This week, we published a Q&A I did with journalism professor Anita Varma about her forthcoming book, Solidarity in Journalism: How Ethical Reporting Fights for Social Justice, and more.

And some new news on the Texas newsroom union front — eligible staff at the Fort Worth Report voted 11-1 in favor of unionizing in Monday’s National Labor Relations Board election. Read the update here.

In our media round-up this issue: The Global Center on Journalism and Trauma and U.S. Press Freedom Tracker request journalist feedback, the independent Indigenous news landscape in the Dakotas, an essay on white expat panic after airstrikes on Iran, adding queer and trans authors back into the literary record, Pete photos banned in the Pentagon, and New York Times hits record number of journalists employed.

—James Salanga

One of the suggestions Anita Varma received when talking about solidarity journalism and the title of her forthcoming book was to use a different word in place of “social justice.”

But the University of Texas-Austin journalism professor and Solidarity Journalism Initiative lead stood firm: “Social justice has become really scapegoated and tossed around in very problematic, often empty ways,” she told me. “I’ve been really unwilling to compromise on that specificity, because I think it’s really important that we be clear that ‘social justice’ is not a bad word. And the very best of what journalism does, and I argue, has always done …  is standing up for everyone’s basic dignity.”

Her newest book is a primer for that mode of journalism and why it matters. Varma also talked about the journalism vs. advocacy conversation, objectivity in the field, and more in a Q&A with The Objective.

Read the full Q&A.

🙋‍♀️ Journalist feedback needed! Those covered Midway Blitz or are covering Metro Surge are asked to fill out an anonymous survey from the Global Center on Journalism and Trauma to help build out a resource for others reporting on ICE raids. And the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker wants to hear from journalists who have been targeted with a legal order or denied access during reporting.

📰 Avis Red Bear, a journalist at the Teton Times, reflects on the state of news in Standing Rock after the January closure of the Lakota Times and the landscape of pursuing independent Indigenous news.

✍ In a Substack piece published in both English and Italian, Francesca Maria Lorenzini noted the disproportionate airtime white expats in Dubai were getting during the first days of the war in Iran. 

📚 In 2022, former NY Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul wrote an anti-trans essay for the Opinion section before leaving for her current position: writer-at-large for the Wall Street Journal. This led to questions about how her politics might have influenced books featured in the Review, so Sandy Ernest Allen and Maris Kreizman set to rectify it via an extensive list of the best in queer literature published in Literary Hub.

📸 According to two people quoted by The Washington Post, Pete Hegseth is no longer permitting photos inside the Pentagon press briefing room after “unflattering” photos. This comes a year after many legacy media lost their Pentagon press credentials.

📈 While other publishers have downsized, AG Sulzberger announced that the New York Times employs a record 2,300 journalists, more than 3,000 when other Times properties are included.

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 and Marlee Baldridge. Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next week.

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