EDITOR’S NOTE
Anti-trans ballot measures passed. Where’s the national coverage?
Six out of seven of anti-trans ballot measures across the U.S. have passed or are slated to. But if you’re not in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, or Washington — or following queer and trans news outlets — you might not have known.
This week in The Objective, I wrote about coverage that major news outlets need to publish to fully represent the historic “blue tsunami”: stories about the anti-trans ballot measures that passed that also center the trans youth, and specifically trans girls, affected.
In the coming week (or weeks), please send me any national news stories you’re reading that fill that gap. I hope they’re coming.
Also this week: A new commentary from our Since 2020 series making the argument that funders must support community-centered journalism to build a less dystopian world.
Content heads-up: Our quote of the week makes a reference to the new allegations of rape against Trump.
In solidarity,
James Salanga
Editorial Director
The Objective
THIS WEEK’S LEAD STORY
National newspapers have been some of the primary drivers of anti-trans misinformation that helped stoke Republicans’ strategy to fearmonger about trans rights, which proved unsuccessful in the 2026 midterms.
In the coming days, if mainstream newsrooms are striving to capture the full story of the “blue tsunami”, their coverage must account for the ways anti-trans misinformation still affected ballot results while centering trans people affected by the ballot measures in Washington, Colorado, Nebraska, and Arizona.
Bluesky
LinkedIn
XFUND MEDIA ACCOUNTABILITY
Who’s holding the media accountable?
The Objective investigates whose voices get heard, whose stories get left out, and who holds power in journalism. Your donation funds that work and keeps it free for everyone.
MORE FROM THE OBJECTIVE
Corporate news helped curate our dystopian reality. Funders must support an alternative
Since 2020, mainstream news’ diversity “reforms” have laid the path for new community media. Despite lacking multi-million-dollar operating budgets or invitations to White House dinners like corporate outlets, independent newsrooms have become rapid response teams that coordinate and provide tangible resources to residents while delivering the information they need to avoid the mounting dangers of living in the United States.
Any philanthropic funder serious about turning our current situation around has to invest as much as possible in community media infrastructure. Nothing else will change without it. The political right knows this, which is why conservative billionaires are investing in major media corporations. Meanwhile, progressive funders paint nonprofit newsrooms’ reliance on foundation funding as a problem.
JOURNALISM IN A GRAF
On the eve of a national midterm election, the Times reached all the way over to the Book Review and parted ways with a writer in the genre that most often presents rape scenes from the perspective of the victim, in stories that insistently end with the victim triumphant, beloved, and happy.
Waite is a romance author who sees the value of human dignity as paramount. The New York Times letting her contract lapse for her reposts calling out the Times for its failure to include new Trump rape allegations in its coverage just leads me to question what the Times sees as paramount when it’s monitoring its contributors’ social media posts.
—Marlee Baldridge, production assistant at The Objective
VIEWS FROM ELSEWHERE
What we’re reading and thinking about
“After careful consideration, we have reached the difficult decision that our publishing model is no longer sustainable,” the long-time progressive publisher said in its sign-off. Salon is one of the outlets that has covered the dichotomy of the “rainbow wave” skipping over anti-trans ballot measures.
As Anthropic makes its first licensing deal — with the AP, for election coverage — Prism reported on how newsroom case studies offer one model for workers in other fields seeking to do the same. Unionized workers at newsrooms across the country, from Mashable to the New York Times and Politico, have been fighting to establish guardrails against management implementing poorly-secured generative AI processes into their work, or using the technology as an excuse for poor wages.
The documentary revolves around anonymized interviews with 24 past and present members of the Israeli military and refers to the Israeli military’s colloquialism for a civilian killed while trying to take out a Hamas operative: a “NAZA.” Author and journalist Steven Thrasher wrestles with the filmmakers’ decision to anonymize the interviewees: “Does journalistic duty trump the moral imperative to bring these people to justice?” Ultimately, he argues, the film is for “those of us charged with ending the crisis and making sure ‘never again’ is not an empty slogan.”