Objectivity doesn't work. Let's figure out what does.
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Major American newsrooms have for generations called themselves objective. But coverage at these outlets, at all points in time, has always been subjectively defined by homogenous newsrooms.
The history is right in front of us. Editors at The New York Times initially refused to print the word “gay” in the paper and intentionally ignored covering the AIDS crisis. The Washington Post hired its first Black journalist in 1952 (he left after two years). And the Los Angeles Times’s Editor-in-Chief, in 2020, admitted that the paper “fomented the hysteria that led to Japanese American incarceration, the Zoot Suit Riots, redlining and racial covenants.”
Since June 2020, The Objective has published reporting, first-person commentary, and reported essays on how journalism has misrepresented or excluded specific communities in coverage and staffing. But we're now reaching a fork in the road. Until now, we have functioned as an all-volunteer collective, several of us with full-time jobs outside of this work.
Here are a few stories from our first year in operation:
- U.S. newsrooms are very white. So are the critics and the journalists that cover them
- They spoke up. Now what?
- Evangelicalism isn't just a white people thing
- Q&A: Trans media workers make their own space
- Q&A: Get Current Studio wants to bring publishers of color online
We believe this kind of coverage is not an occasional way to cover journalism, but the focal point. Because of this, we're asking you to support our work.
Donate to help The Objective hold journalism institutions accountable and help make space for new ones.
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Christian Skotte | $21.23
Little Brother of War
Thank you for covering the Observer implosion with Indigenous Affairs office. Very informative.
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I look forward to more of your inspiring work in 2022.
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