Radio and TV show host Amy Goodman has no shortage of opinions and does plenty of talking, but she says what she likes to do best is listen.

Amy Goodman Age: 47 Residence:New York City Occupation: Journalist, host of daily TV-Radio news show "Democracy Now!" and author of "The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers and the Media That Love Them." In the news: She is coming to Pittsburgh Thursday to receive the Thomas Merton Award 2004. Education: Bachelor's degree in anthropology, Harvard University Quote: "The role of media is to go to where the silence is, to open that microphone for someone who is not usually heard." Family: Single

She has been called "combative and even disrespectful" by no less than former President Bill Clinton. But she arrived at WBAI -- a Pacifica Radio station -- as a listener and listening is what holds her after more than 20 years in journalism, she said in an interview last week.

Goodman will be in Pittsburgh Thursday to accept the Thomas Merton Award and to talk about her book, "The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers and the Media That Love Them," written with her brother, David Goodman.

Amy Goodman and her three brothers grew up in Long Island, the children of activist parents; their father was a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and their mother taught women's studies and was a social worker. Goodman was home-schooled in confronting resistance to unpopular stands when she accompanied her father, who was on a task force to integrate the local schools, to meetings.

"When I was in fifth grade, he would go to cafeterias in grade schools with a thousand people screaming at him," Goodman said. She listened to her father's judiciousness and persistence in dealing with the issue.

She attended public schools, then went to Harvard University, taking time off to live in Maine, and completed her undergraduate degree in anthropology on the nine-year plan.

She returned home and "that's when I heard WBAI, I heard Pacifica Radio, and it determined my life's work. I was completely riveted," she said. "There was nothing slick about this radio station, no one was trying to sell you anything. It was just talking about real life -- people talking about real life."

She had been an editor of her high school newspaper and worked on publications in college, but for her, the power of radio was something else.

"There's something about the raw communication from the mouth to the ear, just hearing someone speak, it's more than just words they're uttering, it's the dialect, the silences between the words, whether they cry, or gasp. ... It's so pure," said Goodman.

She was planning to take some courses in the city, and it turned out that a producer from WBAI taught a documentary course she signed up for.

"He said I could apprentice with him, he took me over to the station. That was 20 years ago," she said.

She got involved in news, and later became news editor.

In 1996, she started "Democracy Now!" At that time it was the only daily election show on the air, she said.

It caught on and the station continued it. It grew from being carried on a few stations right before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to nearly 300.

Goodman's overarching theme is that "our media largely acts as a megaphone for those in power." She's firmly planted on the left, but that doesn't stop her from taking on politicians and news media of all stripes.

"We need the media to be a check and balance. That's why our profession is the only one explicitly protected by Constitution," she said.

The media has largely failed, she said.

"The corporate media leaves a huge amount of space to occupy. Even though they're the ones who can afford to do so much more, they rely on this small circle of pundits who know so little about so much. Even The New York Times -- before the [Iraq] war, over and over, above the fold, [wrote about] 'weapons of mass destruction.' We have to challenge the entire embedding process, not to be [the] most powerful weapon of the Pentagon."

In recent years, the show has moved to television, and Goodman wrote "Exceptions to the Rulers" as her indictment of journalists. She has been touring the country since April, promoting the book and speaking to her listeners, for whom, said co-host Juan Gonzalez, she's "an icon."

Gonzalez, who also writes for the New York Daily News, called her "the hardest worker I ever met. She literally never sleeps. She wears everyone out."

Jeremy Scahill, now a producer and reporter for "Democracy Now!" begged and wheedled his way into the offices of WBAI seven years ago, ready to wash windows if necessary in order to work at the show he had been listening to regularly since arriving in New York.

He found an office the size of a janitor's office and an opportunity he'd never expected.

"Amy really didn't know me from Adam, but within a few days of being around her she showed this incredible confidence in me. It was such an empowering time, to have someone I looked up to do this," Scahill said.

"Within two weeks, she had pulled two all-nighters with me helping me edit a piece. She stayed up two straight nights in a row to help me edit a six-minute audio piece, and let me do the piece."

Though she's known as combative and can talk a blue streak, Goodman said that "I've always been pretty shy. I prefer listening. That's what I get to do every day. That's the power of 'Democracy Now!' -- it's providing a forum."

Gonzalez agreed.

"Amy's a pretty intense person," he said. "But when she has guests on, she really does let them have time to express their viewpoints. I think the listeners appreciate it -- on so much of radio and television, you rarely hear a full sentence. To hear a few paragraphs is refreshing."

Goodman wants to keep the talking, and the listening, going.

"The media should be a huge kitchen table that stretches across this country, that we all sit around and discuss most important issues of the day -- anything less is a disservice," she said.