First things first: We won’t be in your inbox next week due to the holiday. Stay safe and hydrated! We’ll be back on July 11.
Onto this week’s top story: Assigned Media’s Evan Urquhart covers the importance of New York Times stories in deciding U.S. v. Skrmetti, a Supreme Court case further limiting trans people’s access to healthcare. The paper of record had its stories cited 29 times in amicus briefs supporting Tennessee’s ban on youth gender-affirming care, underscoring the role it’s played in pushing trans people out of public life.
In this issue:
🏥 New York Times cited 29 times to justify decision limiting trans healthcare
📝 San Diego Union-Tribune opinion editor’s firing echoes further evisceration by Alden Global Capital
And also: A historic LA Japanese paper makes its first move in 122-year history, abolitionist newsroom The Emancipator enters a new chapter, journalism nonprofits suing OpenAI, and WaPo cuts its Metro section from print while adding source annotations to some climate stories. Plus, the resource of the week is a conversation about how some local newsrooms are using quizzes to increase civic engagement.
—James Salanga
GENDER & SEXUALITY
New York Times cited 29 times to justify Supreme Court decision limiting trans healthcare
New York Times stories were cited 29 times in amicus briefs supporting Tennessee’s ban on youth gender-affirming care — a ban upheld in the U.S. v. Skrmetti decision on June 18.
The decision leaves in place bans that have forced families of some trans kids to leave their homes to maintain access to the necessary treatments. The precedent could open the door to bans on adult care, upend protections against sex discrimination, and may even leave courts helpless to intervene if an increasingly anti-science GOP moves on from bans on trans healthcare to bans on vaccines.
The Times, which has pushed back against allegations of bias in its trans coverage, was referenced frequently in briefs that sought to portray the treatments as mired in questions and controversy despite gender-affirming care being backed by every major medical organization in the U.S. Reporter Azeen Ghorayshi was by far the most frequently cited by amici defending bans, with 14 citations referencing 7 separate articles, followed by former Times opinion columnist Pamela Paul, with 7 citations referencing 3 columns.
In contrast, briefs submitted in opposition to healthcare bans cited the Times only four times.
The day after the decision, the Times celebrated with a victory lap of sorts: It published six separate stories about the case, many of which framed the decision as the consequence of overreach by the trans rights movement. Erin Reed, a trans journalist and advocate, described it in a scathing opinion column as “dancing on the graves of the transgender youth it has repeatedly thrown to the wolves.”
—Evan Urquhart
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RACE, LABOR
San Diego Union-Tribune opinion editor’s firing echoes further evisceration by Alden Global Capital
Laura Castañeda says the decision was “retaliation” from the paper’s parent company for a more diverse opinion page. Her firing comes amid a struggle for editorial independence at the Union-Tribune, similarly playing out across editorial boards nationwide. Read the story on The Objective.
WHAT ELSE?
A bit more media
Abolitionist newsroom The Emancipator enters new chapter: Publisher and GM Amber Payne reflects on The Emancipator’s journey ahead of its June 30 transition from Boston University to Howard University, as part of co-founder Ibram X. Kendi’s Institute of Advanced Study. “In this moment of crisis, old norms of objectivity are a disservice to an audience trying to make sense of dysfunctional and broken systems,” she writes.
LA’s historic Japanese American paper priced out of Little Tokyo: Due to gentrification and rising rents, The Rafu Shimpo is making its first move in its 122-year history and relocating to Montebello. Publisher Michael Komai said most staff are working remotely, another factor in the move, and added that the paper’s mission to inform and represent the Japanese American community “will continue unabated.”
What it takes to sue OpenAI as a journalism nonprofit: The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) filed a copyright suit against OpenAI last year, and along with The Intercept, is the only journalism nonprofit to take the company to court. “We cannot have journalism once again be this free resource that is mined for an incredible amount of profit by a tech company, and wait for some handout at the pleasure of those companies,” said CIR’s CEO Monika Bauerlein.
WaPo cuts Metro section, adds source annotation program: As the paper’s circulation falls below 100,000 for the first time in its history, it will merge its Metro, Sports, and Style sections into one for the print edition on most days. This comes as the Post’s climate journalists are subject to a new program, “From the Source,” allowing sources named in their stories to annotate articles they appear in (subject to editorial approval).
🗞️ Read more in the Washington City Paper and via archive.ph.
(And an update to one of last week’s “A bit more media” stories: Coyote Media Collective reached their initial $80,000 funding goal and are pursuing a stretch goal of $150,000.)
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JOURNALISM IN A GRAF
Quote of the week
“By treating anti-trans campaigns as if they emerge from legitimate medical concerns, outlets like the New York Times provide cover for what is essentially an eliminationist political movement.”
FINALLY…
Resource of the week
This week’s resource is … a chat with Outlier Media and THE CITY NY about how quizzes can increase confidence in civic participation.
Primaries are getting more crowded.
Progressive state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani emerged from a field of nine candidates to win New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, positioning him to become the city’s youngest and first Muslim mayor. And in Detroit, voters will choose between 11 candidates in a nonpartisan primary on Aug. 5, its first competitive race after longtime mayor Mike Dugan decided not to run for re-election.
Crowded primaries can be bad for voters, lowering the threshold to secure a nomination and creating a level of choice overload that can hurt civic participation. They’re yet another reason for flagging turnout as trust in our institutions, our democracy, and our system of checks-and-balances remains low. The media, we know, also isn’t blameless, thanks to years of horse-race reporting that rewarded mudslinging over substantive policy discussion to make some voters feel too uninformed to cast a ballot.
How can journalists get voters excited about voting? Or, better yet, to feel their vote is an informed choice? Some of them have started with quizzes.
Alyssa Katz, the executive editor of New York City-based THE CITY, says quizzes “let people engage on their own terms,” especially because consuming news is a “very passive experience.”
—Beatrice Forman, Democracy Journalism Columnist
Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next week.
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