Emily Ramshaw and Amanda Zamora wanted to do something radical about the white men dominating newsrooms. 70% of policy and politics editors are men, almost all of them are white, says Emily. These are the people deciding which stories are told, who is telling them, and whether they will be on the front page or the back page, if they get there at all.
So, Emily and Amanda along with Editor-at-Large Errin Haines and a scrappy group of fearless women and LGBTQ+ journalists band together to buck the status quo and launch The 19th*, a digital news start-up. Named after the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote, but with an asterisk to acknowledge the Black women and women of color who were omitted, The 19th*’s work is guided everyday by the asterisk—asking who is being omitted from the story, and how can they be included.
Errin Haines covers politics and race, including the first national story on the killing of Breonna Taylor. Emerging Latina reporter Chabeli Carrazana is based in Florida and reports on gender and the economy. LA-based Kate Sosin, a nonbinary reporter, covers LGBTQ+ stories, including the large number of anti-trans bills becoming law in states around the country.
The film documents the honest discussions at The 19th* around race and gender equity and inclusion, revealing that change doesn’t come easy, and showcasing how one newsroom confronts these challenges both as a workplace and in their journalism. But this film is about more than a newsroom. It’s about America in flux, and the voices that are often left out of the American story.
