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The Katie Halper Show

Why Abby Martin is 'almost a free speech absolutist' & suing Georgia Over Israel Loyalty Oath

The Katie Halper Show

Katie Halper

News

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2021

⏱️ 70 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Journalist, filmmaker (https://gazafightsforfreedom.com/​) and Empire Files (https://twitter.com/EmpireFiles​) host Abby Martin (https://twitter.com/AbbyMartin​) refused to sign a pro-Israel pledge which promised to not participate or advocate the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. She was asked to sign the oath in January, 2020 when she was set to deliver a keynote speech at Georgia Southern University. When she refused, her talk was canceled. In February, 2020 Martin, together with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), filed a federal free-speech lawsuit against the University System of Georgia, for the “unconstitutionality” of its decision. The law suit reads that, "The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia... conditioned an invitation to speak at an academic conference on the Plaintiff agreeing in writing to abandon her First Amendment-protected journalism about and political advocacy for the rights of Palestinians. The Complaint alleges violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution under 42 U.S.C. § 1983." Abby talks about the status of her lawsuit, the media landscape, censorship, free speech and covering taboo subjects including, but not limited to, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to the Katie Helper Show.

0:09.4

On this episode, I play an interview with Abby Martin, the creator and host of the Empire

0:15.6

Files, co-host of the Media Roots podcast, a visual artist, a filmmaker who directed

0:22.0

the amazing documentary Gaza Fights for Freedom, and perhaps most importantly, she's been

0:27.1

accused by the U.S. government of, quote, fomenting radical discontent.

0:31.6

End quote.

0:32.6

It's a really great chat, and we talk about why she's suing the state of Georgia, which

0:36.7

basically tried to censor her over, BDS, which, by the way, stands for boycott day-best

0:41.7

sanction.

0:42.7

Find out more about Abby at abymarton.com and follow her on Twitter at abymarton.

0:48.2

My co-host is Leslie Lee, host of the Struggle Session podcast, and you can follow him on Twitter

0:53.3

at Leslie Lee by ii.

0:56.1

Please rate and review the podcast, and please become Patreon supporters at patreon.com

1:01.5

slash the Katie Helper Show.

1:03.0

Again, that's patreon.com slash the Katie Helper Show.

1:07.0

This week's Patreon only episode is a chat with Leslie Lee and then with journalist

1:11.6

Aaron Matey about certain statements that AOC made about Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

1:20.6

Hello and welcome to the Katie Helper Show.

1:24.7

I'm your host, Katie Helper, and you know who's here with me, co-hostin, like a machine,

1:34.5

Leslie Lee.

1:35.5

Hi, Katie.

1:36.5

Thank you so much for having me.

...

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