Abby Martin | |
|---|---|
 Martin in 2012 | |
| Born | Abigail Suzanne Martin (1984-09-06)September 6, 1984 (age 41) |
| Education | Amador Valley High School |
| Alma mater | San Diego State University (BA) |
| Occupations |
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| Known for |
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| Spouse | Mike Prysner |
| Children | 2 |
Abigail Suzanne Martin (born September 6, 1984) is an American journalist,[2][3] television presenter, and activist. She helped found thecitizen journalism websiteMedia Roots and serves on the board of directors for the Media Freedom Foundation which managesProject Censored.[4][5] Martin appeared in the documentary filmProject Censored The Movie: Ending the Reign of Junk Food News (2013),[5] and co-directed99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (2013).[6]
She hostedBreaking the Set on the Russian state-funded networkRT America from 2012 to 2015 and gained attention for condemning theRussian annexation of Crimea on-air, and then launchedThe Empire Files in that same year as an investigative documentary and interview series onTelesur, later released as a web series. In 2019, she released the film documentaryThe Empire Files: Gaza Fights for Freedom.
Martin grew up inPleasanton, California, where she attendedAmador Valley High School, graduating in 2002.[7][8] She became interested in journalism when her old high school boyfriend enlisted in the military after theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001. "I didn't want him going to war, let alone fighting in one," she recalls. "I began to critically ask 'What is really going on?'"[9] By the time she was a sophomore atSan Diego State University, she began questioning what she called the "selling" of theIraq War by the media.[9][7] She received an undergraduate degree in political science and minored in Spanish.
In 2004, she campaigned forJohn Kerry's presidential campaign, but became disillusioned with theleft–right paradigm, a concept proposing that societies have a tendency to divide themselves into ideological opposites.[10] Martin worked for a time as an investigative journalist for a San Diego-based online news site until moving back to Northern California.[11][12]
In 2008, Martin was active in the9/11 truth movement,[17] a movement which disputes the consensus regarding theattacks of September 11, 2001. Martin set up her own "truther" group inSan Diego, California.[18][19] That year, Martin said that the attacks of September 11 were "aninside job, and that our government was complicit in what happened".[20] In March 2014, theAssociated Press wrote that Martin no longer believes that U.S. government officials might have been complicit in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.[21]
In 2009, Martin founded the organization Media Roots, acitizen journalism platform for reporting news.[22] As an independent journalist with Media Roots, Martin covered theOccupy Oakland actions during theOccupy Wall Street movement in 2011.[23] Her documentary video footage of Occupy Oakland protests was used by the family ofScott Olsen, a 24-year-old former Marine and Iraq War veteran, in a lawsuit against theOakland Police Department. Martin's footage was used to argue that the protests were non-violent at the time Olsen was allegedly hit in the head with a police projectile.[7][24] RT took notice of Martin's work and began employing her as a correspondent.[25] In the fall of 2010, she moved to Washington, D.C.[26]
From 2012 to 2015, Martin hosted her own show,Breaking the Set, onRT America.[27][28] The program described itself as "a show that cuts through the false left/right paradigm set by the establishment and reports the hard facts".[29] The original opening credits depict Martin applying a sledgehammer to a television tuned toCNN.[30]
Shortly after beginning her show on RT, Martin stated in an interview withMark Crispin Miller that "the media dismisses things that are too controversial as conspiracy theory".[31]
In 2014, Martin gained attention for her criticism of RT's coverage of theannexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. Martin closed her show on March 3, 2014, with a minute-long statement condemning theRussian military intervention in Ukraine.[32][33][34][35]Glenn Greenwald compared Martin's statement favorably to the unquestioning behavior of the United States media during the2003 invasion of Iraq.[36] Critics of Martin argue that she appeared to be reading from ateleprompter, implying that her remarks were made with the consent of the show's producers.[37][38] RT issued a statement saying: "Contrary to the popular opinion, RT doesn't beat its journalists into submission, and they are free to express their own opinions, not just in private but on the air."[39] RT added: "[W]e'll be sending her to Crimea to give her an opportunity to make up her own mind from the epicentre of the story." Martin declined the offer, saying, "I am not going to Crimea despite the statement RT has made."[40]The New York Times wrote that RT notified Martin that what she had said about Ukraine was "not in line with our editorial policy".[41]
Martin left RT in February 2015.[16] Speaking for RT, Anna Belkina toldBuzzFeed: "Abby decided that this is the time for her to try something new. We are proud of the great work she has done as the host ofBreaking the Set."[16][42]
Martin called the charges of foreign control over her andTulsi Gabbard"neo-McCarthyist hysteria" typical of theNew Cold War. She said that the "campaign to malign RT" by "the corporate media" had resulted in achilling effect over legitimate dissident reporters. She said that she had "complete editorial control" over her RT show, as did other American RT journalists likeChris Hedges andLee Camp.[43] She had earlier refused RT's offer to send her on a tour of Crimea, saying she didn't want a "vetted PR experience."[16]
In September 2015, Martin launchedThe Empire Files, an interview and documentary series. She has hosted guests includingChris Hedges,Noam Chomsky,Richard D. Wolff,Ralph Nader andJill Stein.[44]
The show was originally hosted byTelesur English, a media outlet sponsored primarily by the government ofVenezuela. Martin told Ben Norton writing forAlterNet: "The show is totally independent of Telesur. We merely sell them the content; they have zero control over anything we do".[45] In 2018, Telesur stopped fundingThe Empire Files due to increasing US sanctions on Venezuela, according to a press release published by Martin's Media Roots website. Martin, her co-producer and husbandMichael Prysner, and other Telesur contract journalists had their funding blocked by the application ofUnited States sanctions against Venezuela.[46] Academic Stuart Davis cites the cancellation as an example of how United States sanctions hamper public funding of media production in Venezuela.[46]
In August 2018 the show moved to a donation model in order to continue production.[47] The show has since become aweb series exclusively, with episodes being uploaded to Martin's website,YouTube andVimeo. Released in May 2019, her feature film documentary,TheEmpire Files: Gaza Fights for Freedom, concerns theGaza–Israel conflict.[48] It was shown in the US, UK and Australia at independent theatres.[49] In May 2021, Martin released the film for free on YouTube.
Martin was interviewed and featured in the award-winning documentary feature filmSeeds for Liberation (2026) by director Matthew Solomon.[50] The film discusses the Free Palestine movement and references herEmpire Files.
In February 2020, Martin's booking to speak at a conference atGeorgia Southern University on Critical Media Literacy was canceled when she refused to sign a pledge not toboycott Israel as required by law in the State of Georgia. Martin, represented by theCouncil on American-Islamic Relations, filed a free-speech lawsuit against the State of Georgia.[51] The conference was later canceled.[52]
In May 2021, in a federal court hearing in Georgia, District JudgeMark Cohen ruled in Martin's favor when he found that a law created to discourage theBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement was in violation of theFirst Amendment.[53][54] Judge Cohen ruled that Georgia's law "prohibits inherently expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment."[55]
Millennial Magazine said that Martin was an "unfiltered" media representative for theMillennial generation who reports "stories that deserve public recognition".[56] JournalistMichael C. Moynihan stated that "Martin's politics are odious and frequently incoherent". He said her "lamentations for lost American freedom" did not equate toanti-authoritarianism and criticised her for "fail[ing] to notice Russia’s previous brutal military interventions and ongoing brutal war on terror" prior to itsinvasion of Crimea and for sayingHugo Chávez "cannot be dismissed as a tyrant because his voice of opposition, and others like him, serves a necessary divide to prevent global corporate enslavement and tyranny".[57]
James Kirchick, in a 2015 article forThe Daily Beast, commented: "Thanks to her paymasters in the Kremlin, she had three years to use the network's airwaves and wildly popular YouTube channel to broadcast paranoid diatribes that would otherwise have languished in anonymity on the Internet fringe."[58] Regarding her work onVenezuela,libertarian journalist and authorJohn Stossel states that Martin "does government-funded propaganda for Telesur".[59]
Martin has been criticized for her past support of the 9/11 truth movement. In 2014New York Times columnist Robert Mackey contrasted Martin's critical remarks on the Russian annexation of Crimea with her conviction "that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were part of a government conspiracy."[60]
David Cromwell, British media campaigner of and co-editor ofMedia Lens, states that Martin is a "superb independent journalist ... who has risked her life to report what the corporate media is not telling you about Venezuela".[61]
Martin is married to herEmpire Files co-producer,Mike Prysner, an Iraq War veteran.[62][63] Martin gave birth to their first child on May 31, 2020.[64] They have a second child, born on January 29, 2023.[65]
Born and raised in Pleasanton, Martin grew up ...
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)On her program, she regularly gives air to outrageous conspiracy theories, including the notion that water fluoridation is a pernicious government plot to poison unsuspecting American citizens
She once protested with the 9/11 Truth movement, which alleges that U.S. government officials might have been complicit in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a theory to which Martin says she no longer subscribes
However, sharp-eyed viewers may have noticed that she was reading from the auto-cue and, therefore, presumably had permission from producers of the show to express her beliefs.
Media analysts say that Martin was reading from a teleprompter and therefore more than likely had her producer's consent
The Empire Files ... has been funded through a contract with the TeleSUR network
To realise how incomplete and distorted is BBC News coverage, you only have to listen to the superb independent journalist Abby Martin, who has risked her life to report what the corporate media is not telling you about Venezuela
