Abby Martin

In 2008, Martin was part of the 9/11 Truth movement,[9][10][11][12][13][14] starting her own 9/11 Truther group in San Diego.[15][16] In a 2008 video of a 9/11 truth movement demonstration, she said: "I’ve researched it for three years and every single thing that I uncover solidifies my belief that it was an inside job and that our government was complicit in what happened."[17]

Shortly after beginning her show on RT, Martin stated in an interview with Mark Crispin Miller that "the media dismisses things that are too controversial as conspiracy theory".[18] In March 2014, Martin told the Associated Press that she "no longer subscribes" to the theory that 9/11 was an inside job, as she had earlier.[19]

From 2012 to 2015, Martin hosted her own show, Breaking the Set, on RT America.[20][21] The program described itself as "a show that cuts through the false left/right paradigm set by the establishment and reports the hard facts".[22] The original opening credits depict Martin applying a sledgehammer to a television tuned to CNN.[23] Martin's show promoted conspiracy theories including the claim that water fluoridation was a government plot to poison unwary Americans.[17][24]

On RT in February 2013, she commented that Israel uses "Hitler's methods" to sustain a "Jewish majority".[25]

In 2014, Martin gained attention for her criticism of RT's coverage of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. Martin closed her show on March 3, 2014 with a minute-long statement condemning the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.[26][27][28][29] Glenn Greenwald compared Martin's statement favorably to the unquestioning behavior of the United States media during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[30] Critics of Martin argue that she appeared to be reading from a teleprompter, implying that her remarks were made with the consent of the show's producers.[31][32] 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."[33] 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."[34] The New York Times wrote that RT notified Martin that what she had said about Ukraine was "not in line with our editorial policy".[35]

Martin left RT in February 2015.[14] Speaking for RT, Anna Belkina told BuzzFeed: "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 of Breaking the Set."[14][36] James Kirchick commented that "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."[12]

Martin called the charges of foreign control over her and Tulsi Gabbard "neoMcCarthyist hysteria" typical of the New Cold War. She said that the "campaign to malign RT" by "the corporate media" had resulted in a chilling effect over legitimate dissident reporters. She said that she had "complete editorial control" over her RT show, as did other American RT journalists like Chris Hedges and Lee Camp.[37] She had earlier refused RT's offer to send her on a tour of Crimea, saying she didn't want a "vetted PR experience."[14]

In January 2017, an Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) report released following Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election described Breaking the Set as being overwhelmingly focused on criticism of the United States and Western governments, stating that it had been promoting "radical discontent".[38]

Abby Martin interviewing a member of the Green Cross during the 2017 Venezuelan protests

In September 2015, Martin launched The Empire Files, an interview and documentary series. She has hosted guests such as Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Richard D. Wolff, Ralph Nader and Jill Stein.[39]

The show was originally hosted by Telesur English, a media outlet sponsored primarily by the government of Venezuela. Martin told Ben Norton writing for AlterNet: "The show is totally independent of Telesur. We merely sell them the content; they have zero control over anything we do".[40] In 2018, Telesur stopped funding The Empire Files due to increasing US sanctions on Venezuela, according to a press release published by Martin's Media Roots website. In August 2018 the show moved to a donation model in order to continue production.[41]

The show has since become exclusively a web series, with episodes being uploaded to her website, YouTube and Vimeo. In May 2019, Martin released her feature film documentary, The Empire Files: Gaza Fights for Freedom, about the Gaza–Israel conflict.[42]

On February 10, 2020, Martin, represented by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, filed a free-speech lawsuit against the State of Georgia's law requiring contractors to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel after her booking to speak at a conference at Georgia Southern University on Critical Media Literacy was cancelled for refusing to sign the pledge.[43] The conference was later cancelled.[44]