Background
Democracy Now!, also called ''Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report, Democracy Now Independent Global News, or Democracy News, was founded on February 19, 1996, at WBAI in New York City by journalists Amy Goodman, Juan González, Larry Bensky, Salim Muwakkil, and Julie Drizin.[13] It originally aired on five Pacifica Radio stations.[1] Goodman is the program's principal host, with Juan González and Nermeen Shaikh as frequent co-hosts.[12] Jeremy Scahill, an investigative reporter and co-founding editor for The Intercept'' and Drop Site News,[14] has been a frequent contributor since 1997.[1]
The show covered the Seattle protests (1999) targeting the World Trade Organization.
Democracy Now! partnered with Free Speech TV (FSTV) and Deep Dish Television to cover the 2000 Democratic National Convention.[15] The event marked a turning point for Democracy Now!, as in addition to its presence on radio, it became a television show.[16] From then onward, Democracy Now! has had their content promoted and broadcast on FSTV.[17]
Democracy Now! began broadcasting on television every weekday shortly after September 11, 2001, and is the only public medium in the U.S. that airs simultaneously on satellite and cable television, radio, and the internet.[18]
Democracy Now! has been critical of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.[19] After data disclosures by the whistleblower organization WikiLeaks regarding the TPP in 2010, Democracy Now! has given a significant media platform and extensively covered them since, and like some other news networks cooperated with its leader Julian Assange.[20] Coverage of WikiLeaks by Democracy Now! was sympathetic.[21]
In 2011, reporter Sharif Abdel Kouddous covered the Egyptian revolution for Democracy Now!.[22]
On February 19, 2016, Democracy Now! marked 20 years on the air with an hour-long retrospective look back at "two decades of independent, unembedded news", with highlights chosen from over 5,000 episodes.[23] Amy Goodman also published a book entitled Democracy Now!: 20 Years Covering the Movements Changing America,[24] and launched a 100-city tour across the United States to mark the 20th anniversary of Democracy Now!, with scheduled broadcasts of the show recorded during her travels.[25]
Studios
Democracy Now! began as a radio program broadcast from the studios of WBAI, a local Pacifica Radio station in New York City. In early September 2001, amid a months-long debate over the mission and management of Pacifica, Democracy Now! was forced out of the WBAI studios. Goodman took the program to the Downtown Community Television Center located in a converted firehouse building in New York City's Chinatown, where the program began to be televised.[26][27] Only a few days later on September 11, 2001 Democracy Now! was the closest national broadcast to Ground Zero. On that day Goodman and colleagues continued reporting beyond their scheduled hour-long time slot in what became an eight-hour marathon broadcast. Following 9/11, in addition to radio and television, Democracy Now! expanded their multimedia reach to include cable, satellite radio, Internet, and podcasts.[26]
In November 2009, Democracy Now! left their broadcast studio in the converted DCTV firehouse, where they had broadcast for eight years, and moved to a repurposed graphic arts building in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
