In light of recent proposed legislation and executive orders that affect nonprofit organizations, DEI, and press freedom, the Maynard Institute sat down with several Maynard alumni and faculty members to discuss the values that keep them grounded in journalism and in DEI.
They agreed that amid growing political and legislative threats to journalism, DEI, and nonprofit organizations, core values—community, diversity, and press freedom—remain essential. Despite shifting policies, they emphasized that journalism’s mission endures: serving the public with integrity and holding power to account.
Ernesto Aguilar is the Executive Director of Radio Programming and Content DEI Initiatives with Bay Area PBS affiliate KQED. He also runs the Substack newsletter OIGO, about Latino/a, Latine, Latinx content, audiences and engagement in public media.
A Maynard 200 alum, Aguilar recently became Maynard Institute faculty, teaching on the intersections between AI and DEI in journalism.
Remaining grounded and values-oriented, he said, will allow journalists to center community and chase solutions, rather than running from fear.
“I think the big hurdle is…grounding those who are in the journalism space around what our core values are,” Aguilar said. “People asked me how it felt after the election, and I said my values don’t change from administrations or policies or what happens in the news cycle on a day-to-day basis.”
Dickson Louie is a consultant and case writer as well as institute faculty, Treasurer and member of the Maynard Institute Board of Directors since 2015.
He’s recently finished working on a case study with the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, established by the state of New Jersey in 2018 to address news deserts and the growing crisis in local news.
“New Jersey is the first state to use state-appropriated funds to address the local news crisis and the rise of news deserts and misinformation by supporting news startups, early-state, and more established products/outlets that seek to rebuild the community information network and grow the local news ecosystem,” the case study’s executive summary explains.
Itself a 501c3 nonprofit organization, the consortium builds on the American public media model to “reimagine how public funding can be used to address the growing problem of news deserts, misinformation” and seeks to support and foster informed communities.
Colloquially known as the “Nonprofit Killer Bill,” House Resolution 9495 would give unilateral discretion to the Executive Branch to designate nonprofit organizations as supporters of terrorism without any appeal process or adjudication.
“Under the leadership of an unscrupulous authoritarian, it is not hard to imagine how an administration could use the powers in this bill to hinder or dismantle organizations that its leaders do not like,” Rep.Don Beyer (D-VA) said during debate on the House floor Nov. 21.
By shifting their focus from creating a profitable product to providing a sustainable service, newsrooms are staying open and connected to audiences, according to the 2024 State of Local News Report through Northwestern University’s Medill School of journalism.
“Of the startups included in the 2024 State of Local News Project, 53% are nonprofits. Among just the digital startups, that number rises to 60%,” the report stated.
“I think the nonprofit model is the way to go,” Dickson Louie said in an interview with the Maynard Institute, “because basically, you get that multiple revenue support, from donations, from grants.”
Among the key takeaways from Louie’s work on the case study with the NJCIC: encourage entrepreneurship, promote civic engagement, empower underserved communities, and re-invest in local communities.
“Aside from promoting civic engagement, grant money reinvested in community journalism addresses a public service,” the case study concluded. “It helps local news organizations to re-engage in their traditional roles as an economic driver in their local communities. They hire local people, tell local stories, encourage local business, and act as a resource when the community experiences a natural disaster such as a hurricane or fire.”
As more and more newsrooms shift to a nonprofit model, the threat of having their 501c3 status revoked in the midst of allegations of materially aiding terrorism, without evidence or judicial due process, presents a threat not only to the livelihoods of the journalists they employ, but to the communities they inform.
Senate Bill 4516, the Dismantle DEI Act, may now be redundant legislation after a day-one Trump executive order called for immediately dismantling DEI offices in departments operated by the federal government. The bill, put forward by then-senator and now Vice President JD Vance, would not only dismantle DEI offices in the federal government, it would prohibit DEI practices.
“I think they’re ignoring the fact that having a diverse population in the U.S. is a mega trend that will continue to not be reversed,” Louie said.
The effects of DEI backlash are already evident throughout nonprofit organizations that receive government grants, as well as institutions of higher education.
Louie believes the math will bear out that diversity, beyond considerations of equity, is profitable. Diversity, especially as a practice and not merely a demographic calculation, is a strength.
“Embracing diversity is just good for business,” Louie said.
It’s also good for national security.
Jaisal Noor is a Maynard 200 alumni, Democracy Cohort Manager at Solutions Journalism Network, and reporter for Baltimore Beat. He also worked with Montclair State University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism on Democracy Day 2024, a national pro-democracy reporting collaboration coinciding with International Democracy Day.
In an interview with the Maynard Institute, Noor referenced a Dec. 2024 court decision upholding racial considerations in admission to the U.S. Naval Academy in which Senior District Judge Richard D. Bennett upheld Supreme Court exemptions from the historic SCOTUS ruling which struck down Affirmative Action in civilian colleges and universities, but not military higher education.
“For decades, our Nation’s military leaders have determined that a diverse officer corps is vital to mission success and national security,” Bennett stated in his 179-page opinion.
“If that makes sense for the military, I think it makes sense for our society more broadly. Journalism should more broadly reflect the society we live in,” Noor said. “And we know historically Black and brown communities have been systematically excluded from these kinds of opportunities.”
Beyond reflecting reality in a demographic sense, Aguilar said journalism and newsrooms must create a sense of community, of shared interest.
“DEI really is work in which we embrace the differences among our workforce and as journalists about our communities and the walks of life who join us along these paths within our communities, and that’s why I think it’s so important,” Aguilar said.
He also connected DEI and community investment to one of the most graphic depictions of police brutality and one of the most galvanizing instances of citizen journalism on American soil.
Darnella Frazier, then 18, was recognized with a Pulitzer Prize in Special Citations and Awards in 2021 for recording George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
Aguilar recalled the recorded murder of George Floyd “one of the starkest reminders of the power of citizen journalism.”
HB 4250, the “Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act” or the “PRESS Act,” was introduced in Congress by Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) and despite bipartisan support, has stalled in Congress.
The bill would broadly define a journalist protected under the law to include citizen and independent journalists, ensuring digital protection by requiring federal entities to subpoena service providers before being provided with information from a journalist’s phone or computer, including their personal devices and accounts.
After the murder of George Floyd, seen through Darnella Frazier’s camera phone, Aguilar said there was more interest in DEI programming and understanding diversity.
“George Floyd was killed, and then there was a lot of interest from broadcasters about how we represent voices within our communities,” he said. “In that moment was this opportunity for the public to understand that we as individual citizens and individual residents have agency to help represent what’s happening in our communities.”
While Aguilar is using his free OIGO newsletter to connect people to information on Latinx audience engagement and sees centering citizen journalism as a 21st century challenge to innovating newsrooms, Jaisal Noor said he understands fear of suppression of citizen journalism that documents abuses and holds power to account.
“I think it’s pretty reasonable for the media to be expecting a crackdown from the incoming Trump administration. I think there are legitimate concerns there,” Noor said. “We’re seeing a lot of repression of dissenting voices in the U.S.”
To understand suppression of journalism, Noor said journalists must understand their history. He referenced the FBI’s CounterIntelligence Program (COINTELPRO), the anti-communist Red Scare, and the labeling of Black press and Labor press initiatives as terrorist insurgents by the Wilson administration during WWI.
According to Noor, the solution to suppression of critical journalism is a pro-democracy approach, building trust with audiences and positioning journalism as a public service integral to community.
“What the media needs to be doing, regardless of who’s in office, is building those connections and building trust,” Noor said.
Journalists from diverse backgrounds are not just covering the community, they are the community. This relationship between journalists covering their own neighborhoods, cultures, or particular areas of sensitivity builds trust with audiences and communities based not only on perceptions of shared interests, but shared risks.
Growing up a member of the Sikh community post 9/11 during a time when Sikh men were often victims of hate crimes and discrimination, Noor said he saw journalism as a mission to humanize those who had been dehumanized in dominant media narratives.
“The media has a choice, whether to humanize or dehumanize ‘the other,’” Noor said. “That’s basically why I became a journalist, because I saw that my community, and people that look like me, were being excluded.”
Aguilar wants journalists and news leaders to “remind people about the value of having all these perspectives in our organizations, to help make what we do stronger.”
Louie believes the backlash against DEI will fade as it is realized across industries that diversity is a reality that is here to stay.
“Don’t worry about what people are saying about DEI,” Louie said. “Or, as Dan Rather would say: ‘don’t let the bastards scare you.’”
About the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education
Since 1977, the Maynard Institute has fought to push back against the systemic lack of diversity in the news industry through training, collaborations and convenings. The Institute promotes diversity and antiracism in the news media through improved coverage, hiring and business practices. We are creating better representation in U.S. newsrooms through our programs , which gives media professionals of color and those of diverse backgrounds the tools to become skilled storytellers, empowered executives and inspired entrepreneurs.