Singer: ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ Woman: OK, babe.
Mama's got to do a couple minutes of-- How do I test this camera?
Child: When will you-- Man: You can just open Zoom.
Child: When will you come watch with me?
You can just go into Zoom.
Soph, Mama's gotta do a little-- Why do you got to work?
Sophie, Mama's got to to do some work for a minute.
[Sophie crying] -Sophie, don't cry.
-Do you have the app?
This is all I have.
Sophie: I want milk.
Man: What cup do you want?
Are you gonna put that on a tripod?
No.
I'm gonna handhold it.
What are you going to do with--about Sophie?
She's sitting there watching.
Woman, on computer: Here we go.
Sophie: I don't want this!
Man: Hello.
How are you?
I know you've got a lot of people vying for your attention right now, -so I'm lucky that I'm-- -Well, what is it?
I'm happy to hear about it.
So here's what the venture is.
It's called The 19thá*.
You know, 70% of top newspaper editors are men.
Almost all of them are white.
What that means is that those are the people deciding what's news and what isn't, and The 19thá* is the country's first nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom at the intersection of women, politics, and policy.
The environment we're in right now, candidly, is pretty terrifying.
The coronavirus took a lot of wind out of our sails.
So what's terrifying about that?
'Cause you're doing a startup, so that should be terrifying.
-I mean-- -maybe you--maybe you don't understand what you're doing.
No, I mean-- You know, you're worried about the virus.
You're doing a startup.
Are you insane?
Like...
I know my tech-- And just to clear the air, I'm out because I can't do anything until this transaction is done.
I don't know if you know, but I work with a couple of other journalism schools, and I think journalism is dead in America right now.
Oh, that's such a tragic statement.
But it's very upset-- I mean, oh, my God.
It's very upsetting.
You know, I find that most great startups are founded in horrible times like this, economically, whatever.
God, that's reassuring.
-Thank you.
-All of mine have been.
Who do you know from kind of my world, like, women in the tech world?
Not many.
I mean, that's the first hurdle.
Then I all of a sudden can actually be useful to you.
Amazing, amazing.
Send me a mail that I can send to some of my female friends... News anchor: Newsrooms across the country have long been accused of failing to represent the communities they cover.
♪ Michael Colin Gallagher: That stuff in the paper, that's not true.
You know that.
All I know is-- Is what you read in the damn newspaper.
♪ Film narrator: Now this is Joe, photographer from the "Star," and over there is Charlie, a reporter.
Don Patterson, "Valley Times."
Good evening.
I'm Roger Grimsby.
Here now the news.
I'm John Slattery.
I'm Roger Sharp.
-I'm Bob Miller.
-I'm Bob Lape.
Bill.
Bill: Thank you, Vince.
Man: Roger.
Woodward, Bernstein, you're both on the story.
Now don't ... it up.
And he said, "You know what?
"You should not take this job because "women have no news judgment, and you can't carry the camera."
People have asked if I want to be called an anchorman or anchorwoman or anchorperson.
Walters, voice-over: I even remember saying, "We should do something on the women's movement," and he wrote back, "Not enough interest."
Woman: The problems with diversity in media have existed since the creation of media.
Emily Kane: People will think-- What I tell them to think.
Let's just look at AirCheck over the last 30 days and see how many people of color appear on our air because there's very, very few.
Jamil Smith: When you don't have enough women, when you don't have enough Black people or other people of color, you are going to miss a lot.
Howard Beale: You're beginning to think that the tube is reality.
You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here.
♪ Boy: Morning "Star."
Read all about it!
Morning paper!
♪ Woman: I would try to read it with a little bit of a smile.
-OK. -OK?
Yup.
You don't have to have a huge smile, but a little bit of a smile.
You sounded very serious, where-- I should sound happy.
-We're more excited about this.
-Yeah.
Let's be excited about it.
It's hard to be smiling when you say, "We remain marginalized in gov"-- We remain marginalized in government and elected-- Yeah.
Do you want to talk about what inspired you to start The 19thá*?
Um, Not really, because you can't separate that from Donald Trump, and I don't want to talk about Donald Trump in this launch video.
OK. Emily, voice-over: I have grown up in a journalism environment where I was often the youngest person in the room, frequently the only woman in the room.
Man: We want to bring in Emily Ramshaw from the "Texas Tribune."
She's had a chance to observe all of this.
Bill Clinton is a fan favorite for Texas Democrats.
Emily, voice-over: When this idea first occurred to me, I was on maternity leave.
I had a brand-new baby girl.
Donald Trump had just been inaugurated.
There was women's marches taking place all over the country.
The MeToo movement was picking up speed.
I thought, "Women deserve a destination news platform that is just for them."
It felt like a huge hole in the media environment that we needed to fill.
Amanda, voice-over: I spent the better part of my 20s working my way across the "Washington Post" newsroom.
I've worked at ProPublica, and I had been at the "Texas Tribune" going on 4 years.
I had started being a lot more attentive to just the failures of political journalism in particular.
Elaine Quijano: Joining me now from Washington is Errin Haines.
She is a national writer for the Associated Press.
Errin: I think that it really highlights the idea that the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow is, in fact, not past.
Errin, voice-over: My dream job was to be national race writer for the Associated Press.
Like, that was what I felt like was my best and highest use as a journalist, but we knew how huge of a story race was, and yet we weren't saying that as a newsroom.
Like, as a newsroom, it was not a priority, and that's not something that's restricted to the Associated Press.
That is an industry-wide issue.
♪ [Coffee machine whirring] [Yawning] Oh, man.
Hi, Ginger.
[Paws pattering] You may appreciate my coffee mug for the day.
I just realized that.
OG suffragist Abigail Adams.
I got this at the Museum of the American Revolution.
It's my favorite place.
Come on, Ginger.
Let's go.
[Typing] When we were growing up, I was not allowed to watch television during dinner unless we were watching the news.
So if I wanted to watch TV, which I usually did, that meant that I was gonna watch the news.
The main anchor on my favorite television station was a Black woman-- Monica Kaufman.
The crowded field of presidential candidates has one less man today... Errin: Who was on air for most of my life.
I didn't even realize that there were stations that didn't have a Black woman delivering the news every day because I'm from Atlanta.
That showed me what was possible, and also, she just encouraged my curiosity.
You know, I asked a lot of questions.
I was nosy as hell.
That didn't hurt.
[Phone line ringing] -What up?
-Well, you know, I swear I don't try to break news, but, you know, the news comes to me, and... That's how it goes.
that's what's happened tonight.
So here's where we are.
Biden campaign just hit me up.
They have bagged Karine Jean-Pierre as senior advisor.
-That's great.
-Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, the "Times" is sniffing around on this, and they're giving it to us exclusively.
Very nice.
All right.
Well, I'll hit up Terry, and I'll keep you posted.
-All right.
Sounds good.
-All right.
Later.
-All right.
Bye.
-Bye.
♪ ♪ [Computer chimes] Emily: Hi.
Good morning.
Welcome to our brave new world of all-virtual meetings, all-virtual conferencing.
Just speak briefly to, like, the editorial strategy.
I mean, this crisis is really exacerbating inequality right now.
Andrea: I mean, I think that we are seeing clearly what is one of the biggest stories probably in our lifetimes.
You know, while we are sort of in this holding pattern, trying to figure out especially what the next couple of weeks look like, you know, Johanna is sort of moving full speed ahead to try to lure in corporate sponsors, launch sponsors at a time of great uncertainty for them, too.
Johanna: There's whole industries, and certainly companies that I am not gonna reach out to right now as they're furloughing employees.
Amy Goodman: At a time when many journalists are risking their lives to cover one of the most significant stories of their lifetime, media companies are slashing jobs and salaries.
Over the past week, hundreds of journalists at Vice, Quartz, "The Economist," BuzzFeed, Condé Nast have been laid off.
Man: I think the crisis in journalism in America has become a real crisis for our democracy.
Uh, we are about to get on the phone with the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, which is an organization that provides emergency support to news organizations during times of crisis.
We are currently publishing with the "Washington Post," with our full launch anticipated for this summer.
We have so far only had one reporter-- Errin Haines.
We are simply trying to keep this brand-new nonprofit venture afloat and perform this kind of work.
The kind of support in general, I think, is more of a stretch.
I don't know, 20 or 25 proposals in the last week or so from all over the world.
Right now, we're more at, like, 40 proposals, John.
Emily: Wow.
It'll be 41 applications pretty soon here, I'm sure.
They have--I mean, there are a lot of people who need a lot right now.
Sophie: Mommy, can I work?
Can you what?
What?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Please put that gently on the couch.
But I need to work.
Oh, you need to work?
Emily, voice-over: Journalism is really the only thing I ever wanted to do.
My parents are both political journalists.
I grew up, you know, having family vacations occasionally derailed by wars or philandering presidents, and for me, it was just obvious.
♪ I was, you know, the editor of the high school newspaper.
I went to journalism school for college.
It's been the only thing I ever wanted to do, and it's the only thing I ever want to do going forward.
Sophie: ♪ Twinkle, twinkle, little star ♪ ♪ How I wonder ♪ Watch me jump!
Mommy, watch me jump!
Watch me pour myself a stiff drink.
Sophie: Watch me jump!
Emily, voice-over: I mean, what keeps me up at night is ensuring that I can pay the salaries of these extraordinary women, who have left their stable jobs to be part of this only to have their lives turned upside down.
You know, I also fear ... up being a mom right now.
[Typing] ♪ Andrea: Errin, we were just talking a little bit about stories that we had going.
Is there anything else that you're thinking about?
So you guys have seen the Ahmaud Arbery case, but there's also a woman who has been killed, who has gotten less attention, um, and so I am, um, actually kind of trying to familiarize myself with that one.
Her name is her name is-- her name was Breonna Taylor, 26 years old, same age as Ahmaud Arbery, and she was shot 8 times, and this happened about two months ago.
I talked to Ben Crump, who represented Trayvon Martin and everybody else.
He is representing this family, as well.
They are offering us the print exclusive today.
OK. Oh, my gosh!
Errin, voice-over: We know that Black men are the majority of the folks who are killed in these kinds of incidents.
It does happen to Black women, and when it does, those cases don't always get as much attention, and so that's why I felt like it was our story to tell.
♪ Am I leaving anything out?
♪ [Tweet] ♪ ♪ Joy Reid: I'm joined by Errin Haines, editor-at-large for The 19thá*.
This was a story that I, frankly, had not been aware of a lot of national media, I think, was not aware of.
Errin, your story in the "Washington Post," I think, has moved a lot of this.
Man: Say her name!
Protestors: Breonna Taylor!
-Say her name!
-Breonna Taylor!
Man: Say her name!
Kamala Harris: Breonna Taylor.
There should be an investigation.
♪ I felt gratified that I was able to get that story, to put it out, and that we did that story as The 19á*.
Um...like, I wanted her story told, and I felt good that I was the one that was able to tell it, um, but then when I got up the next morning, you know, I'm scrolling, and I keep seeing this story being reposted, and, like, every time that the story is reposted, her picture would be with the story.
It was just a really good picture of her, and she is only a couple of years older than my niece, whose whole life was ahead of her.
Like, I'd forgotten, like, how it feels on the other side of writing about it.
Like, Black Lives Matter is a story that Black journalists are also living through.
Like, you know, I could also be a person that this could happen to.
[Tweet] ♪ Emily: Errin, you were right to push for this.
My knee-jerk was that wasn't a story for us, and that was the wrong knee-jerk.
I was on the phone with Melinda Gates' people this morning, and they were all on a conference call talking about that case when the newsletter came through, and they were like, "Oh, my God.
It was The 19thá* that broke this story."
You know, Kamala Harris talking about it.
That story gave us a lot of runway yesterday.
This is an issue that's on the ballot for Black voters.
Racism is on the ballot for Black voters.
The issue of whether Black people can be safe in America is on the ballot for Black voters, you know, for the women who are being killed and also the women whose loved ones are being killed.
[Typing] Errin: Soraya, you were talking about, in this national reckoning, allyship and accompliceship.
I work in a newsroom that's named for the 19th Amendment but with an asterisk in our logo for the omission of the Black women, who were, frankly, sacrificed so that white women could get their access to the ballot.
What have they done with it?
You know, used that access largely to uphold systems of patriarchy and oppression, right?
So, you know, that is a dynamic that persists, and it's a dynamic that we have to confront.
A group of us met at this, like, super clandestine meeting in Austin and really kind of hammered out the vision for the newsroom, including, you know, the name because Emily wanted to name it for the 19th Amendment but was fully aware that that amendment had a complicated history, and so I suggested that we put the asterisk on.
You know, the asterisk is also really helpful shorthand for us editorially.
Everything that I write, you know, I'm trying to think, you know, whose voice are we not including?
Who else can we bring into this conversation?
What is the question that we could ask that will actually get us to some insight, something that we didn't actually know before?
♪ Amanda Zamora: OK. We just got a little bit more to do and then we're done.
Then you can clock out.
Then you can clock out, girl.
[Dog barking] Elita, por favor.
Ya!
Emily keeps Slacking me.
She can't help it.
She's a precrastinator.
Oh my, God.
There's a blog post on "Scientific America."
It's like an actual thing.
"Precrastination is the tendency to work "on tasks at the earliest opportunity, even if it means more work or comes with extra costs."
The opposite of what we're trying to do here at The 19thá*.
Emily sat me down, and she said, "What would you think if we left the 'Tribune' to start "a new nonprofit for women covering politics and policy for women?"
The first question that I had for her was to make sure that this wasn't gonna be just another media property for progressive white women.
I know that being Hispanic, being a Latina, I'm sure helped, you know, newsrooms who could tally me in their diversity reports and then at the same time take advantage of my perceived whiteness to just say and do things that are not OK.
I want to create an environment where others who have come up like I came up don't feel like they're in the position that I was in anymore.
Is there anything else before you go?
Emily: Nope.
Per the Slack message, I'm not gonna worry about that tonight.
Good, good.
And I'm going to see Andrea right now.
OK, good.
Tell her I said hi.
-I will.
-All right.
-Have a good night.
-All right.
-Bye.
-Bye.
Emily: Who needs some good news?
Whoo!
Errin: All of us.
Everyone.
Emily: Well, the first good news was, this morning, Melinda Gates' $500,000 gift got confirmed.
We also this morning got another $100,000 gift from a young woman philanthropist, which is awesome.
So we're hiring a "women and the economy" reporter, "women and health care" reporter.
We have just hired a congressional correspondent.
♪ Bernie Sanders: The federal minimum wage has not been raised by Congress since 2007.
Technically, it wasn't--didn't go into effect until 2009.
Sanders: $15 an hour the right thing to do.
It is also what the overwhelming majority of Americans want us to do.
Chabeli: Stop licking.
Stop licking, Flynn!
Well, I feel like I made some progress.
Heh heh.
How much are you trying to get to?
I'm not trying to get to anything.
I actually probably cannot turn in something this long.
What are you doing here?
Can you explain to me what you're doing here?
Did you put oil in that?
-No.
Just water.
-Oh.
I'm just cleaning it a little bit.
I have to call my mother She Facetimes her mom while she's driving, eating... Día largo hoy.
¿Trabajaste mucho, mi niña?
Yeah, dia tarde hoy.
Y mañana.
Chabeli, voice-over: I've been a reporter in Florida for a few years.
I worked at the "Miami Herald" and at the "Orlando Sentinel."
I wasn't just looking at this job because it was a national job.
I was looking at the job because of what the coverage area called for, because they were looking at a group of people that I cared a lot about, you know, people of color and women and LGBTQ folks, people on the margins.
That's what I wanted to cover.
My mom was an engineer in Cuba, but she didn't renew that title here.
It was actually fairly complicated to do that, so she worked as a housekeeper.
Over time, I had found that covering workers and labor had become a really big interest of mine in particular and especially marginalized communities.
I think those were the stories I could identify with the most, and they were not the stories that were being written.
Woman: Passing this minimum wage bill would do more to close the pay equity gap than pretty much any other single measure you could take now.
♪ I like that Viacom still sends me stuff like I work there.
"A savings benefit just for you.
Open your special Viacom employee discount code."
I'm like, "I don't work for-- you laid me off."
This is a list of the signers of the Promise to Protect America's Children from transgender people.
It's written by Southern Poverty Law Center, um, designated hate groups, and I'm looking at the people who have signed on to the promise.
This is state lawmakers, and I'm trying to compare it to states where anti-trans legislation has been filed.
Mike Thompson.
Bingo.
There he is.
Before I was at The 19thá*, I was doing national LGBTQ news, mostly for NBC.
I was tired of writing news for clicks, for ads.
My whole life, I wanted to do the stories that I felt like I needed to read that weren't being covered elsewhere, and I was always frustrated when I felt like 6 other media outlets were doing a story and an editor came to me and was like, "Would you cover this?"
And I wanted to be like, "Why?
"It's already being covered.
"Like, why do we need to do the thing that's already out there?"
At The 19thá*, the purpose is let's create the thing that's not created, right, and I feel really lucky to be in a position where that's the work that I get to do now.
Jena Powell.
Ohio.
Don't leave Ohio out.
Midwest represent!
H.B.-- [Computer chimes] Hey, Kate.
Good morning.
Amanda: We're all on time.
This is so impressive.
Emily: We're about to show you the full launch trailer video for The 19thá*.
Amanda: We are firm believers that all issues are women's issues.
Emily: Our goal is to launch the first newsroom that is truly reflective of the nation's women.
There's more women running now than ever have been before.
Emily: Newsrooms need to be more inclusive.
They need to better reflect their communities.
The 19thá* has the opportunity to do that from the ground floor, and we're not wasting that opportunity.
Amanda: Kate.
Kate: Yeah.
One thing I'm curious about, you know, we talk a lot about women, which is the market, and I'm wondering if there's any plan to talk about the fact that The 19thá* is really gender-inclusive, um, in terms of, you know, trans women and gender diversity, um, in terms of trans people generally, and if that's something that you want to explore.
Emily: Yes.
I mean, I think the answer to that is we absolutely want to explore it, and we want to play it up.
You know, obviously we've talked about women, you know, and this sort of, you know, primary audience of more than half of the population, but we pivoted to using gender language super early, you know, trying to signal to the world that inclusivity is exceedingly important to us, and so could you and I make a date to talk through some of those things?
That would be informative, educational, and also just super on brand for us.
-Yeah, I would love that.
-Cool.
Kate: Thank you.
Emily: We're launching this week.
Kate: My launch story is on trans voter disenfranchisement.
Why the vice presidency matters this cycle in particular.
Women being disproportionately affected in terms of depression and anxiety in the pandemic.
Emily: Mommy's new website starts today.
David: Good luck today, Mama.
I have boogers.
I give a little boogers-- Oh, thank you so much.
I really appreciate that.
Good luck today.
My story is gonna be the first one that is gonna be up on the website.
I am not nervous about that at all.
Oh, my God.
It's about the first female recession in the United States.
Emily: Um, Meghan Markle's publicist just called and said that she and Prince Harry are very interested in what we're doing.
Seriously!
Like, the universe is responding to this mission and vision, people.
Like, everything is possible.
Get that chick a button and a sticker.
♪ Abby is about to switch 19thnews.org to point to our new website.
-With this finger.
-Yep.
-Oh, my God!
-Oh, my God, oh, my God!
OK. We are live in Syracuse.
We are live in Chicago.
It's called The 19thá*, and it's a women's... La primera redacción no partidista, sin fines de lucro, en los Estados Unidos que se enfoca en tema de la mujer.
Christiane Amanpour: Turning now to a newsroom made for our times, The 19thá*.
Hari Sreenivasan: It's hard enough to get a new publication launched, but then to do it at the beginning of a pandemic.
Amanda: This has just been a really hard year, and it's just really beautiful to see everything, like, actually working.
Like, we've been working our asses off.
Emily: Who does not have a champagne?
Looking good, Errin!
Clarice: Whoo-hoo!
Ha ha!
Hi, you guys.
Amanda: I can see the excitement literally pouring through your body.
[Cheering] Woman: They've called it The 19thá*, and it will focus on the impact of politics and policy on women.
Andrea: We've had so much interest in republishing already.
Ha ha ha!
Did I pick up my 3 copies of "USA today"?
Andrea: There you are!
Markle: This can be the catalyst for reset for other news organizations.
It's going to change the game so much.
Errin: Stacey, thank you so much for being here with us today.
Thank you so much, Secretary Clinton, for joining us today.
I'm Zoe Saldaña.
My name is Demi.
Hi, I'm Meryl Streep, and I'm proud to be a part of The 19thá* Represents.
♪ Amanda: Emily, I'll see you-- Are you gonna come here tomorrow?
Emily: I can't think right now.
OK. Bye!
Um... check out the Slack conversation between Andrea and Abby and you and me when you have a second.
Might as well just talk to me about it while we're here.
Heather, what I'm showing Amanda is not going in the documentary.
Sorry.
Heather: Oh.
OK. You mic'd up or not mic'd up?
-No.
-OK. Kate: There had been a thought that, like, we should cover LGBTQ issues but no, like, foresight about what it would mean to bring an actual trans person on staff.
So, like, every conversation was, like, "Hey, ladies.
Like, I love you women.
Like, you are all my sisters."
Like, every 5 seconds, I was misgendered as this group of people.
Like, internally, publicly.
I just felt so broken.
I was like, "I can't believe that I walked into this."
Like, everybody was so excited and just celebrating all day, and I spent the whole day in my apartment crying in bed.
Internally, like, people need to be challenged to think about... [Sigh] outside of their experiences.
♪ Amy Cooper: Please stop.
Sir, I'm asking you to stop.
Christian Cooper: Please don't come close to me.
Sir, I'm asking to stop recording.
Please don't come close to me.
Please take your phone off.
Please don't come close to me.
I'm taking your picture and calling the cops.
Please--please call the cops.
Please call the cops.
I'm going to tell them there's an African-American man threatening my life.
Please tell them whatever you like.
Errin: I mean, this just-- this was alarming.
I mean, her weaponizing, you know, white tears to potentially cause harm to this Black man.
I mean, luckily, nothing happened, but there is a concern that white women are still harmful to people of color in America.
I mean, there was a part that was off camera that he basically released a transcript of it, where he basically says, "You're not gonna like what I'm about to do."
So I think--I think she thought he was gonna take her dog away from her.
She just like, started spewing racist .... Like, that's my guess from looking at this transcript, but even so, I mean, it's just, like, that that's what comes out of your mouth -in those moments.
Errin: Correct.
It's like the depth of racism in the American psyche, the white woman's psy-- or the white anyone's psyche.
Is this women-specific, or would a-- I mean, like, honestly, would a white man in the park have responded the same way?
I think it's possible.
A terrible thing.
Um, well, I mean, I think, OK.
So, um, this is a dynamic that goes back to slavery.
I mean, like white women lied on enslaved people all the time.
I mean, Emmett Till.
I mean, there were so many lynchings that were the result of, you know, a white woman making something up.
It was the whole premise of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
I mean, you know-- you know, it's just-- like, it is a thing with a long history in our country and is its own specific type of racism in America.
That's the lens.
I mean, to me, that's the asterisk.
♪ Meghana Chakrabarti: This is "On Point."
Errin Haines is with us.
She's editor-at-large for The 19thá*.
Errin: Amy Cooper's actions-- the reason that they were so problematic and troubling is that her weaponizing 911 in that way can lead to just the type of moments that end up in the tragic situation with George Floyd.
One of the main questions confronting us is, what is the onus on white people, many of whom, frankly, have only recently begun to consider questions of white privilege?
Because what we've seen is that this is who we are.
♪ I'm ... exhausted.
if I'm being honest with you.
I mean, it is exhausting.
I feel like sometimes I've been writing the same story for the better part of 10 years.
[Computer chimes] I'm actually surprised I didn't see that much else that was right.
That's why we exist, ain't it?
I mean, centering women does not mean celebrating them all the time, right?
Like, it means to be honest about women, all women.
This is what happens when white women aren't even aware of their own privilege.
Anyway, I just--I'm glad we pushed it through.
I'm glad we sort of-- we all saw the gender lens on this.
A really, really worthy angle, and I'm very glad that we did it, that you did it, Errin.
Errin: Me, too.
Errin, voice-over: You know, even the most well-meaning newsrooms can be grappling with issues of racism or inequality.
You know, Emily-- one of the core values that she wanted to be at the center of this newsroom was equity and equality, and so, you know, we have to think about that, and we have to talk about that in all that we do to make sure that we are living up to that value and that we mean what we say when we say that this is something that we prioritize and that we care about, and I know that I work with people who share that hope.
♪ Chabeli: Ooh!
I'm late for NPR.
Let's just hope he doesn't bark.
That is my constant struggle.
Host: Chabeli Carrazana is an economy reporter with The 19thá*.
You've called the current economic situation America's first female recession.
The relief was uneven at best, and many businesses owned by women and people of color were locked out.
Those businesses did not have those existing banking relationships to get in line quickly, to be able to process the loans quickly before the money disappeared.
Tell us what other changes people should expect.
[Flynn barks] Yeah, I think the demographic changes... [Bark] are really interesting because the application question... [Bark] that asked about demographics was buried in the very last page of the PPP application.
What do you think are the long-term consequences here if these economic disparities are not addressed?
What happens when half the population is affected so hard in the labor market?
What happens long term to the gender pay gap, to women who want to rejoin the workforce?
That's what we're looking at.
These are hard questions that we have to answer.
-Yeah.
-No.
You're exactly right, and I'm so grateful that you came here to talk about this.
Are you ... kidding me?
Come on.
You were fine all day.
You're gonna be on NPR.
Oh, my God.
-Hello!
-Hi!
Oh, I don't have my mask on.
-Nice to meet you.
-Hi, hi.
We do have to take diapers today because they're running low on 5s and 6s.
6s he said they were OK, so I didn't pack any 6s.
OK. Gotcha.
Chabeli, voice-over: This pandemic has hit a hard reset.
Equity has become the story.
Suddenly we're looking at these things that were here all along with a completely different eye.
Diaper need is an indicator of so many of these other issues.
We settled on this diaper bank in Missouri just pulling it together to help reach the most vulnerable people in the country.
Woman: So even though it's a very well-known touristy area... Mm-hmm.
the families in need, it's a significant need.
Chabeli, voice-over: The last big story I worked on before I came to The 19thá* was a story called "Labor Land" that was about Disney workers.
There was some back and forth about whether people wanted to read about poor people and about whether that was even our readership and whether we should focus more on the middle class or try to bring the middle class in, and, yeah, sure, but that wasn't really what I wanted to write about.
This problem does not stop being relevant because it cannot be relevant to someone in the middle class or the upper class.
[Camera shutter clicking] I know Kelly was asking you about the pandemic.
You all were working or not working?
Is your husband?
Woman: We were working at the flea market, and the flea market just shut down.
Woman two: When your income is just so low that you're struggling just to provide for your children... Uh-huh.
it's really hard to get that extra up to buy the amount of diapers and wipes you need.
Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Chabeli, voice-over: You know, the issue with poverty reporting sometimes is people just want to be like, you know, "Look at how hard these people's lives are," but also, like, look how hard they're working to try to get-- you know, to move ahead, and it's-- look how hard it is.
[Children chattering] ♪ Woman: Like, am I even fit to be a mom?
And then you have to think about it like, "Yeah, I love these kids.
I can give them love."
Just because I can't put diapers on them doesn't mean I'm not worthy of being their mother.
Yeah, yeah.
♪ Emily: Um, OK. What are you gonna wear on Thursday?
Solid colors?
Before we go to fun stuff, I just have to tell you... Are you gonna tell me on camera or off camera?
I'm just telling you.
I don't care.
OK, good.
What, do you not want me to tell you on camera?
No, I don't know what you're gonna say.
I'm just stressed out.
Like, I feel like there's-- The team is just eager for us to be hiring for new beats and for us to have more people for them to work with and, like, resourcing and staffing up, but, like, we also have to be doing it at a pace that is sane.
We also need to be doing it in an inclusive and equitable way.
These things are just in a constant tension.
But I think before we do that, we need to make sure we're providing the basic supports that our existing team needs to not feel like they're falling apart.
Concur.
We're too tiny.
If the lesson--if this year has taught us anything, it's just, like, we're doing too much.
It's, like, how are we gonna have an impact?
We're such a tiny team.
Amanda, voice-over: The realization that, of course, not only women are adversely affected by their gender identity, that was like my first, "Ugh.
Like, I have totally ...
up."
We weren't intentional about incorporating this other aspect of gender when we hired Kate.
Learning everything that I have learned to date, if I had to do that over again, I may have waited on that hire and said, "Would this person feel "welcome, included?
Are we prepared to support them?"
Just so many fundamental questions that we should have raised that we didn't, and it was just another thing that happened in this, like, whirlwind of getting The 19thá* off the ground.
♪ [Dog panting] I have to work.
I have to work.
Do you want to write my article for me?
You know, fetch doesn't pay the bills, right?
[Dog whimpers] Dude, I can't work like this, and neither can you.
[Dog grunts] Kate, voice-over: I haven't worked anyplace that's particularly great for trans people.
Like, I sought out advice from other people, and I was like, "Should I stay, or should I go?"
And the person was, like, kind of like, "It's bad everywhere."
And I think at The 19thá*, we've told ourselves a lot that, like, we're the best in the industry, but what does that mean when the industry is so bad, it's so broken?
So it's a hard moment, but also, I haven't seen us sit in it.
We're willing to move, and, um--or at least leadership feels willing to move, so it's worth-- and I don't know what's better.
I don't know what is better, and I think that we've set an example of people who are willing to admit that it's in process and to be honest about it.
Abby Johnston: Kate is working on a story about a couple of groups that essentially have a request form, like, an Internet request form, for anti-LGBTQ model legislation.
John Yang: Lawmakers in 28 states are considering 93 bills targeting the rights of transgender Americans.
Kate: All these states didn't wake up on the same day and decide to essentially pass these bills.
You know, we have this issue of major anti-LGBTQ organizations have taken this up, right, and have formed coalitions and have provided bills to these state lawmakers.
Abby: How are you?
I just assume that the world's falling apart now all the time, and so I'm just sort of like, "OK, let's just do this."
-What next?
-I'm just gonna do this.
I had my first interview with Seve, the person who does policy work for Senator Scott Wiener in California and is, like, one of the only trans, non-binary people working in the Capitol here.
You keep just pitching these wonderful ideas, and I'm, like, can we clone you or something?
You just have to hire more queer people.
We're working on it.
We're working on it.
Errin: Oof.
OK.
So it looks like we might get news on who Joe Biden is gonna pick for his VP candidate.
If I'm not gonna be the only one to know, I don't want to be the last to know, you know?
Can you confirm that she... Anchor: All eyes on Joe Biden as speculation swirls around who the former vice president will tap to be his running mate.
Mayor Bottoms, it's Errin.
I would not use this number-- So I'm checking in with everybody that I can think of to check in with.
Um, I don't know.
Have you talked to Senator Harris tonight?
Anchor: He has blown past his own deadlines and still hasn't picked a running mate.
If he does choose a Black woman, she'll be making history.
Harris: Errin, where are you?
Right here!
Hi!
Do you know this is my first interview?
Uh, d-d-do I?
I'm very aware that this is your first interview.
I am thrilled that this is your first interview.
-Me, too.
-I'm so happy that you are doing this with us.
I am so happy to be with you, Errin, and on purpose, my first interview as a teammate and a running mate with Joe Biden is with The 19thá*, so thank you.
[Computer chimes] Chabeli: Hello!
Hi, Ginger.
Errin: Ginger, you hear Chabeli?
Shefali: I don't actually like popcorn.
It doesn't make me feel full.
Just gets in my teeth.
Kate: It isn't supposed to make you feel full.
It's tasty.
You just got to get the right one.
-Yup, starting.
-He's getting ready.
I'm Chris Wallace of FOX News, and I welcome you to the first of the 2020 presidential debates.
Our first subject is the Supreme Court.
Biden: The president also is opposed to Roe v. Wade.
That's on the ballot, as well, and so the election has already begun.
Trump: You don't know it's on the ballot.
Why is it on the ballot?
-Because as you said-- -Why is it on the ballot?
It's not on the ballot.
There's nothing happening there.
Donald, would you just be quiet for a minute?
And You don't know her view on Roe v. Wade.
You don't know her view.
Wallace: Well, all right.
Let's--all right.
Let's talk--I-- we've got a lot to unpack here, gentlemen.
We've got a lot of time, so... Trump: The individual mandate was the most unpopular aspect of Obamacare.
I got rid of it, and we will protect people-- Wallace: Mr. President, I'd like-- Mr. President, I'm the moderator of this debate.
Why won't you answer that question?
Biden: Because the question is-- -the question is-- -Radical left.
Will you shut up, man?
[Laughter] Oh, my God!
Biden: This is so unpresidential.
Pack the court-- Wallace: No, no.
We have ended this segment.
That was really a productive segment, wasn't it?
My family lost a fortune.
By the way, maybe you can inject some bleach in you arm.
You know what?
Wait.
Stop.
Not true.
You're gonna have-- ♪ Errin: Um, uh... Kate: I just can't help but think that folks are gonna walk away from this terrified.
Chabeli: And there was no serious discussion of policy on the two topics that, you know, affect, you know, women and gender minorities the most, which is health care and the economy, the stuff that is hitting people the hardest right now.
I have no sense of what either of them would do based on what I just heard.
Well, actually, that's not true.
White supremacy would reign, and the election is gonna be a mess.
I know that.
What would this debate look like if you'd had 3 women onstage?
Errin: No, no, no.
Or even one person onstage who was not a white man, even one person.
You know, we're in the midst of these dual pandemics, and you wouldn't have known it in this 90-minute food fight.
Emily: What was on the menu tonight was toxic masculinity basically.
Errin: Yes.
That was that was the entire agenda, regardless of the topics.
That was the agenda.
♪ [Groans] ♪ Woman: You have the city commissioners to thank for standing in this line for over two hours, however long it's gonna take you because they only have 3 people on the inside servicing us.
There are some people who feel like journalists shouldn't vote.
I mean, I'm a Black person before I'm a journalist, so, like, that's not really an option for me.
Um, basically, it just took 4 hours to vote here in Philly.
People do all these stories talking about how it's, like, people are in line because it's just worth it for them to cast their ballot.
Well, of course it's worth it.
I mean, they're citizens.
This is their ... right to democracy, but like the idea that this is not also voter suppression, I mean, that's exactly what this is.
I mean, I literally was reading a story today about this female astronaut who voted, and it's, like, it's easier for this white woman to vote in space than it is for a Black woman to vote in Philadelphia today.
Like, what the ...?
[Door shuts] Oh, gosh.
Ohh.
[Phone line ringing] Errin: What'd you think about the story that I wrote?
Did you did you think it was good?
Mom: Yeah.
Very good.
Thought you had gotten your absentee ballot.
No, I requested it, but it never came.
-You never got it.
-No.
Errin, voice-over: My mom does not miss elections and definitely imparted to us that that was important.
She is--yeah, probably-- I mean, like, the most important person in my life.
You know, she raised me to be proud of being Black, to be proud of being a woman, but also to be very aware of what those things meant in this country.
Too many people can't be in line for 4 hours, you know?
-It's not right.
-I know.
But--oh, what time is it?
I am on TV at 5:00.
OK, I'll be seeing you.
I'll be watching you.
-OK. -OK. -OK. Love you.
-Love you.
Take care.
-Be safe.
-Thanks, Mom.
♪ [Camera shutter clicks] ♪ Amanda: I mean, this is something that we're doing that you don't find on any other news site in the country right now is really focusing on what's at stake for women voters, for LGBTQ+ voters, for marginalized communities, and it's just special, like, that this is, you know, something that exists now that didn't in the last election cycle, and I'm really proud of our team.
-How are you?
-I'm good.
Errin's on the "NewsHour" all night.
OK. Yeah, maybe that's what we'll watch then.
["PBS NewsHour" theme plays] Judy Woodruff: Errin Haines, you've been looking at women and how women are looking at this election, and what are you seeing?
Well, Judy, what we're seeing is that the pandemic is absolutely political for women.
Errin Haines, thank you very much, and we continue to check in with... Emily: I don't know.
I think about the last election night, having a baby girl sleeping in the next room.
I remember I was, like, in the fetal position.
Just, like, totally blindsided.
If you didn't have Sophie on that election night, would we be here?
I don't know.
Probably not.
I don't think so, either.
I mean, because it sort of pushed me over the edge to someone who was responsible for another woman's life.
Yeah.
Woodruff: It is now 9 p.m. in the East.
Amanda: Judy, don't talk to me until you've got Errin Haines back.
Ha ha ha!
Woodruff: Here are the results for president... Chabeli: Do you feel like people in your community, Latinas in particular, are going out to vote, are feeling energized to participate this year?
Definitely.
My parents were like, "You better go out and vote."
Ha ha ha!
And is that your sister?
Yes, yes.
Hey.
Did you vote, as well?
Yeah.
Of course, girl.
They did the mail-in voting.
I voted by mail.
Oh.
You voted by mail.
OK. [Camera shutter clicks] ♪ Errin: Steve, you're starting to get punchy, boo.
Hold on.
We don't like the "What If" board, Steve.
Hell, no.
We're here for certainty, fool.
Basically, show us results.
[Sighs] Biden: We feel good about where we are.
I'm here to tell you tonight we believe we're on track to win this election.
[Alert blaring on phone] ♪ [Radio chatter] Woman: Count every vote!
Count every vote!
Count every vote!
Anchor: We've been here at the decision desk since Tuesday night.
So Pennsylvania has come in and has put Joe Biden over the top to get to 279.
♪ Errin, despite being a very young person, you are a veteran deadline wire service writer at heart.
I know you are, so on the spot, if you were writing the lead-off for The 19thá* that everyone will log on and read summing up tonight, summing up what we've just been through, what would it be?
Brian, you're right, I am a veteran, which is why my story is already up at 19thnews.org if anybody wants to check it out, but listen, history delayed was not going to be history denied.
A woman and a woman of color taking the stage and preparing to serve as the second most powerful person in the country.
♪ Emily: I'm so sorry again that I missed last week's meeting, so I just wanted to walk through a couple of points of conversation there.
Basically, they were questioning how we're working to serve women and others who don't identify as progressive.
Like, I kept using-- and it's all over our website, but I kept using the word "intersectional."
That's a term that's really only used by progressive people.
Kate: I'm curious what your sort of feelings are about it.
At the end of the day, do I think our work, work that's focused on gender equity is gonna--is gonna-- is going to really deeply resonate with the far right?
Like, no.
I'm not totally nuts.
I'm not completely naive, but I think there are a lot of people who fall on the spectrum between that and the ultra left.
The last thing I want to do ever is alienate an audience, so I don't know.
I'm--you know, I'm just rambling on this.
I struggle with this.
I'm grappling with this.
Amanda Becker: We are thrilled to have Kellyanne Conway here with us to talk about women in the 2020 election.
So it's early December.
The votes have been counted.
They're almost finished recounting Georgia again.
What's next?
Are we gonna see this move into, like, more of a normal transition period?
Well, the president wants to exhaust all of his legal avenues, as he has made clear many times, and I think the president has a right to exhaust his legal possibilities.
We as a nation will move forward because we always do.
We're a strong, sturdy democracy.
♪ [Rioters shouting] [Banging on doors] Let us!
Let us in!
Woodruff: Looks like we've lost the signal from Lisa and we're hearing some sort of alarm go off.
Capitol Police are now on this floor.
They are asking protesters to go on the ground.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Chelsea: How are you feeling?
I mean, it's made me think really deeply about who we cover and who we serve, both as journalists and journalists whose peers and colleagues are-- were in the Capitol and as Americans.
It was just deeply, deeply unsettling.
You know, it may be a turning point for our organization, I don't know.
You know, we've tried to be as transparent as we can be about the fact that, you know, this isn't--our journalism isn't about bothsidesism.
In some cases, there aren't two sides--heh-- and, you know, obviously, this is one of those circumstances where you need to be really on the nose about who's perpetrating these crimes, who's putting Americans and elected officials in danger, and obviously in this case, it was the President of the United States.
Errin: I'm reading a book about "The Color Purple" and Alice Walker, and one of the things that she says in that book is that "I write whatever I feel needs to be written.
I work for the ancestors, period."
♪ ♪ [Computer chimes] Abby: Hello.
Kate: Hi.
Abby: How's it going?
Andrea was like, "I realized that you're doing "all these stories that, like, tell you "you're not a human.
If you need to just take a day, go ahead," and I was like, "Thank you."
That's fair.
For real.
Like, I hope you know that you can always just be like, "Abby, I can't today."
Like-- Do you know how, like, not common that is?
That's, like, not a real thing that newsrooms do for people.
♪ Abby: Any, any, any help that we can get on the LGBTQ beat, but we can't have Kate as the only person who writes about LGBTQ issues because they are myriad, especially right now.
Practicing what we preach when it comes to building out our LGBTQ coverage is really important.
You know, start to put feelers out for that.
Kate, voice-over: I'm doing a story on the nation's first rural trans health clinic and also the first trans-led health clinic.
At a time, when lots of states are trying to roll back trans health care protections, this clinic is actually leading the nation in trans health care.
♪ It's so good to finally meet you.
Good to meet you.
Yes.
Ha ha ha!
It's an intervention in itself to be able to walk in and see yourself reflected in your provider.
-Like, that's amazing.
-Yeah.
I was at the Mass General Hospital Trans Health Program, and a lot of times, the parents would come in the room, and they'd say, "Oh, this trans thing is such a phase," and they wouldn't know that I was trans, and I would have to choose "Do I out myself?"
-That is really rough... -Yeah.
to do that over and over again.
But I--I--I wouldn't trade it for the world.
I mean, it's deeply important work.
Man: The adult patients haven't seen a doctor in, like, decades.
Kate: Why haven't they seen a provider in 10 years?
A lot of trauma.
How many of us have ever been seen by a trans health care provider?
Not me, that's for sure.
-No, I haven't either.
-Yeah.
I can't imagine what that would be like.
Like, 10-year-olds come in, and, like, the first thing they see is my flag and they're like, "Oh, my God.
Mom, look at the flag."
[Camera shutter clicking] Kate, voice-over: Can I ask how you identify in terms of gender?
Cisgender, male, gay, queer.
Yeah, I use "queer" more, but I don't use it in the gender sense.
I use it in the sort of global, like, let's all be part of one family.
I'm gonna--that is actually going in your title.
Oh, good.
When the first bills came out that were gonna make it a felony for doctors to write prescriptions or provide gender-affirming care for kids, people were like, "All right.
"How do I get licensed in Arkansas?
When can I fly down?"
-Really?
-Yeah.
So doctors are willing to go and get arrested?
For this, yeah.
♪ Kate: We are going to Hampshire College, which is where I went to undergrad.
It's also the place where I figured out that I was trans.
It wasn't really a safe place to come out where I grew up.
I grew up south of Chicago.
All right.
Let's do this.
I'm, like, all 19thá*ed out.
It's like a little bit-- I feel like a billboard.
♪ Ba ba da da dun dun dun dun ♪ This is the Writing Center, which is basically where I spent all 4 years.
Hampshire, look how pretty you are.
When I was in undergrad, we have a self-designed concentration, right, so you get to make up what you want to study, and mine was called writing for communities, and the idea was that a journalist doesn't create a piece, right?
Like, your name might be on the byline, but really it's the product of an entire community, so if I do the piece the way I'm supposed to, it's not really mine.
Like, everybody has a role in that.
Everybody who speaks to it, everybody who lives it.
It's, like, everybody's story.
[Camera shutter clicks] ♪ Emily: I want to start this week with Kate's really beautiful trans health story.
It was really shared widely by people, anybody really who wants compassionate health care for themselves and their families.
Alexandra: We had almost 16,000 interactions with this story on our Facebook post alone.
I don't know if I've seen that many on one individual post from us yet.
♪ [Tweet] There are quite a few LGBTQ+ groups who are sharing Kate's stories regularly, and we're seeing some new visitors come to us through that.
♪ ♪ Errin: Hey.
What's going on?
How are you?
Chabeli: Um, good.
This is, I think, my first, like, free day in, I don't know, 6, 7 months.
Right, right.
Well, here's the other thing.
Because I mentioned this to Seerena.
I feel like there's a way tied to the pandemic anniversary to talk about how, you know, The 19thá*, like, as a newsroom, we were also, you know, personally impacted.
I like that idea.
I've been, like, noodling a little bit to write about my grandfather a little because... That, too.
Yeah.
This is my writing corner.
Ha!
[Typing] Hey, babe.
Manny: What?
Can you come here a second?
Hmm?
Can I read you what I have so far?
Yeah, yeah.
Wow.
I don't really want to say this out loud.
-OK. -I can read it.
OK.
I just have to read it out loud because it helps me to hear it.
Um... "I ripped off the N95 mask and threw it "in a bin outside of the hospital.
"I didn't want to take any of it with me, "not the gown nor the gloves "they'd given me, "the face shield, or that mask, "but my face was still lined with its outline.
"The brightness outside was almost offensive.
"When we were inside, it felt like the virus "had finally swallowed us whole.
"I understand why they don't let people "into the hospital to see their family members, "but we later wondered how much "that isolation affected him.
"His mental health deteriorated "with each day he was alone, "and because the staff was so busy, "he barely saw anyone at all.
"We took our spots holding each hand.
"Maybe 7 minutes passed before he took a breath.
Then I knew it was done."
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Chabeli: Errin texted me yesterday actually.
She's so sweet.
She was like, uh... She's like, "I'm very, very sorry your grandpa's part of this number today."
Um, "But you are his legacy.
"Your work honors him and the love and pride he had for you."
Yeah.
♪ Errin: We know the attacks on our integrity and our professionalism for simply attempting to tell the truth are really nothing new for Black journalists of every generation.
Why do you continue to represent despite the cost, and why do you feel like it's important for others to really represent in solidarity of women journalists and journalists of color?
Representation and tokenism are two different things.
Representation is someone like yourself, where you have an active leadership role, where you are shaping where the institution is going.
Emily: I want to talk a little bit about what our mission is and who we're for.
Both of those things, honestly, really have evolved for us in the last year, and with your help, they're continuing to evolve.
So our new mission is "to empower those we serve-- "particularly women, people of color, and anyone marginalized based on their gender or race."
I want to, you know, specifically obviously call out Kate, who has been an extraordinary guidepost for me in these conversations.
Kate: I want a place that's committing to constantly working, and so far, that's what I've seen, and it's a completely different place than when I started.
Yeah.
I mean, I think we've had hard discussions and conversations about what we're doing.
If we fall into the same patterns as other news organizations, are we really that different, or are we, you know, just talk?
♪ Woman: Emily Ramshaw is here to tell us more about The 19th, and she joins me now from member station KUT in Austin, Texas.
Kate: I think Emily saw at the beginning every mistake as a personal failing and took that really hard, and she has really led us and, like, been willing to hear some really hard feedback.
I think what was difficult was that there were people on our team who were hurt.
You realize you didn't have the answers that you thought you had and your own privilege and power structures and the communities you were raised in and the ways that you've lived your life are in some ways detriments to the work that needs to be done.
One thing that I think is really critical is how much Amanda and I have learned from our team how critical listening was, how many blind spots I had going into this.
Margaret: What's the difference between nonpartisan and independent?
Why is that such a key difference?
The term "nonpartisan" in many ways has become co-opted, I think, to mean bothsidesism, to mean that you are equally covering and equally giving voice to, you know, both--folks in both political parties, regardless of whether they are informing people with facts or accurate information.
Is that, Emily, what you meant when you said the baggage of legacy media?
Yep.
♪ Mary Louise Kelly: In Texas today, abortion rights guaranteed by decades of precedent are effectively gone.
Kate: Would this change things for people accessing not just abortion services but everything else?
Like, it's all kinds of reproductive care that we're gonna lose.
I'm really curious about what the corporate response to all of this is because I think a lot of places have been real quiet.
We don't know when oral arguments are going to be out on the Mississippi case just yet, but it's gonna start the ticking clock of what this could do to Roe.
♪ Kate: Hi.
How are you?
Yeah, we've-- it's like all hands on deck.
Um, I'm doing a story on what closure of abortion clinics could mean for LGBTQ+ people because they provide some of the only primary care that's gender-affirming.
I know.
I just keep adding Halloween decorations.
[Phone line ringing] Voice: Hi!
Kate: Hi.
It's Kate.
-Kate?
-Yeah.
How are you?
I'm, uh--I'm good.
How are you?
I mean, I'm not good.
I'm terrible.
I'm trying to keep my mood up in light of, uh, my life's work being obliterated at this time.
That's a fair response.
And so you are someone who has used services at an abortion provider.
Yeah.
I had an abortion when I was 16 years old.
I was seeing a doctor at Planned Parenthood for access to testosterone.
What does it feel like for you to watch this law in Texas take effect?
The reason I had an abortion personally was because I had been sexually assaulted that summer, and so I'd have been linked, I think, to the person for the rest of my life, and I think this is applicable, right, because SB8 doesn't allow any exceptions for abortion, not in the case of rape or incest.
Yeah.
[Sigh] If this law is allowed to stand, it could mean the end of access to... abortion and reproductive care across the nation, and that is also connected to gender-affirming care for a lot of folks, and it's--it's huge.
♪ Brian Stetler: Coming up here, what the press is getting wrong in its coverage of the Texas abortion law.
We're gonna go live... Man: You're live.
to Emily Ramshaw next.
Greg Abbott: It provides at least 6 weeks for a person to be able to get an abortion.
You can't even get a ... pregnancy test to tell you that you're ... pregnant until at least 4 weeks at best if you are, like, obsessively checking.
That's not how pregnancy works, Governor Abbott.
[Protestors shouting] ♪ Hey, hey, ho ho ♪ ♪ Roe v. Wade has got to go ♪ ♪ Abortion pills are in our hands ♪ ♪ And we won't stop ♪ ♪ Abortion pills are in our... ♪ Woman: I'm a reporter with The 19thá*.
-We cover gender-- -Oh, I know the 19thá*.
-Yeah?
Ha ha ha!
-Yeah.
So I'm not counsel on the Mississippi case, but I am counsel on the Texas case, and so we're living in a world right now where the right to abortion doesn't exist in Texas at all.
Woman: There's been a lot of questions about any kind of miscarriage management.
When is this an abortion?
When is it a miscarriage?
Thank you so much for your time.
No problem.
Looking forward to seeing what you write.
Thank you so much.
It's already up, actually.
I've been updating it all day.
It's our explainer, so that's why I've been, like, frantic today because we have a lot of reader questions.
Right.
I imagine.
I imagine.
Woman: They were out there yesterday with bullhorns and lights.
They called the police on us yesterday for capacity issues.
They called the fire marshal on us twice yesterday.
It doesn't stop.
You know, they don't take a win.
They don't even accept their win.
It does not stop.
♪ Reporter: With Texas' 6-week abortion ban becoming law, there may not be a better time for The 19thá* to exist.
♪ Stetler: The 19thá* has been covering this nonstop.
Anchor: Joining us now to discuss is Jennifer Gerson, reporter at The 19thá* Reid: Errin Haines, editor-at-large for The 19thá*.
Bianna Golodryga: Shefali, what does this mean as far as a precedent for other cases, right, and for ultimately Roe v. Wade?
This is so far from an isolated incident.
It's really just the beginning of what is one of the most important health care access stories of our current moment.
Errin: The lesson and reminder here is that elections have consequences.
67 abortions in 17 hours, and it was a pretty incredible article.
They looked around, and they thought, "We're not gonna get to all of the people "that are here waiting for an abortion, "and this law is gonna go into effect.
"This is our moment to fight back.
This is our moment to try."
When you saw the media finally pick up on this story, the conversation was, you know, "Is this actually going to be good for Biden in the long run?"
or "Is this going to, you know, cripple Republicans down the road?"
instead of having conversations about how people were being affected on the ground here in Texas and probably eventually in many more Southern states.
♪ ♪ Chabeli: Well, FOX News did a kind of a story on it today, where they were questioning the safety of doing that many abortions an hour, which is a fair question.
Chabeli: I don't know.
Chelsea: How do you stay independent with a story like this?
I don't know.
I mean, it's like-- it's the thing you always do.
It's not that different from everything else we do in journalism, right?
You're just trying to make sure you're fair to the story.
The only thing that's hard is, you know, that it's emotional, that it's difficult to hear women talk about their choice getting ripped away from them.
That is hard to hear people talk about that.
I mean, autonomy, whatever-- everything else aside, autonomy's important, and, you know, so much of the story of women in this country is that they don't have autonomy.
They don't have choice.
They're silenced.
Flynn, what's up?
[Typing] All right.
Do we have the full crew?
Where are we numerically?
[Computer chiming] We're gonna start today's meeting with awesome news, which is that we have an editor-in-chief.
We have hired the amazing Julia Chan.
I'm Julia B. Chan.
I am the editor-in-chief.
I was previously a managing editor at KQED in San Francisco, which is where I'm based.
I am Fatima Hessabi, chief financial officer.
I have to be super transparent that it wasn't, you know, the leadership coming together and saying, "Oh, I think we should have a chief people officer."
It came from the people themselves.
56% of our staff are nonwhite or multiracial overall.
13% of our folks are folks with disabilities, and 10% of our staff now identify as non-binary.
♪ Kate: This is unreal.
Like...if this actually goes through as it is written, it's all bets off for any civil rights law from here on out.
Are you on deadline on something on this?
I have to be at the Supreme Court at around 5:00.
We should tag team on a story about... what this will mean for trans men.
That's a good point, and I'm sure that will get, like, next to zero coverage.
I know.
No one else is going to do that story, but it--but it really is-- like, that is-- that will kill people.
Thank you for brainstorming on this.
We can do this.
We're doing it.
Yeah.
OK. Take care of yourself, please.
-I love you.
-You, too.
Love you, too.
OK. Bye.
A couple of the justices have... sort of expressed an interest in overturning... um, marriage equality or kicking it back to the states, and, uh, yeah, that's, uh-- that can be up for grabs, also.
We are in a moment where trans rights are really under attack, so the climate there is ripe.
♪ [Protestors shouting and chanting] Man: Black babies matter!
Black babies matter!
Black babies matter!
Pro-choice matters!
Pro-choice matters!
♪ You know, it must be really difficult for someone who doesn't want this.
It's really difficult for me, and I--we deeply, deeply wanted this pregnancy, so imagine somebody who doesn't want to go through this at all, who this is not in their plan, doesn't have any support, doesn't have--I mean, and so many things can go wrong, and there's so many complications, and there's so many reasons why someone would not want to carry a pregnancy.
It's just... My entire e-mail is this.
For the past couple of months, like, we have not stopped covering it, so that is why we can get all these calls in with clinics because they already know us and they trust us.
Woman, on phone: OK, I have Dr. Tocce and Chabeli from The 19thá* News both on the line.
Hi, Dr. Tocce, how are you?
♪ Emily: This is in many ways the story of my lifetime, and I'm profoundly grateful that I work in a newsroom that was in many ways prepared for this moment, that saw it coming, and that is doing probably among the most important journalism in the country.
I think we're doing that with empathy and with heart.
Hi, baby.
Um, and I'm also doing this work as the mother of a little girl growing up in the State of Texas.
As hard as this day was, it feels in some ways validating or, like, prescient that this newsroom was necessary.
♪ Amanda: Right.
Hey, what's one this?
2068?
Emily: 2368.
Emily: Well, I'll start personally, and we can just go from there.
You know, 3 years ago we had basically $20,000 in the bank, and today, we've raised over $35 million.
We had 5 employees.
Today, we have over 50.
One thing that I've been exploring a lot with Amanda and with many of you is what power sharing looks like in an organization and can look like in an organization and how we can lead more effectively when there are more voices and more equity across an organization, and that includes at the very top of an organization.
So starting, like, basically right now, Amanda and I will be full co-equals in the leadership structure.
Amanda, voice-over: Optically, we started The 19thá* as equals.
I never felt like an equal, and that was a big issue for us to work through.
If we're trying to disrupt the news industry such that we're really centering the communities that we're trying to serve, that also means ceding the narrative to them.
We don't want to be replicating yet another news organization where everything is in the image and likeness of, you know, the CEO.
Typically, it's the white male CEO.
In this case, it would have been the white female CEO.
Errin: This is what the work looks like.
I mean, we talk about what we want The 19thá* to be kind of outward facing, but there is work internally that we have been doing, and the fruits of that are also happening.
Like, that is what is going to be different, and that is the paradigm shift.
♪ Emily: This is the first time the bulk of our team has ever met in person.
Woman: You don't say.
Ha ha ha!
Oh, Jayo, Jayo, Jayo.
Oh, hello.
Good morning!
Kate: Whoo!
-Can I help you?
-Uh, sure.
♪ ♪ Aw.
Awww!
I died.
And you probably, like-- you probably buried your face in it and screamed.
I took a picture of it, and then I was like, "Wait.
I'll take it with me, and I'll show it to everybody."
Thank you.
I love it, I love it.
Amanda: It has been 2 1/2 years to get to this place where we can actually meet and greet and connect in real life.
Errin: I love this woman.
Oh, my God.
I love this woman.
Believe it.
We love you, baby.
Ohh.
Heather: So what's next?
Like, how are you gonna to keep this going, especially in terms of-- Gosh.
Heather, we just wrapped this.
Who the hell knows, Heather?
Here we go.
♪ Emily: Y'all.
This is big, big news.
A couple of funders of The 19thá* watched Errin Haines interview Nikole Hannah-Jones and said, "We were so inspired.
"Would you all consider letting us fund "this massive 19thá* fellowship program for graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities?"
[Cheering] ♪ It really just gave me a chance to let me know that I could do this, and that the things that I want to do and the things that I want to change and things that I want to implement are very much so possible to do as long as you have the right people around you encouraging you, and that's this team.
♪ Singer: ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪
