During this moment, we find it critical to continue distributing news about how what’s happening in journalism affects who’s telling what stories. So we’re sharing this newsletter with coverage and media about ICE in Minnesota today, acknowledging the general strike nationwide. (Some local outlets whose on-the-ground coverage I’ve been following include Sahan Journal, MinnPost, the Minnesota Reformer, Racket MN, and MPR News.)

In this week’s issue: Three new Objective stories, on how some local reporters in Minnesota feel national news misses the mark in representing the state’s migrant communities, tribal-serving public media stations’ fight to stay on air, and journalism faculty grappling with covering Palestine and genocide.

Plus, two Black journalists arrested after covering anti-ICE protests in Minnesota, Palestinian journalist banned from TikTok, internet archiving bots facing blocks, Slate Union ratifies new contract, and the first annual Local News Day.

—James Salanga

Recent New York Times reporting on a Minnesota scandal may have cast unwelcome attention to the state’s Somali community. But it isn’t the first time national journalists haven’t captured the full scope of Minnesota’s local stories. 

Many local organizers, for example, have asked people not to let national reporters join them while they tail ICE agents in personal vehicles — one of the common organizing tactics Minnesotans are using to mobilize against ICE. 

“Community members are like, ‘Please don't let outside news do that because we don't know what they're doing with our organizing tools,’” Melody Hoffmann, editor-in-chief of hyperlocal outlet Southwest Voices, said. 

Read more. 

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With the dissolution of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting — a 60-year support system — tribal-serving radio stations face a steep climb towards community self-sufficiency head-on. For now, stations operate in what a Public Media for All spokesperson described as a “reconstruction era,” where survival and reinvention coexist.

“Public media is still on the air now. They’re still providing services right now.”

Read more.

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Around the U.S., professors have faced sharp backlash after supporting Palestinian human rights — including at journalism schools. Schisms in teaching about Palestine at U.S. universities and journalism schools are reflected in news reporting. The New York Times, BBC, and CNN have faced internal and external backlash over reported pro-Israel coverage.

Given this landscape, The Objective reached out to over 80 deans, directors, and professors at journalism schools around the U.S. Read more. 

🎤 Two independent Black journalists, Georgia Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon, were arrested in connection with their work covering anti-ICE protests early Friday morning. 

📵 Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, whose daily dispatches often began with “It’s Bisan from Gaza, and I’m still alive”, says her TikTok account has been banned days after the finalization of a deal to form a separate U.S. version of TikTok. 

💻 The Guardian and the New York Times are among the 241 news sites from nine countries explicitly disallowing at least one Internet preservation crawling bot, an effort to evade scraping of their site content to train large-language models that power generative AI. 

🤖 Slate Union ratified its latest three-year contract with the newsroom, which includes protections against the implementation of generative AI and additional severance and insurance for unit members whose jobs are impacted by the technology’s introduction.

🗓️ Local newsrooms get the spotlight on April 9, the first Local News Day organized by Montana Free Press, Press Forward, and other supporters to map out local newsrooms and encourage people to seek out local news near them.

Have a story you think we should include in this section of next week’s newsletter? Let us know here or by responding to this email.

This issue is by James Salanga. Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next week.

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