Another week, another barrage of sweeping executive orders and attempted federal overhaul. As I’ve been overwhelmed parsing everything, I’ve been thinking a lot about Jon Allsop’s piece about the administration’s dual strategy of concealing and oversharing different types of information.

This week, our top story is follow-up coverage on Felicia Sonmez’s illegal discrimination suit against her former employer, the Washington Post, and how wherever the case lands could set a precedent for journalism at large.

In this issue:

And also: More changes at the Los Angeles Times, Pentagon press office space shifts, HuffPost lays off 20% of its newsroom, and how El Timpano is protecting its immigrant sources. Plus, the resource of the week is a tool to help track federal website outages.

—James Salanga

The D.C. Court of Appeals is reviving a major lawsuit against the Washington Post filed by a former reporter, Felicia Sonmez.

In 2021, Sonmez, then a breaking news reporter at the Post, filed a lawsuit against top editors at the newsroom (including Marty Baron of Spotlight fame). The suit argued that those editors illegally created a hostile workplace and retaliated against her by prohibiting her from covering issues of sexual misconduct and gender due to her history as a survivor of sexual assault.

Sonmez’s suit was dismissed the next year, and she was later unceremoniously fired for “insubordination.”

Now, in a 2-1 decision, the D.C. Court of Appeals is reviving the case. (The Objective previously reported on said court mulling over whether or not the case should be reinstated.)

The case has broad implications for the future of journalism.

As Jacob Gardenswartz, who has been following the story for The Objective, writes: “At issue in the case are broad questions about the nature of journalistic objectivity, the First Amendment, and how far newsrooms can go to protect the appearance of neutrality. According to one lawyer involved, the ruling could have lasting implications for journalists and journalism more broadly.”

The case is also a referendum on journalism’s past: Baron, now retired, will be in part defined not just by his legacy at the Post (and the Spotlight team at The Boston Globe), but his treatment of former employees as well.

Read Jacob’s latest story about the case’s revival on The Objective.

—Gabe Schneider

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Reporting often falls short in critiquing Major League Baseball as a microcosm of labor migration. In the wake of the current presidential administration’s immigration raids, journalists need to be more conscious of how they portray international ballplayers. Read more.

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The erasure of data on trans and gender-diverse people reflects the Trump administration’s anti-trans party line. And while the data may be restored, their current loss and any likely revision impacts journalists and more importantly, the communities they serve, across their beats. Read more.

L.A. Times continues to undergo turmoil: After gutting the newsroom last year, asserting control over the opinion section, and suggesting news coverage needs a “bias meter”, owner Patrick Soon-Shiong is now rabidly supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the top position in the Department of Health & Human Services. The newsroom also announced another round of voluntary buyouts this week.

🗞️ Read the Times’ note to its staffers on X and coverage of Soon-Shiong’s RFK support on NPR.

Pentagon primary media outlets shake-up: The Trump administration is removing the New York Times, NPR, Politico, and NBC News from their dedicated press offices, giving the slots to the New York Post, Breitbart, HuffPost, and One America, respectively. (HuffPost noted it had not asked for a press office spot and does not have a Capitol correspondent.) All outlets will remain members of the Pentagon press corps, and NPR called on the Pentagon to expand its dedicated media spaces so all press corps outlets have office space.

🎙️ Read the story in Reuters.

HuffPost lays off over 20% of its newsroom: The newsroom’s union, in a joint statement with Writers Guild of America East, lambasted HuffPost for cutting 30 staffers “on the heels of a year of record-breaking traffic and nonstop coverage of a divisive election.” While HuffPost leadership said the cuts were financially necessary, the union rebutted by noting they failed to provide data to support the claim or pursue cost-cutting alternatives.

🖥️ Read the story in The Wrap.

How El Tímpano is changing its reporting practices to protect immigrant sources: With the real threats of deportation hanging over undocumented immigrants, the newsroom announced policies ahead of the inauguration to ensure their sources stay safe. The policies include doubling down on in-person outreach, a limited identification policy for sources who aren’t public figures, and distributing “know your rights” cards for interviews.

💭 Read the story in Nieman Lab.

This week’s resource is … a tool from WIRED to track federal site accessibility. (The link directs to a broader story about U.S. government sites disappearing, and the tool is embedded within.)

The Trump administration has been ordering blistering revisions and removals of websites, from taking down gender-inclusive language to aiming to completely phase out components of programs like USAID.

So WIRED created software to scan 1,374 government domains, track whether sites are accessible, and how servers are responding. The tool can help provide context and clarity for reporting on federal programs and data. Also, next week is another installment of Beatrice’s democracy reporting column — send her your questions below!

What questions do you have about pro-democracy reporting?

For more style guides, journalism job boards, and tip sheets, check out The Objective’s resource list.

Thanks for reading. We appreciate you being here, and we’ll have more for you next week.

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