#Discussing #Radically #Unconventional #TV #News with #AbbyMartin !

MAY 2020 This month we are excited to share with you our recent interview with Abby Martin - the tireless radical media worker behind The Empire Files and Media Roots.  It was great to catch up with Abby, find out what she's been up to, and hear her perspectives on working in the world of TV news as a radical journalist. We think you will find it an insightful and inspiring read!  Additionally, we have recently launched a new online apparel store, with all proceeds helping pay for our regular costs, and hopefully enough to help us produce some useful resources. Check out our interview with Abby, the Agency Apparel store, and the usual highlights from the Agency Newswire below.  Interview with Abby Martin: Telling our own stories, cultivating our own narratives For the latest in Agency’s Interviews with Radical Journalists, we spoke with Abby Martin, seasoned journalist and radically unconventional TV presenter. She hosted Breaking the Set on the Russian network RT America from 2012 to 2015. In 2015, Martin launched the investigative documentary and interview series The Empire Files, originally hosted by Telesur. She continues to produce the docuseries independently with her partner Mike Prysner. Learn more about Abby's work and her approach to media work by reading the full interview.  (Image: Abby Martin reporting during Hurricane Harvey) Read the Interview Agency Apparel Now Available! We recently launched an online print-on-demand apparel store where you can purchase a range of tops - hoodies, t-shirt and tank tops - in a selection of designs that will be growing over the next few months.  Check out our newest design by Justseeds artist Shaun Slifer "Against Fascism: Iron Heart"!  Visit Agency Apparel VOICES FROM THE AGENCY NEWSWIRE Jesse Bernstein: Losing Kathy: Slow Violence and Social Service Work in New York City (Hard Crackers) One of my last conversations at Ladders Services was with the Medical Examiner’s office after I heard Kathy had died. My cubicle was in a cellar with an open floor plan, shared with other cubicles, and my boss and I agreed that I should call the Medical Examiner from a room with a door. Privacy. Sitting in a barren room with dirty white walls, browned floor tiles, and a dated Dell desktop, I called the municipal morgue. Read more... What Mutual Aid Can Do During a Pandemic (The New Yorker) We are not accustomed to destruction looking, at first, like emptiness. The coronavirus pandemic is disorienting in part because it defies our normal cause-and-effect shortcuts to understanding the world. The source of danger is invisible; the most effective solution involves willing paralysis; we won’t know the consequences of today’s actions until two weeks have passed. Everything circles a bewildering paradox: other people are both a threat and a lifeline. Physical connection could kill us, but civic connection is the only way to survive. Read more... Alexis Shotwell: The Virus is a Relation (Upping The Anti) COVID-19 is a virus; it’s also a relationship. Whether people live or die when they get sick depends on webs of social relations, the history of oppression carried in their bodies, what care is made available for them to receive, and so much that we don’t yet understand. One way for us to understand the pandemic is to look at what activities, what practices, it sparks. How might we think about this novel coronavirus as a relationship? If we do this, we can make ethical, political, and ecological evaluations of the relationships we proliferate in response to “the virus.” Read more... Coronavirus fight: Some US worker unions become more aggressive (Al Jazeera) While Voodoo Doughnut is known for its kitschy pastry designs and lines of hungry tourists, as the COVID-19 pandemic started shutting down businesses in the state, the doughnut chain’s staff started drawing attention. On March 20, employees from the newly formed Voodoo Doughnut Workers Union (VWU) delivered a letter to management announcing the formation of a union and demanding higher wages, safety improvements and severance packages for employees laid off because of the coronavirus and Oregon’s ongoing “shelter-in-place” order. Read more... Launch Agency Newswire Agency exists for the purpose of reflecting more purposefully on how the media covers anarchists and what we can do about it.   2020 marks seven years that we have been doing this work, and we are deeply grateful for everyone who has continued to support us along the way. We have a bunch of exciting plans for the year to come, so make sure you keep an eye on our: WEBSITE : TWITTER : FACEBOOK : PATREON  Copyright © 2020 Agency, All rights reserved.