AMY GOODMAN: Welcome back to Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman.

Before we return to our interview with poet Martín Espada, we wanted to share some words from another poet, Allen Ginsberg. Before Allen Ginsberg died last month, he had a chance to record his thoughts about Mumia Abu-Jamal, as well as one of Abu-Jamal’s commentaries.

ALLEN GINSBERG: Mumia Abu-Jamal, husband, father, grandfather, African American, lives a prisoner in the biggest growth industry in America. For 15 years, he has been a resident of Pennsylvania’s death row. Tune in to hear his rare, courageous voice. Mumia Abu-Jamal’s raw and impassioned commentaries are certain to fuel the controversy surrounding freedom of speech and the death penalty. Listen to an incisive, experienced critic of our criminal justice system speaking from the depths of prison. Listen to Mumia Abu-Jamal.

The promise of death is not enough. The state of Pennsylvania wants to shut out Mumia Abu-Jamal’s voice and enforce his silence. For 15 years, Mumia has been fighting, not only to stay alive; he’s been waging a battle for the freedom to write and to speak. Through a torrent of lockdowns, investigations and mental torture, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s voice continues to be heard. Whether Mumia Abu-Jamal’s voice will reach the airwaves in his message to people — and, ultimately, whether he lives or dies — will depend on our independence, the depth of his supporters’ courage and your will to organize.

I’ll read selections from an essay, “Objectivity and the Media,” that the state of Pennsylvania has forbidden Mumia Abu-Jamal to read to you. Mumia wrote not long ago, quote, “By the seventies, people began to admit that the media was in the hip-pocket of big business. Well, today the media is big business. The major media organizations are not just controlled by it — they are part of it. Many of them are owned by huge multinational corporations. And if you think they don’t control what comes over the air, you’re in for a surprise. If I control your paycheck, I tell you what to say and what not to say. …

“I remember being down in Philadelphia at my petition hearing in the fall of 1995 — I was being shuttled back to the prison, and the sheriff had turned the radio on. The newscasters were announcing that ABC had just been acquired by the Disney Corporation. I laughed. I was in the back of the van laughing and laughing and thinking to myself that it won’t be long before they have Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on the evening news.

“On a deeper level, of course, it is no laughing matter. When the power of the press is exercised in concert with the political machinery that is in place today — I’m talking about the right-wing shift in American politics — what you have is a dangerous, malevolent concoction. It might sound paranoid, but it is what you have. …

“Has our government, our press, acted on the right side of history? Have they stood on the right side of fundamental justice? …

“The level of political discourse in our country is anti-life. And the press is not innocent.”

AMY GOODMAN: That was the late Allen Ginsberg reading from a piece by death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.