Democracy Now! Perhaps In the Future, As Well!

Founded in 1996, Democracy Now! has consistently spent the 26 years of its syndication maintaining its focus on the principles of its inception.  Utilizing the investigative journalism, reporting, and interviewing talents of a now award-winning group of core journalists, the radio show-turned multimedia newscast has become somewhat of a pioneer of independent nonprofit and consumer-funded viability within the journalistic media space.

While its supporters and critics alike describe its reporting as progressive, the company’s co-founder and executive producer/host Amy Goodman has rejected that term.  The site’s own staff profile, however, exalts the company’s team as including “some of this country's leading progressive journalists who've garnered dozens of awards for their ground-breaking work in radio and print journalism”.  Many attribute this refutation as an effort to attract a more politically neutral audience, going the way of media powerhouse, NPR. 

Indeed, Democracy Now! enjoys syndication on many of NPR’s member stations in addition to being the flagship show of Pacifica Radio network.  The company simulcasts its daily hour-long radio program to television as well as the internet accruing a sizeable viewership and listener base which includes a monthly YouTube viewership of over 2.74 million views per month.

Democracy Now Productions, the parent company which produces the flagship namesake program, famously accepts no advertising (that would be YouTube graciously doing it in their stead), corporate funding, or government funding.  It opts instead to utilize a contribution-based model, receiving funding from viewers, listeners, and various foundations.  Such foundations include the Park Foundation, historically the Ford Foundation, and Lannan Foundation as some of the largest contributors; foundations which, in their own way, align with many of the principles of the company’s message and mission—the Ford Foundation perhaps sticking out as most dubious. 

The Park Foundation derives its philanthropic funds from the estate of Roy H. Park, best known for his founding of packaged food giant, Duncan Hines (named for a food critic of the same name who lent his support for the line of packaged goods).  His daughter and son split the inheritance of his original philanthropic estate over political disagreements.  Dorothy Park’s half of the resulting split—The Park Foundation—remains loyal to liberal and environmental causes (particularly anti-fracking movements), as well as education.

The Ford Foundation is somewhat surprisingly removed from its origin company.  Henry Ford II, son of founder Edsel Ford, shockingly removed himself from the board of trustees in 1976, citing “anti-capitalist undertones” in the foundation’s work.  In researching the foundation’s fund allocations, the majority of its efforts hold in line with that of Democracy Now Productions, including environmental activism, civil rights causes, and educational initiatives of feminist ideology.  That is not to say it aligns perfectly, as frequent guest of the show, writer and activist Arundhati Roy, has herself criticized the foundation’s involvement in imperialistic efforts of the U.S. government during the Cold War.  The foundation has significantly lessened its funding over time.

The Lannan Foundation is renowned for its rich literary prizes in which it distributes to emerging and established writers.  It’s support of Democracy Now lends a weight to the integrity of the reporting done by its journalists.  Writers such as David Foster Wallace, William Gaddis, as well as Arundhati Roy and another prominent and frequent guest of the show, Noam Chomsky, have all been awarded prizes and fellowships.

Individual donors range from climate and political activists such as Michael E. Mann or Jeffrey Shaun King, to political personalities one might expect to see such as Rachel Maddow and Vanita Gupta, all the way down to individuals one might not expect, such as Andrew Cuomo and Abigail Disney (yes, that Disney).

In the company’s statements about their editorial independence and uncompromised reporting by any corporate or governmental interest, one would have to conclude that they have rang true to that mission.

The question of their NPR-ification, of not touting their progressive leftism publicly, leaves one to wonder if the creeping death of public radio is on the mind of the company.  As NPR itself has learned of late, most listeners are not actively supporting public radio and instead opt for subscription-based support for their favorite media. 

This can be a sticking point for progressive liberal media, which sees a much larger political divide on the left than their conservative counterparts.  These are realms in which programs viewed as far left-leaning and progressive enjoy a much less enthusiastic market than shows like NPR’s which sell themselves on being cold-hard fact-driven, impartial arbiters of news.  It will be interesting to see how a model such as Democracy Now!’s will sustain into the rapidly-changing future of media.