Though Donald Trump’s last-minute NABJ appearance was a measly 37 minutes, short of the hour he promised, it brought cameras into a community space meant for Black journalists, not the rest of the world. 

The former president repeatedly lied — though NABJ president Ken Lemon promised “truthful answers” — and demeaned the Black female journalists on the panel, particularly ABC News host Rachel Scott, who listed Trump’s racist remarks before asking why Black voters should trust him. 

Reporting for The Triibe, Tiffany Walden, Tonia Hill, and Coria Jay write that NABJ leadership’s lack of transparency only fed the spectacle, as Black journalists swiftly questioned the appearance’s utility via social media, and say the event itself reflected a split in ideals. 

“What unfolded during the event highlighted a divide between the principle of objectivity and the abolitionist tradition the Black press was born out of,” they wrote. “Black journalists often do a delicate dance, having to choose between objectivity in the workplace while also reporting from the perspective of institutionally marginalized people.”

On top of the last-minute decision creating organizational rifts among rank-and-file members and upending the first= day’s schedule, task force members at NABJ — including conference co-chair Karen Attiah and LGBTQ+ Task Force chair Femi Redwood — said they were cut out of the decision-making process, undercutting the organization’s mission to strengthen ties among Black journalists, student journalists, journalism educators and media professionals.

Post-panel, some NABJ members and attendees are calling for the organization’s president, Ken Lemon, and other senior leaders to resign. Former NABJ board member and journalist Roland Martin told The Triibe that leadership “simply cannot defend what the hell we just witnessed … Leadership has to answer for this abomination and how they allowed for NABJ to get played nationally.” 

And trans journalist Raquel Willis canceled her NABJ Author Stage event altogether and is boycotting NABJ “until there is true accountability from NABJ executive leadership on this decision.”

“We have to wonder if NABJ’s leadership has learned nothing from the last eight years of Trump media coverage,” she wrote in a July 31 statement. “Without moral clarity, all journalists fail. ‘This is just my job’ is an insufficient response to the growing threat of fascism and existing systems of oppression.”

Read my day-of coverage of the panel and more in-depth reporting from The Triibe, republished by The Objective, on The Objective’s site.

— James Salanga 

Q&A with The 51st: The Objective’s co-director James Salanga sat down with two of the co-founders of the worker-led D.C. local newsroom co-op, Colleen Grablick and Abigail Higgins, to talk about making something new from DCist’s ashes, reporting for D.C.’s sizable Black population, and the importance of covering D.C. as peoples’ home, not just the nation’s capital. Read the story in The Objective. 

IRE looks into what marginalized journalists need to pursue investigative work: Investigative reporter Lam Thuy Vo, who previously wrote about her difficulty finding support to pursue a year-long reporting project, worked with IRE’s diversity and inclusion committee to speak with affinity organization leaders for a needs assessment. For The Objective, Vo wrote the first public recap of the findings. Read the story in The Objective.

While ‘Pod Save America’ tries to unite Democrats, its staff rebels: Though it aims to present a united front against former president Donald Trump, Ashley Carman reports that the podcast’s hosts and parent company Crooked Media’s founders are increasingly dealing with divisions brought on by crunch culture as the election approaches, divided views on Israel’s bombardment of Palestine, and low retention rates. Read the story in Bloomberg.

Journalists become their own archivists: As more and more digital-only news outlets shutter and leave the web — in some cases, taking reporters’ work as they go dark — journalists have had to incorporate archiving practices to keep their stories, and first drafts of history, alive. Hanaa’ Tameez spoke with three journalists about going beyond the Wayback Machine to preserve their work. Read the story in Nieman Lab.

Prism Workers United voluntarily recognized: The same day Prism workers announced they had chosen to unanimously sign cards to unionize with Pacific Media Guild, the indie, journalists-of-color-led newsroom’s leadership voluntarily recognized the union. Prism Workers United represents editorial, audience, operations, and development workers, and says its mission is “to build a workplace that, much like our reporting, strives for justice, liberation, & hope.” Read Prism Workers United’s stories via X.

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