edition (October 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193185999X
• ISBN-13: 978-1931859998
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #64,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

  #9 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Communication > Media & Politics
  #69 in	Books > Reference > Writing > Journalism

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keep Breaking The Sound Barrier, October 27, 2009

By	Michael Anthony "Michael Anthony" (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breaking the Sound Barrier (Paperback)

There is one line throughout this book that sticks with me, and which I think, sums up the tone of this book.

"Each person is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."

From climate change, race, election, and media, to everything else in between.
I found Amy's reading short, sweet, and to the point, the political leanings were sown into the writing--which was expected--but more than anything, I got a history lesson from this book.

The best analogy that I can think of (and this might be horrible, let me know?) but imagine if Howard Zinn were a reporter, and instead of reporting the facts of the real history several hundred years ago, but instead was doing it day by day, as it happened.


"Nothing but the facts ma'am" and Amy delivers!

Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amy Goodman's Democracy Now, February 8, 2010

By	The Big Al - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Breaking the Sound Barrier (Paperback)

Amy Goodman, whose Democracy Now! says it all and says it well, collects bits of work in this anthology. It's a perfect introduction to a woman whose passion is for social justice. I recommend it highly. It's articulate, detailed, and persuasive. It's not funny, though: Goodman could use the bite of a sense of humor at times. Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," for example, was a short essay whose satire even today still takes to court the Brits who mistreated the Irish. Still, she's always on target and takes down her prey not with rhetoric or propaganda but with truth telling.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breaking the Sound Barrier by Amy Goodman, November 19, 2009

By	A. S. Carbonell - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breaking the Sound Barrier (Paperback)

Amy Goodman is one of those few journalists not on the payroll of the corporate media giants nor "embedded' with the military-industrial complex. As a result, she write with a freshness and integrity that is unfettered by ideological bias, political clichés, or the myths common to American civics classes, business school s and military academies. Like Arundhati Roy, Michael Hogan and Noam Chomsky she is able to show through carefully documented facts how the so-called experts on Fox and CNN consistently get it wrong, and why their getting it wrong is no accident.

I just finished reading Arundhati Roy's Field Notes on Democracy and Michael Hogan's Savage Capitalism and the Myth of Democracy. I noticed that they had both been "paired" with Goodman's Breaking the Sound Barrier, and the reason for this is obvious. All three books are written by clear-thinking citizens with no axe to grind, no ties to any ideology or corporate entity. They were written by Socratic "gadflies" and by their relentless questioning they bring back to the rest of us in the cave an alternative view of the world which is both troublesome and oblique--like the truth. Without Any Goodman and her few companions in courage, my view of the world would be a very bleak and befuddled one, like that of the million viewers and listeners of the mass media and the readers of Sarah Palin.