EDITOR’S NOTE
As the midterms near, candidates in Michigan, Texas, and Florida are making attacks on Islam part of their strategy.
When groups or politicians question Muslim politicians over their faith, newsrooms should be choosing to contextualize those critiques as part of a broader landscape of Islamophobia and xenophobia in the U.S.
This week in The Objective, I wrote about how Islamophobia is masquerading as politics reporting. Also in this newsletter: A new story from our Since 2020 series looking at the state of feminist media in 2026.
In solidarity,
James Salanga
Editorial Director
The Objective
THIS WEEK’S LEAD STORY
Mainstream media’s double standard for Muslim politicians
Political reporting can normalize Islamophobic attacks by treating them as ordinary campaign strategy.
Bluesky
LinkedIn
XMORE FROM THE OBJECTIVE
In 2026, feminist media wants it all
Since 2020, magazines like gal-dem, Self, Jezebel, and other blogs like Wear Your Voice that published on feminist issues have closed or scaled back publication. But a collective of independent feminist publications, from La Fronde to Lux Magazine and The Flytrap, are working to ensure feminist reporting and critique for young women of color persists.
JOURNALISM IN A GRAF
Our original headline on that first big Jane Doe piece was “How a Cornell Student Went From Shame to Seeking Justice.” I thought that could be misread as us taking a position on justice being denied; we changed “Seeking Justice” to “Action.”
I picked this as quote of the week because I think it reveals how a pursuit of “objectivity” actively harms and institutionalizes systems of oppression. What is the purpose of investigative journalism if not to hold power to account in a public forum? What is the purpose of eschewing the perception of seeking justice? —Marlee Baldridge, production assistant at The Objective
VIEWS FROM ELSEWHERE
What we’re reading and thinking about
After an arrest, local and state police must make names, ages, and locations public in nearly all U.S. jurisdictions — but Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is not held to the same standards when it detains people. The Marshall Project is suing to change that.
The New York Times launched a newsletter called “The Backstory”, intended to contextualize the newsroom’s coverage judgment calls and respond to criticism of the Times. The first edition covered editorial decisions about the Cornell 7, in which they do not mention the story first being broken by Cornell student journalists. See our quote of the week for thoughts.
Uncloseted Media reported with The 19th about the coordinated conservative push on U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico over social media. They found that clips around trans rights were elevated, specifically for its position as a flashpoint between Talarico and the conservative nominee, Ken Paxton. The reporting highlights just how much political press regurgitates manufactured controversy around trans rights.
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