`Democracy Now! 'Co-Host Amy Goodman Raised Her Annual Salary to $148,000 In 2011

In early 2009, the majority of people who work at straight jobs in the United States were paid annual salaries of less than $50,000. Yet according to its Form 990 financial filing for 2011, the co-host and president of the Lannan Foundation and Park Foundation-subsidized Democracy Now! Productions Inc. alternative media group, Amy Goodman, apparently paid herself an annual salary of $148, 493 in 2011.

Although Goodman's Democracy Now! Productions Inc. alternative media firm is a tax-exempt, "non-profit" organization, in 2011 its total revenues of over $6.5 million exceeded its total expenses of $5.4 million by over $1.1 million, according to its Form 990 financial filing; and the Democracy Now! Production Inc. firm's total assets increased from over $11.7 million to over $12.9 million between the beginning and end of 2011.

Of the $6.5 million that Democracy Now! Productions Inc. took in during 2011, over $1.1 million was derived from "broadcasting fees;" and a significant percentage of Democracy Now! Productions Inc. came from the "charitable grants" of tax-exempt foundations like the Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Lannan Foundation. According to the "non-profit" and tax-exempt Lannan Foundation's Form 990 financial filing for 2011, for example, in 2011 a $300,000 charitable grant was given to the "Democracy Now! Foundation" for "general operating support."

And, coincidentally, the "philanthropic" Lannan Foundation's Form 990 financial filing also indicated that the Lannan family's "non-profit" Lannan Foundation--whose board of directors currently includes Patrick Lannan, John R. Lannan and Lawrence P. Lannan Jr.--also paid the Lannan Foundation president--"J. Patrick Lannan"--an annual salary of $260,535 in 2011--despite the post-2008 endless economic recession for working-class people in the United States.