Journalist Abby Martin says its futile to think that the left will ever be honestly represented by the mainstream media. She says the left has to use what resources it has to create its own media and tell its own stories.
EVEN IN A COUNTRY as large as the United States, its not easy to forge a path as a left wing journalist. But, so far, Abby Martin has managed to do it.
Having eschewed the soft liberalism of her youth for a radical and socialist politics, she recognises that, in mainstream media terms at least, she isn't heading for fame and fortune. Her left wing political views and being open about them have barred her from establishment approval.
Abby Martin is no fan of American capitalism and there is a price to pay for her unswerving opposition. She recognises that the political economy of the US mainstream media dictates there is no place for journalists like her and the politics she represents.
'The corporate media is literally subsidised by the oil industry, banking corporations and weapons contractors. Hard hitting reporting on these industries, as well as the dogma underpinning US Empire is a dead end for anyone who wants to make money in this arena.'
'The concept of neutrality in a media landscape dominated by six corporations is absurd. All journalist have opinions, and journalists do not get hired if they do not believe in the reigning orthodoxy of US foreign policy and capitalism. The beltway press simply couch their opinions by appealing to the authority of think tanks, politicians or other elite figures that parrot the establishment narrative or capitalist line.
'Being open about such views strictly limits the capacity to have a successful media career.'
It seems almost inevitable that Martin had to rely on two overseas-owned news networks to progress her journalistic career. From 2012 to 2015 she was the host of the popular Breaking The Set on Russia Today (RT), broadcasting out of RT's New York studios. She was initially hired to be a news anchor but it was a role she disliked and she was given the opportunity to host her own show. Martin says it 'was the most difficult but most rewarding experience of my life.'
'When I worked at Russia Today, it was fun to emulate the look of a mainstream anchor but then 'break the set' both literally and figuratively by railing against the world. I was trying to challenge the stereotype of the ornamental female sidekick. But I've always faced attacks no matter what, just as a woman putting myself out there. I have hundreds of emails saved from men overtly sexualising me, generously offering to 'teach me' how to speak and do my job better, from tokenisation to being told I'm too angry, through to stalking and straight-up death and rape threats.'
Her time at RT did earn her establishment recognition though - but not in the way Martin could have foreseen. In January 2017 a report was issued from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that claimed to detail a Russian campaign to influence the 2016 Presidential election. It claimed to outline the role that RT played in that campaign. The report went as far as alleging that Martin, via Breaking The Set, was helping to sow division in the United States and undermine its 'democracy'. According to the report Breaking The Set was 'overwhelmingly focused on criticism of US and Western governments as well as the promotion of radical discontent.'
In a media interview Martin responded : 'People are suffering, that’s real. They’re telling me that these people tuning into the news and seeing, maybe, a report on their reality is what cost the election? Come on! This is insane!....What this report really is saying is that telling the truth, reporting on issues that affect Americans and their communities, is the threat.'
Ironically, despite all her journalistic work, it was this incident that thrust Martin into the mainstream news. That included an interview with Piers Morgan, who was at the time hosting a show on CNN.
Working for Telesur saw Martin reporting from Venezuela, Colombia and the occupied West Bank. She and her small team produced over one hundred episodes of The Empire Files for Telesur, a show dedicated to exposing, but not exclusively, the activities of American imperialism. It also featured interviews with leading left wing figures such as journalist Chris Hedges, academic and writer Noam Chomsky, Marxist economist Richard Wolff and former US Green Party leader Jill Stein.
Says Martin : 'Being sympathetic to Marxism I was excited to collaborate with the network and dig more into investigative reporting that naturally aligned with their worldview. I had complete autonomy over Empire Files.'
But in 2018 production of The Empire Files ground to halt after tightening US economic sanctions on Venezuela - initiated by the Trump administration and which remain in place today -cut funding to Telesur journalists throughout the world. Even wire transfers, originating in countries outside of Venezuela, were also blocked.
A third season, consisting of twenty six episodes, was scheduled to begin July 1. It was canned.
Since then The Empire Files has had to rely on grassroots funding which means the show can produce only a small amount of the content it previously produced. It would be fair to say that this is not a satisfactory situation for the show but it has still produced several shorter documentaries and news reports which can be seen on both YouTube and Vimeo. The Empire Files is also available as a podcast and Martin continues to co-host the Media Roots podcast with her brother Robbie.
In 2019 Abby Martin produced her first feature length documentary, Gaza Fights for Freedom. Filmed during the height of the Great March of Return protest, it features demonstrations where over two hundred unarmed Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli snipers since 2018. The ninety minute documentary has been widely praised and rates 8.1/10 on the IMDb website. Wrote one reviewer:
'I truly can not put into words how important is this documentary for giving voice to people of Gaza, or to Palestinian people in general. This film shares their pain, their struggle, their loss with the rest of the world with such a momentum.'
It says something about the dreadful state of journalism generally that a journalist as passionate about her work as Abby Martin has to sustain her work through grassroots funding. Her crime? To be committed to a journalism that refuses to play by suffocating corporate rules which will, at best, allow a mild corporate-friendly liberalism but little more.
As the world descends into the further chaos of late capitalism as ruling elites desperately cling to power, Martin's uncompromising view is 'that unless we understand how we got here, we won't get far in changing it.' It echoes of Marx's famous opinion that the philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it.
Martin dismisses the argument that progressive views can be navigated through the mainstream media. That's certainly a view hard to dispute here in New Zealand where so-called 'progressive' journalists and commentators routinely defend a thoroughly neoliberal Labour Government. Abby argues that it is futile to think that the left will ever be honestly represented by the mainstream media. She says that a hyper commercial mainstream media will never give 'the goals and ideals of leftists' a fair hearing:
'Its entire existence is to perpetuate the status quo, while undermining movements to render the left obsolete. Instead, we must employ what is available for us now to create our own media, tell our own stories and cultivate our own narratives so the ruling class are no longer the ones dictating our past, present and future.'
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