Gwyneth Mellinger
@gwynmell.bsky.social
Media historian and recovering journalist. Author of Racializing Objectivity: How the White Southern Press Used Journalism Standards to Defend Jim Crow (2024) #RacializingObjectivity; Chasing Newsroom Diversity: From Jim Crow to Affirmative Action (2013)
Honored that #RacializingObjectivity received the book award from AJHA. I am grateful to my peers.
Congratulations to Gwyneth Mellinger, author of "Racializing Objectivity:
How the White Southern Press Used Journalism Standards to Defend Jim Crow," and winner of AJHA's Book Award this year! More about her book and our runners up here: tinyurl.com/ywuvpabh
How the White Southern Press Used Journalism Standards to Defend Jim Crow," and winner of AJHA's Book Award this year! More about her book and our runners up here: tinyurl.com/ywuvpabh
June 28, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Honored that #RacializingObjectivity received the book award from AJHA. I am grateful to my peers.
Very grateful that my labor of love received this award. I am humbled by the outstanding competition. #RacializingObjectivity
Congrats to the AEJMC Tankard Book Award Winner:
Racializing Objectivity: How the White Southern Press Used Journalism Standards to Defend Jim Crow, Gwyneth Mellinger, University of Massachusetts Press, 2024. Also congrats to the two finalists! #AEJMC25 #AejmcAwards
Racializing Objectivity: How the White Southern Press Used Journalism Standards to Defend Jim Crow, Gwyneth Mellinger, University of Massachusetts Press, 2024. Also congrats to the two finalists! #AEJMC25 #AejmcAwards
June 27, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Very grateful that my labor of love received this award. I am humbled by the outstanding competition. #RacializingObjectivity
Reposted by Gwyneth Mellinger
Honoured that Capturing News, Capturing Democracy: Trump and @voanews.com.web.brid.gy was a finalist for the @aejmc.bsky.social
prestigious Tankard award. @melbunce.bsky.social @martinscott2010.bsky.social and I are delighted. Our hearty congratulations to @gwynmell.bsky.social!
prestigious Tankard award. @melbunce.bsky.social @martinscott2010.bsky.social and I are delighted. Our hearty congratulations to @gwynmell.bsky.social!
Congrats to the AEJMC Tankard Book Award Winner:
Racializing Objectivity: How the White Southern Press Used Journalism Standards to Defend Jim Crow, Gwyneth Mellinger, University of Massachusetts Press, 2024. Also congrats to the two finalists! #AEJMC25 #AejmcAwards
Racializing Objectivity: How the White Southern Press Used Journalism Standards to Defend Jim Crow, Gwyneth Mellinger, University of Massachusetts Press, 2024. Also congrats to the two finalists! #AEJMC25 #AejmcAwards
June 20, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Honoured that Capturing News, Capturing Democracy: Trump and @voanews.com.web.brid.gy was a finalist for the @aejmc.bsky.social
prestigious Tankard award. @melbunce.bsky.social @martinscott2010.bsky.social and I are delighted. Our hearty congratulations to @gwynmell.bsky.social!
prestigious Tankard award. @melbunce.bsky.social @martinscott2010.bsky.social and I are delighted. Our hearty congratulations to @gwynmell.bsky.social!
Reposted by Gwyneth Mellinger
That feels very much like the British actions in the 1770s that ... checks notes ... led to the series of grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence and a legal system based around warrants, habeas corpus, and on and on....
April 25, 2025 at 8:39 PM
That feels very much like the British actions in the 1770s that ... checks notes ... led to the series of grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence and a legal system based around warrants, habeas corpus, and on and on....
True.
Mainstream media (like the NYT) is struggling to call racism racism. This has a longer history. While many news orgs seriously covered parts of the Southern civil rights movement, they demonized the Northern movement & MLK's support of it—and justified Northern segregation: time.com/7271258/news...
How Newspapers Struggled to Cover Segregation in the North
Media outlets that praised Martin Luther King Jr.'s work in the South treated Northern segregation differently.
time.com
April 12, 2025 at 4:03 AM
True.
@lisamurkowski.bsky.social Then do something.
My father was stationed in Fairbanks during WW2 for a reason.
My father was stationed in Fairbanks during WW2 for a reason.
March 2, 2025 at 10:44 AM
@lisamurkowski.bsky.social Then do something.
My father was stationed in Fairbanks during WW2 for a reason.
My father was stationed in Fairbanks during WW2 for a reason.
Reposted by Gwyneth Mellinger
A light in an otherwise dark week.
Judge orders nationwide preliminary injunction of anti-DEI executive orders.
"Plaintiffs’ irreparable harms include widespread chilling of unquestionably protected speech."
www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/u...
"Plaintiffs’ irreparable harms include widespread chilling of unquestionably protected speech."
www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/u...
February 22, 2025 at 12:15 AM
A light in an otherwise dark week.
Bravo.
February 16, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Bravo.
Denali.
The Indigenous People of North America have decided to go back to calling the Gulf of Mexico, “Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl”. It is what the Nahuatl People originally called it as it is the domain of the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, who is assoc w/water bodies, including the Gulf of Mexico.
February 15, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Denali.
Reposted by Gwyneth Mellinger
So important.
350 Rabbis took out a full page ad in the NYTimes today opposing Trump’s plan for Palestine and calling it ethnic cleansing.
February 14, 2025 at 1:41 AM
So important.
Context is everything.
Friendly reminder to journalists and news consumers: When you report - or read - a story about regulations, laws, or rules - look back at why and how they came to be in the first place. To correct what? Prevent what? Protect what (or whom)? Those back stories provide critical context.
February 9, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Context is everything.
The potential implications of this are chilling.
ABC News reported Marco Rubio has been acting as head of the National Archives for weeks. This is news to everyone at the National Archives, including, apparently, the current head of NARA:
www.404media.co/national-arc...
www.404media.co/national-arc...
National Archives Workers Unsure If Marco Rubio Has Secretly Been Their Boss for Weeks
The current Archivist of the United States held an all-hands this week in which she still seemed to be in charge, 404 Media has learned.
www.404media.co
February 6, 2025 at 6:49 PM
The potential implications of this are chilling.
Reposted by Gwyneth Mellinger
In 2016 the NYT ran multiple front page stories page about the grave national security risk of Hillary Clinton's server.
Today's front page, and nary a mention of the successful "plutocratic coup" (said by a sitting House member) or "constitutional crisis (said by a sitting Senator) unfolding
Today's front page, and nary a mention of the successful "plutocratic coup" (said by a sitting House member) or "constitutional crisis (said by a sitting Senator) unfolding
February 4, 2025 at 1:51 PM
In 2016 the NYT ran multiple front page stories page about the grave national security risk of Hillary Clinton's server.
Today's front page, and nary a mention of the successful "plutocratic coup" (said by a sitting House member) or "constitutional crisis (said by a sitting Senator) unfolding
Today's front page, and nary a mention of the successful "plutocratic coup" (said by a sitting House member) or "constitutional crisis (said by a sitting Senator) unfolding
Seriously.
Well the award for most cowardly, boot-lickingest academic society has squarely gone to the American Society of Microbiology, who has taken down features of various non-white scientists. Absolutely pathetic behavior. Those articles are now coming up as “under review”. Truly sickening cowardice here.
February 3, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Seriously.
USAID also assists countries transition to democratic elections (Paraguay, for example). Not surprising that it’s suddenly out of favor.
If you took everyone saved by USAid's immunization work and put them in the Superdome, it would be full. And require 37 more Superdomes. Each year.
A look at what's at risk when Musk and Trump blindly rip through the government for applause.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
A look at what's at risk when Musk and Trump blindly rip through the government for applause.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Opinion | What’s at risk when the federal government also is
The sudden stop in federal funding reminded Americans how vital the government is in people’s lives.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 3, 2025 at 12:30 PM
USAID also assists countries transition to democratic elections (Paraguay, for example). Not surprising that it’s suddenly out of favor.
Reposted by Gwyneth Mellinger
WIRED has been downright exceptional in covering this carnage.
February 2, 2025 at 7:35 PM
WIRED has been downright exceptional in covering this carnage.
Agreed. Where are the injunctions?
How is this legal? How? Why is every top Democrat not outside the Treasury right now, holding a press conference at least? Or filing a lawsuit?? I am losing my mind.
“Elon Musk has vowed to unilaterally cancel hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of gov’t grants after gaining access to review the US Treasury’s vast payments system, a move that prompted the sudden resignation of one of the department’s most senior officials.”
www.ft.com/content/27ba...
www.ft.com/content/27ba...
February 2, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Agreed. Where are the injunctions?
Waiting for court challenges, tick tock.
Why Write About the Illegality of What Trump and Musk are Doing?
My latest newsletter post here:
buttondown.com/sbagen/archi...
My latest newsletter post here:
buttondown.com/sbagen/archi...
Why Write About the Illegality of What Trump and Musk are Doing?
By Samuel Bagenstos NYU Law professor Noah Rosenblum posted on Bluesky yesterday that “[t]here has never been a larger gap in my (admittedly quite short)...
buttondown.com
February 2, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Waiting for court challenges, tick tock.
Institutional mission statements public and private are next, I fear.
The FBI’s core values, including integrity, compassion, fairness, and allegiance to the Constitution - and oh, yeah, diversity, are being painted over at the FBI Academy. Source: NYT.
January 31, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Institutional mission statements public and private are next, I fear.
The author posted a correction: It’s the Japanese-American Memorial to Patriotism during World War II.
I went to post about the National Japanese American Memorial in D.C., which is beautiful but usually missed by tourists. It is a deeply staggering admission of guilt and a warning to future Americans. I went to link to the inscriptions and-
Well, they took the site down. www.nps.gov/places/japan...
Well, they took the site down. www.nps.gov/places/japan...
January 31, 2025 at 8:56 PM
The author posted a correction: It’s the Japanese-American Memorial to Patriotism during World War II.
Yes, let’s not scroll past what #AP has done. AP style sets norms in #journalism. If DT issues an EO renaming DC “Trumpopolis,” or some such, will AP fold? My book #RacializingObjectivity has a lot to say about the AP, language and political power.
I'm not going to call Denali "Mount McKinley." I understand why the AP thinks it has to, since the president has the authority to rename it. But getting rid of "Denali" is a white conqueror move, totally repugnant.
AP style guidance on Gulf of Mexico, Mount McKinley | The Associated Press
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The body of water has shared borders between the
www.ap.org
January 24, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Yes, let’s not scroll past what #AP has done. AP style sets norms in #journalism. If DT issues an EO renaming DC “Trumpopolis,” or some such, will AP fold? My book #RacializingObjectivity has a lot to say about the AP, language and political power.
Deeply disappointed that #AP has decided very quickly to obey in advance. My book #RacializingObjectivity looks at AP’s use of language in calibrating news values and bowing to political power.
The AP establishes style guidance on the Gulf of Mexico and Mount McKinley.
apnews.com/article/ap-s...
apnews.com/article/ap-s...
The AP establishes style guidance on the Gulf of Mexico and Mount McKinley
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday shortly after his inauguration calling for the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed the Gulf of America and Denali, the tallest peak in the United State...
apnews.com
January 24, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Deeply disappointed that #AP has decided very quickly to obey in advance. My book #RacializingObjectivity looks at AP’s use of language in calibrating news values and bowing to political power.
I used to think that journalism was the essential profession, until I became a historian.
When someone accuses me of being a “revisionist historian,” what they are really accusing me of doing is thinking. 🗃️
January 20, 2025 at 12:23 PM
I used to think that journalism was the essential profession, until I became a historian.
Please remind the TikTok community that DT started this with an executive order in 2020. The next owner will be selected by DT and will make it an extension of X, Truth Social, etc. The platform they will get back won’t be the same.
January 19, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Please remind the TikTok community that DT started this with an executive order in 2020. The next owner will be selected by DT and will make it an extension of X, Truth Social, etc. The platform they will get back won’t be the same.
It may be called something else, but I am optimistic that DEI’s core principles will eventually be reaffirmed in education, employment etc. First, however, we need consensus on democratic values.
If you’re a libertarian who worried about state pressure to enact DEI mandates, then you should now decry companies responding to state pressure to abolish DEI programs.
(Assuming you’re actually acting out of principle instead of bald partisanship.)
(Assuming you’re actually acting out of principle instead of bald partisanship.)
Not much to see here, just Mark Zuckerberg making sure that Stephen Miller, of all people, greenlights Facebook's new hiring policies.
Gift link to this excellent NYT piece: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/u...
Gift link to this excellent NYT piece: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/u...
January 18, 2025 at 5:29 PM
It may be called something else, but I am optimistic that DEI’s core principles will eventually be reaffirmed in education, employment etc. First, however, we need consensus on democratic values.