In 2020, after a national uprising in many cities demanding police reform and accountability, many newsrooms issued public apologies, pledged reforms, and committed to anti-racist practices. Committees were formed. Positions to cover diverse communities were hired. Statements circulated.

But today, many of those promises have fallen through. And many of those reporters hired have been laid off as newsrooms deem race and equity no longer worthy of their own beat.

Even tracking those 2020 pledges has proved inconsistent. Some news outlets have stopped publishing workforce demographic data; others declined to take part in industry-wide diversity surveys.

This is not a battle over ideology or a “culture war” — it’s a fight over desegregation and equal protection. The “reckoning” of 2020, in dozens of cases, is turning into retreat. When equity becomes optional, it becomes conditional. Those conditions set who gets to be validated by newsrooms, and in turn, seen, heard, and trusted.

Importantly, this retreat hasn’t been happening in a vacuum. In some cases, funders have shifted priorities, tightened budgets, or questioned the returns on equity programs. In others, organizations have faced political backlash or perceived reputational risk that leads them to comply in advance.

But the result is the same: Many of the promises made in 2020 risk becoming hollow. Many already have.

The Objective was founded in 2020 to ensure the work doesn’t fade into symbolism. With essays, criticism, and reporting, we examine systems of power and inequity in journalism: how newsrooms treat employees, how journalists engage with communities, and what journalism can be when it reckons with harm.

Our work is expensive, slow, and deliberately uncomfortable — the kind that doesn’t always attract easy funding. But it’s essential. We do it because the cost of silence is greater.

Your donation helps keep this kind of journalism alive: reporting that examines power, follows the money, and refuses to let 2020’s promises fade.

Donate & support the work that holds journalism accountable — especially when others won’t.

What is The Objective

The Objective publishes essays, criticism, and reporting that amplify voices historically marginalized in the field and press institutions to respond with accountability.

We publish freelancers from around the country, including non-journalists who have something to say about journalism in their community. Our core team includes:

Gabe Schneider, co-director and co-founder of The Objective.
James Salanga, co-director and one of The Objective’s first student contributors.
Moumita Chakraborty, fundraising coordinator
Jen Ramos Eisen, production assistant

What your donation supports

The promises made in 2020 were important, but promises need practice and consistency, not platitudes.

When DEI roles and training budgets vanish while race-centered coverage is rolled back, the communities that were told their stories would be centered carefully are left disappointed.

Transparency is being retracted. This behavior, on top of newsrooms removing workforce data or refusing to participate in diversity surveys, erodes trust.

If you donate monthly, we'll send you our annual print magazine. This year's theme was "The Future of Civic Media," featuring authors like Andrea D. Wenzel, An, Cierra Brown Hinton, Jennie Rose Halperin, Jennifer Brandel, Jesse Hardman, Jodi Rave Spotted Bear, and Kang-Xing Jin.

We'll also occasionally send you goodies like stickers and posters, so stay tuned.

Your support helps ensure that journalism’s commitments do not become a cycle of apologies and symbolic gestures. Instead, they become sustained obligations.

Every donation helps us:

Publish deeply reported work on newsroom culture, equity, and power
Support early-career critics and reporters from marginalized backgrounds
Offer communities a platform to engage with coverage that affects them
Build resources and tools for journalists to de-emphasize harm in their work

In 2020, journalism promised to change. It’s time we see it through.