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What does The Objective do?

After the summer of 2020, a slew of journalism organizations committed to change in terms of how they cover historically underrepresented communities, as well as how they treated and hired staff from those same communities.

But their failures were not new. We’ve heard it time and time again: journalism organizations making public statements denouncing the treatment of historically underrepresented communities. Those same organizations committing to change how they cover and treat staff from those communities. And then… nothing.

Despite holding themselves up as “objective” and “impartial” for generations, mainstream American newsrooms have almost always been defined by homogenous teams that fail to account for race, gender, class, disability, and sexuality.

We founded The Objective in June of 2020 as a volunteer collective of journalists concerned with systems of inequity in newsrooms. Our small newsroom relies on donations to hold journalism institutions accountable and advocate for journalism that’s understanding of power dynamics and intersections of identity.

Your donation goes to paying our contributors equitably and ensuring we can continue to publish independent reporting and media criticism.

We publish reporting, media criticism, and Q&As with the goal of building collective and narrative power for communities (and journalists) that have been misrepresented or dismissed in order to change the way journalism is practiced in the U.S.

To us this means two things:

1. An expanding number of media reporters and critics, primarily from demographics historically marginalized by the journalism field, are visible to the journalism field. Beyond that, we want all journalists to feel more comfortable offering public, fair, and well intentioned feedback to the newsrooms they work for and read.
2. People historically marginalized, distorted, and misquoted have a forum to read about and express their own concerns about journalism’s production in the U.S.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Washington Post lays off race and ethnicity reporters  

By James Salanga

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News

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February 5, 2026

After cutting around one-third of staff, the Washington Post says it will concentrate on “areas that demonstrate authority” — with a national reporting desk that is now overwhelmingly white.

How disaster reporting hit home for two Appalachian journalists after Helene

By Katie Myers & Laura Hackett

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Commentary

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February 5, 2026

Disaster journalism is vital, but can be traumatizing for both journalists and sources. We can make it better by treating disaster survivors — and ourselves — with more humanity.

‘Almost media silence’: National, local news ignores trans Americans amid 2025’s anti-trans attacks

By Aleksandra Vaca

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Commentary

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February 2, 2026

The failures of newsrooms to substantively cover anti-trans legislation in 2023 and 2024 have compounded over the first year of Trump’s second term in office.