Friend,

In a moment, I’m going to ask you to chip in toward Free Press’ triple-matched, $25,000 #GivingTuesday goal. But first, I wanted to explain why this goal is so important.

Over the past year and a half, I’ve been researching the need to prioritize healing and repair to confront journalism’s violent history. This has culminated in Free Press’ newly created Reparative Journalism Project, which draws on the community-organizing model of our News Voices project and the media-reparations call of our Media 2070 work.

The Reparative Journalism Project is a call to prioritize institutional, cultural and communal healing within the field of journalism and with all of its stakeholders. To welcome this project to the world, we launched a video series to highlight how journalism has harmed Black communities and other communities of color — and what journalism can learn from processes of repair.

But to continue this critical work, Free Press relies on funding from grassroots donors like you to fuel the Reparative Journalism Project and other programmatic initiatives. We’re counting on you. Please make your first-ever donation to Free Press toward our $25k goal on this #GivingTuesday — every dollar you give will go THREE TIMES as far.

There’s a throughline between how white supremacy kept the earliest newspapers afloat and the racist and capitalist underpinnings of the contemporary crime beat (which does little to make our communities safer). There are connections between how newspapers encouraged the detainment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the ways in which today’s media portray immigrants, migrants and asylees looking to make a home in the United States.

Many scholars, journalists and organizers have surfaced and resurfaced these connections throughout the history of journalism. Reparative journalism creates space to fully grasp this history and experiment with strategies that will create an equitable future for the media.

Much of this history isn’t discussed in journalism schools, newsroom orientations or conference panels, but it is central to how journalism is created and experienced by all of us today. Our collective understanding of this history will be central to our ability to bring about repair.

As journalist and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells said, “The way to right wrongs is to shine the light of truth on them.”

Every day at Free Press, we’re working to create a world where people have the information and opportunities they need to tell their own stories, hold leaders accountable and participate in our democracy. If you’re with us in the fight to combat the media’s harms against Black communities and other communities of color, take advantage of our #GivingTuesday TRIPLE-matched gift offer with a donation to Free Press today.

Thanks for your support,

Diamond and the rest of the News Voices team
freepress.net