This week, a brief announcement from The Objective team: Gabe and I were honored in Minneapolis at the end of June for our work with The Objective! You can read more about the award below.

An abbreviated version of our media links is on our Instagram each week, focusing on what a handful of those stories say about how power and identity impact journalism. (Most recent week’s here.)

The Objective is proud to announce that its co-executive directors — James Salanga and Gabe Schneider — have received the Asian American Journalists Association's (AAJA) 2026 Award for Leadership in Diversity & Solidarity.

"The Asian American Journalists Association was honored to recognize The Objective, which holds newsrooms accountable on topics like diversity, representation and fairness,” AAJA said in a statement about the award. “Its coverage, led by James Salanga and Gabe Schneider, is never afraid to ask hard and uncomfortable questions. In doing so, they fight for more inclusive newsrooms and a better future for journalists.”

Read the full release here.

Each week, we summarize a snapshot of the how and why behind what made headlines this week, both in and about journalism. 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.

🪕 “We know you want news, not slop”: Seven Tribune collective bargaining units, from Florida to Connecticut, are negotiating for an AI policy in their next contract that management can’t unilaterally change.

🏔 FOLLOW-UP: Seattle Times management (allegedly) trashed (recycled) flyers the union set out around the newsroom asking the paper to come to the table for a wage proposal that has been on management’s desk for months. Early last week, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge against the company for refusing to address this demand. In response, the company filed one right back.

💥 Signal safety compromised: The Intercept’s tip line was breached, allowing the third-party infiltrator to reach out to whistleblowers. It’s not immediately clear how long the tip line was compromised for, or who hacked the investigative news site’s supposedly secure Signal platform. (Freedom of the Press Foundation published a guide about Signal account safety shortly after.)

🗳 Earlier this week, the Committee to Protect Journalists board of directors voted to affirm its existing definition of who qualifies as a journalist. Last year, according to CPJ data, the most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist was Palestine, so many saw this attempt to change the definition as a way to discredit murdered press corps in Gaza and Lebanon. Columbia Journalism Review wrote up the current state of the board’s ruling.

🏛 To prevent further loss of Palestinian culture, a team associated with the Palestinian Museum is digitizing art and culture from Gaza. From the WIRED article: “The Palestinian Museum’s mission is both preservation and access: to safeguard Palestinian history and make it available to those unable to visit Palestine.” The goal is to build a “resilient” archive that cannot be stolen or lost to colonialism.

— Seattle Times Union Instagram (retrieved July 7, 2026)

This issue is by James Salanga and Marlee Baldridge. Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next week.

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