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AMY GOODMAN: Welcome to Democracy Now! - democracynow.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Amy Goodman created Democracy Now! in 1996 on New York City's independent radio station WBAI. Now, the hourlong program of journalism and progressive commentary airs worldwide every morning online, in addition to the public and community stations that have carried it for three decades. Amy Goodman is now the subject of a documentary independently distributed naturally and selling out its last screenings before it streams in the fall. NPR's Mandalit del Barco has more.

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: Amy Goodman is always on the move, always asking questions. That's what the film captures, even in the opening scene as she pursues Donald Trump's climate adviser, Wells Griffith, during the 2018 United Nations climate summit.

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GOODMAN: Can you tell us what you think about President Trump saying climate change is a hoax? Can - you can answer the question. Are you not speaking to the press here?

DEL BARCO: He tries to dodge her.

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WELLS GRIFFITH: Excuse - I'm sorry, running late for a meeting. Thanks.

GOODMAN: Right. But you weren't running late when you were just standing there. So...

DEL BARCO: Goodman doesn't give up. She runs after him upstairs and down corridors until he ducks behind a locked door. The documentary shows Goodman questioning other people in power and also talking with people on the ground during times of social and political unrest.

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GOODMAN: It came from my Jewish education that you ask questions.

Sharif, can you talk about what's happened on the Gaza Strip?

From ground zero.

From East Timor.

As we deplane in Haiti.

From Georgia's death row prison.

JANE FONDA: She's fearless. Oh, my God. I was in awe watching the film. It shows her just relentless.

DEL BARCO: Actress and activist Jane Fonda told NPR. She was so impressed with the documentary she signed on to be an executive producer. Fonda says Democracy Now! is a vital alternative media outlet.

FONDA: I bow before Amy Goodman. She has been so important to American democracy, showing people what independent journalism looks like. It takes courage. That's Amy Goodman. It takes stamina. That's Amy Goodman.

DEL BARCO: The film was made by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, known for their collaborations with director Michael Moore. Over the years, Goodman had interviewed the duo about their award-winning films such as "Trouble The Water" and "The Janes." For this documentary, they focus their camera on Goodman and her career.

TIA LESSIN: We started making it in earnest after the president, in his first term, proclaimed that the press was the enemy of the people, which was just outrageous and chilling.

DEL BARCO: Lessin says they wanted to shadow the work of the investigative journalist who's faced criticism, attacks and arrests for her reporting.

LESSIN: She calls us her two Academy Award-nominated stalkers. Off I went chasing after Amy Goodman as she chased after the politicians, the billionaires.

CARL DEAL: We went from being filmmaker and subject to chasing Amy and just trying to keep up.

LESSIN: In fact, we were going to call the film "Chasing Amy" at one point, but the title was taken.

DEL BARCO: Instead, they called it "Steal The Story, Please!" in part, a send-up of Abbie Hoffman's revolutionary handguide "Steal This Book." More specifically, the film's title is taken from one of Democracy Now!'s missions - steal this story, to dare other media outlets to cover the stories they do. The film includes 30 years of archival footage from Democracy Now! including Goodman facing down soldiers in Nigeria and reporting on Native Americans protesting an oil pipeline in North Dakota. In one harrowing account from 1991, Goodman recounts how she and reporter Allan Nairn were eyewitnesses to a massacre by Indonesian troops during a memorial procession in East Timor.

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GOODMAN: Without any warning, the military opened fire on the protesters. They put the guns to our heads.

DEL BARCO: Goodman recalls how soldiers killed hundreds of pro-independence demonstrators and severely beat her and Nairn, leaving him with a fractured skull. Their reporting sparked international outrage and helped propel Goodman's career. Some of her critics call her a left-wing activist, but to her supporters, Goodman's journalism is uncompromising, rooted in her refusal to take any government funding, corporate sponsorship, underwriting or advertising revenue for her show.

DAVE ISAY: You know, you don't mess with Amy Goodman.

DEL BARCO: Radio producer Dave Isay, who appears in the film, is familiar to NPR audiences. He created StoryCorps, the oral history project that airs on Morning Edition. When we meet up in Brooklyn, Isay tells me Goodman is one of a kind.

ISAY: I don't agree with all of Amy's politics. I agree with some of them, but you can't help but respect the spirit and the conviction in someone like Amy, who has such a strong moral compass. And she'll take any risk. She'll climb any mountain. She's an old-school, hard-nosed, tough journalist.

DEL BARCO: Isay says he owes much of his career to Goodman. He ditched med school to go into radio after she encouraged him to pursue a story other news outlets rejected. Goodman has mentored many other journalists, too. In fact, Isay and I both met her in the late 1980s at the Pacifica Radio Station in New York, where she produced the evening news.

Oh, my God.

At the Democracy Now! studio in Manhattan, my editor, Matteen, and I meet up with Goodman, who I had not seen in years.

You're the one who taught me how to cut tape on reel-to-reel...

GOODMAN: Oh, my God.

DEL BARCO: ...To edit and splice back in the day. WBAI.

GOODMAN: Of course. And, I mean, Mandalit. I can't even believe this that you're here.

DEL BARCO: Goodman sits down to talk to us about her brand of journalism without the typical pundits.

GOODMAN: To hear original thinkers talking about how we deal with the huge problems of the world. This is what independent media looks like, as the corporate media both crumbles and consolidates.

DEL BARCO: For decades, she's focused on political and social movements around the globe.

GOODMAN: Those who care about war and peace, who care about racial and economic justice, who care about LGBTQ issues and the anti-immigrant crackdown, who care about climate change, the fate of the planet, are not a fringe minority, not even a silent majority. It's raucous. It's rowdy. People are organizing. It just doesn't hit the corporate media radar screen.

DEL BARCO: Goodman is very private, so to agree to star in a film about her life and work was a stretch.

GOODMAN: It was extremely awkward for me. It was a personal sacrifice, but I feel independent media is so important to get the word out. I said yes to these two stalkers in my life. But after all, they were so remarkable themselves, it was a small price to pay.

DEL BARCO: After an hour, Goodman has to run to catch a flight, on tour with the film at film festivals and community gatherings. She's been on the road at sold-out screenings with proceeds donated to local community radio and TV stations. As we dash with her down 7th Avenue, she gushes about her dog Zazu, a cuddly Shih Tzu Bichon she brings with her everywhere.

GOODMAN: Zazu. She's my news hound, leading paparazzi of our day.

DEL BARCO: Before rushing into the subway, Goodman urges us to visit a nearby landmark once home to famous artists, musicians and writers.

GOODMAN: The residents traded their paintings for rent for decades. This is where Patti Smith lived. And if you go into the back of the cafe, it's a picture of Roy Cohn.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Oh, wow.

GOODMAN: And you see his car. It's incredible. You can ask for that picture. Tell them Amy Goodman said hi.

DEL BARCO: It turns out one of the most well-known journalists of our time is also an unofficial tour guide of the Chelsea Hotel.

Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

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