First things first: We updated our website! You can see the new look at the same link, and we’d love to hear what you think — hit reply to this email to share your thoughts.

Also, yesterday marked the opening of Media 2070’s second installment of its reparative journalism archive, which they celebrated via a virtual town hall. The exhibit, “i SAW THiNGS i iMAGiNED”, continues the organization’s work to imagine a more just media future reflecting the nuanced wishes of Black communities. For more on Media 2070, you can read my Q&A with members of their team from February.

Read on for more, and find an abbreviated version of our media round-up on Instagram each week. (Here’s our most recent example.)

ICYMI: Last week, we published another story from our Since 2020 series, looking at how major newsrooms’ trend toward closing environment and climate desks to fold the beat into general assignment reporting is hurting those most affected by climate change. Read it here.

—James Salanga

🎊 Media 2070 launched its second installation as part of its Reparative Journalism Archive yesterday at 4 p.m. ET with a virtual town hall, which also celebrates six years of the project’s work toward media reparations.

🎤 Fast Company interviewed USA Today Media President Kristin Roberts with CEO Mike Reed about the company’s partnership with Palantir. Though the company’s technology has been pivotal in supporting the Trump administration’s immigration raids, the executives accused the NewsGuild of preying on fear and did not give a strict number about how much money was involved in the deal. The union represents more than 800 USA Today Co. employees who published a letter with NewsGuild demanding the partnership be dissolved. 

❓Bari Weiss’ foreign editor patronized a room full of journalists on the importance of hierarchy and obedience, Status reports. Jeremy Barr reported on X that the foreign editor called the Palestinian death toll of the ongoing genocide in Gaza “a magic number.” This was in regards to a “60 Minutes” report in which a correspondent received pushback on including the death toll and coverage of Israeli settler violence. (Current death toll according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the WHO: nearly 75,000, with at least 28% of recorded deaths being children.)

🔎 FOLLOW-UP: It’s bad in Texas, y’all. The interim college of communication dean at UT Austin fired KUT general manager Debbie Hiott for “failing” to manage the inaugural KUT festival (initiated to make-up for clawed-back funding), though what these failures were, precisely, are unspecified and generalized. (UT-Austin also effectively fired a professor studying surveillance and the border earlier this year.) This follows a pattern of conservative state legislatures, particularly in Texas, weighing in on education. 

‼️ MediaMatters is chronicling anti-Indian sentiment on the rise, pointing to racist posts that went viral in September – one from the Department of Homeland Security and another from a Texas Railroad Commission candidate who commented on the “problem” of UT Austin’s majority POC student body. This was followed by a H-1B crackdown by the Trump administration. All this has led to an environment where right-wing YouTubers and content creators have plenty to talk about. 

🗳️ With the upcoming midterm elections, student journalists continue to fill in the gap left by corporate buyouts. Even at schools without journalism programs, where students are doing the dang thing by themselves. 

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 Marlee Baldridge and James Salanga. (Disclosure: Marlee Baldridge works at UT-Austin as a science writer.) Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next week.

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