‘Democracy Now!’ host to speak at GJR First Amendment celebration March 29

Gateway Journalism Review will once again play host to a First Amendment celebration on March 29. There will be a social at 6 p.m. Dinner will be served at 7 p.m., with the program following. The event will be at the Edward Jones Headquarters, located at 12555 Manchester Road in Des Peres, Mo. Longtime St. Louis publisher Ray Hartmann will serve as the master of ceremonies. Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now!” will be the keynote speaker.

Tickets are $150 per person. Gateway Journalism Review will be offering a special student rate for high school and college student journalists. Tickets for students are $100. In addition to attending the social, dinner and primary speaking event, students will have the opportunity to meet with Goodman in a special session. The student mentoring session will be at 4 p.m. in the Edward Jones headquarters.

If you would like to purchase tickets please email us at gatewayjr@siu.edu.

For more information about Goodman, please read the following official biography from the www.democracynow.org website:

Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on over 1,100 public television and radio stations worldwide. Time Magazine named Democracy Now! its “Pick of the Podcasts,” along with NBC’s Meet the Press.

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.” She is the first co-recipient of the Park Center for Independent Media’s Izzy Award, named for the great muckraking journalist I.F. Stone. The Independent of London called Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! “an inspiration.” PULSE named her one of the 20 Top Global Media Figures of 2009.

Goodman’s fifth book, The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope, written with Denis Moynihan, rose to #11 on The New York Times bestseller list. This timely follow-up to her fourth New York Times bestseller, Breaking the Sound Barrier, gives voice to the many ordinary people standing up to corporate and government power. She co-authored the first three bestsellers with her brother, journalist David Goodman:Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times (2008),Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back (2006) and The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them (2004). She writes a weekly column (also produced as an audio podcast) syndicated by King Features, for which she was recognized in 2007 with the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Reporting.

Goodman has received the American Women in Radio and Television Gracie Award; the Paley Center for Media’s She’s Made It Award; and the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. Her reporting on East Timor and Nigeria has won numerous awards, including the George Polk Award, Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award. She has also received awards from the Associated Press, United Press International, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Project Censored. Goodman received the first ever Communication for Peace Award from the World Association for Christian Communication. She was also honored by the National Council of Teachers of English with the George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language.

Goodman has an honorary doctorate from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.