We’re back from hiatus! The past few months have seen some changes: We won our first INN Award, and I started full-time work for the newsroom. But we have another bittersweet change to share: Our democracy reporting columnist Beatrice Forman is wrapping her column. Here’s her goodbye note:

I'm sunsetting my newsletter column on pro-democracy reporting to fulfill a childhood dream of mine: Being a full-time food writer in one of the greatest cities in the world, Philadelphia. It's not all that different from the work I've been encouraging in this column — in this moment, it's just as important to invest in thoughtful counterprogramming as it is to invest in community-driven coverage of the tough stuff, the scary stuff. Both can build civic pride, and we could all use a little bit more of that.

Wishing Beatrice all the best!

As for this week’s issue: This week at The Objective, two new stories. I interviewed former Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah about race, objectivity, and the famous WaPo slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness”, and in the latest installment of his column on movement journalism, Lewis Raven Wallace writes about what spreading awareness effectively looks like. Plus, our media round-up features affinity groups pushing back on NBC News’ recent round of firings and more.

—James Salanga

Karen Attiah, former long-time Washington Post opinion columnist and editor, sat down to talk about objectivity, “Democracy Dies in Darkness", Black representation in news, and more.

Attiah on objectivity: “Objective” is often a stand-in for status quo, for “what's normal”, for “familiar” …  I strive more for justice and balance … You can't have objectivity if you've been erasing certain perspectives for all of history. That's not objectivity, that's just writing to preserve your power. 

Read the full Q&A.

—————

“Our journalism … should observe and respond to the real structures of power in which we work, rather than abstract assumptions about our audience,” columnist Lewis Raven Wallace writes.

Those in the inside have a particular role to play because their conditions are concealed: “Within the U.S., journalists in prisons have made rich use of reporting and storytelling to raise awareness with people on the outside about their conditions, whether they’re speaking out on solitary confinement, climate crisis, or forced gender conformity.”

Read the full column.

In a new collaboration between The Objective and News Futures, 14 practitioners share their perspectives on building local, participatory, and durable information systems for the next decade.

📝 NBC News cuts AAPI, Black, Latine, and LGBTQ+ verticals: Journalist affinity groups said the layoffs are “a step back in NBC’s longtime commitment to making sure their reporting represents the diversity of this country.”

📰 2025 State of Local News is bleak: The Medill-produced report found journalism jobs declined by a little more than 7% from 2023 to 2024, and highlighted the role public media plays in bringing local news to rural regions otherwise underserved.

📸 The Wayback Machine’s snapshot pause: Archive snapshots of news homepages fell by 87% between May 17 and Oct. 1, 2025, according to a Nieman Lab analysis. While Wayback Machine says it was caused by “breakdown,” the gap highlights the uneasy state of Internet preservation.

🎙️ Chicago journalists reflect on immigration raids: “I’ve never seen more active propaganda coming from the federal government,” WBEZ reporter Chip Mitchell told Poynter.

🚢 Covering siege in Gaza: For The Nation, Alex Comud, a U.S. delegate on the Global Sumud Flotilla aiming to break media and food aid blockade in Gaza, Alex Comud, reflects on “objective journalism” and the challenges Palestinian journalists face.

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.

— 30 —