‘Steal This Story, Please!’: Powerhouse Journalist Amy Goodman once again gives us a reason to think big

Editor’s note: This is an editorial piece. An editorial, like a news article, is based on fact but also shares opinions. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and are not associated with our newsroom.

SALT LAKE CITY — Many journalists revere her, some politicians and countries fear her, but she is looking for the truth and will do anything to find it, put a light on it and force the masses to see what isn’t being shown. In the documentary, “Steal This Story Please!,” they follow Democracy Now! reporter Amy Goodman.

Amy has won the George Polk Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, the Right Livelihood Award (widely known as the Alternative Nobel Prize — the first journalist ever to receive it), the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence Lifetime Achievement Award from Harvard’s Nieman Foundation, the Thomas Merton Award, the Gandhi Peace Award, the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship, the Society for Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for Excellence, the American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Award, the Paley Center for Media’s She’s Made It Award, the Park Center for Independent Media’s Izzy Award, and the first-ever Communication for Peace Award from the World Association for Christian Communication.

She has also received honors from the Associated Press, United Press International, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Project Censored.

Cameras followed her as she traveled to East Timor. She believes strongly that the news is where the people are — on the streets, in the villages, and where most journalists and news companies will not venture.

In 1991 she proved that in the most terrifying way possible. Traveling to East Timor with fellow journalist Allan Nairn to cover the Indonesian occupation, she found herself in the middle of one of the most horrifying moments of her career. Indonesian soldiers, armed with American-made weapons, opened fire on a peaceful crowd of unarmed Timorese civilians gathered at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili.

More than 270 people were killed. Amy and Allan were beaten badly by soldiers on the ground. She has said she believes the only thing that saved her life that day was her American passport — the United States was supplying the Indonesian military at the time.

An entire population was being wiped out, and the world was not watching. Amy Goodman made sure they did.

The clear intention of this documentary is to show how the rights and access for journalists has changed over the past 30 years. She shows how each administration has moved back and forth on how news, journalists and coverage should be handled.

Over the past several years she has been arrested multiple times simply for doing her job — most notably at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she and two of her producers were detained, and again in 2016 while covering the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in North Dakota, where she faced criminal trespass and riot charges.

All charges were ultimately dropped or dismissed. She sued and won. The message was clear — you cannot silence Amy Goodman.

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This review may seem more like a book report, and that is because Goodman has made her mark on history.

Outside of the news realm, I am not sure how many people have heard of her and what she has accomplished simply by asking questions, not following the social norms in journalism, and fighting for the rights of others — even when it makes her unpopular and annoying in some people’s eyes.

My hope is that you watch “Steal This Story, Please!”, take a notebook with you, then go home and Google anything you never knew.

I spent a better part of two hours researching after I watched. Now saying that, this documentary is one-sided and only shows Goodman in a good light — her hard work and how many people look up to her. She fights the good fight, and this is one of those documentaries.

You do see presidents, politicians, police, and citizens get aggressive with her, just as she gets pushy with them. She believes in the rights of journalists to have one hundred percent access to everything. Whether or not you agree with that, you will question it.

I believe this entire documentary should have you questioning how far the reach of the press should go. Who gets to make the call on what the news and press should cover and can cover? Do we need independent press and influencers more and more these days? You should be questioning your beliefs the entire time.

This does run a little long, and that is why I did not give it a higher grade. Saying that, I do enjoy the personal touches of her family, background, and why she makes the choices she makes.

“Steal This Story Please!” (B) Not Rated (NR). Subject: Amy Goodman. Directed by: Tia Lessin and Carl Deal Written by Robert Machoian. Executive Producers: Jane Fonda, Rosario Dawson, Tom Morello. Studio: Participant / IFC Films. Running time: 1 hour and 38 minutes.

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