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media-watchdogs

Media Matters for America (MMFA) is an American progressive media watchdog nonprofit that monitors and reports on media issues. Their coverage of trans topics has been consistently fair and accurate. MMFA has also hired trans contributors, including Ari Drennen and Parker Molloy.

Background

MMFA was founded in 2004 by political strategist David Brock. Early funding came from progressive donors.MMFA publishes daily research analyzing television, radio, print, and online outlets.

The organization gained national attention for aggressive monitoring of cable news personalities and talk radio. MMFA expanded its research staff and built a rapid-response model designed to publish fact-checks within hours of controversial broadcasts.

In 2010, MMFA broadened its focus to include social media misinformation and launched new digital platforms to track viral content and online narratives. In 2011, MMFA helped establish the American Bridge 21st Century political action committee. In 2016, MMFA intensified its monitoring of online disinformation during the U.S. presidential election. By 2020, MMFA created specialized teams focused on social media platforms. In 2022, MMFA expanded research into streaming platforms and podcast networks.

Over time, MMFA evolved from a traditional media watchdog into a digital research group focused on the modern information environment.

People

Staff

  • Angelo Carusone (President & Chief Executive Officer) 
  • Pilar Martinez (Chief Financial Officer)
  • Cynthia Padera (Chief Operating Officer) 
  • Julie Millican (Vice President) 
  • Sergio Muñoz (Vice President, Research & Policy)

Board

  • Angelo Carusone, Chair         
  • Tom Castro, Treasurer                     
  • Mark Buell                                       
  • Bonnie Turner                   
  • Pilar Martinez

Contributors

The following contributors and researchers have covered transgender topics:

Resources

Media Matters for America (mediamatters.org)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

InfluenceWatch (influencewatch.org)

Ad Fontes Media (adfontesmedia.com)

CauseIQ (causeiq.com)

Ballotpedia (ballotpedia.org)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Tumblr (tumblr.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

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Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) is an American media watchdog organization that monitors and reports on media issues. The coverage of trans topics has been fair and accurate.

Background

Columbia Journalism Review was founded in 1961 and is published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The magazine’s stated mission is to serve as a watchdog of the press, promoting professional standards and ethical practices while examining the strengths and failures of news organizations.

CJR covers a wide range of topics, including media ethics, investigative reporting, newsroom practices, press freedom, and the impact of technology on journalism. Its reporting often analyzes coverage of major political, social, and economic events, as well as structural issues within the media industry such as ownership, labor conditions, and financial sustainability. The publication is known for in-depth critiques of mainstream media outlets and for highlighting underreported or mishandled stories.

Originally published as a quarterly print magazine, CJR has expanded its digital presence and now publishes frequent online articles, essays, and reports.

Leadership

  • James Boylan (1961–1969)
  • Alfred Balk (1969–1973)
  • Elie Abel (dean at Columbia ~1970–1979)
  • Spencer Klaw (1980–1989)
  • Suzanne Braun Levine (1989–1997)
  • Marshall Loeb (1997–1999)
  • Michael J. Hoyt (2000–2011)
  • David Laventhol (publisher and editorial director)
  • Elizabeth Spayd (2014–2016)
  • Kyle Pope (2016–2024)
  • Sewell Chan (2024–2025)
  • Betsy Morais (2025–)

Transgender topics

CJR has published a number of pieces involving opinion, criticism, and analysis of transgender coverage in the media. They have also covered trans journalists and those seeking to improve coverage, including Samantha Allen and Zackary Drucker. They have also commissioned a number of pieces by trans journalists.

They have published pieces on fair and accurate coverage that uses gender-neutral and value-neutral language, as well as several ethical issues, including:

  • misgendering and deadnaming trans victims of crime
  • Caleb Hannan’s outing of trans golf entrepreneur Essay Anne Vanderbilt, which contributed to Vanderbilt’s suicide
  • criticism of a New Yorker story on anti-trans “feminists” by Michelle Goldberg
  • criticism of an Atlantic feature on the “ex-trans” movement by Jesse Singal
  • highlighting exemplary journalists covering trans topics, including Steve Rothaus of the Miami Herald and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat’s coverage of a transgender athlete controversy
  • highlighting work by the Trans Journalists Association and the Trans News Initiative
  • the ethics of covering breaking news in the wake of the murder of Charlie Kirk

Jesse Singal

Anti-trans activist Jesse Singal wrote three pieces for CJR in 2013, and CJR interviewed Singal when New York magazine launched the Science of Us blog in 2014. After Singal wrote When a Child Says She’s Trans for The Atlantic in 2018, Alexandria Neason noted the core problem with Singal’s feature:

Controversial stories like Jesse Singal’s cover story for The Atlantic, on how parents of transgender teens approach their desire to personally or medically transition, come to mind. The story was fact checked, but according to many readers, journalists, and activists in the trans community, was transphobic—and all wrong. The difference between fact and truth is yet another example of why newsrooms, and publishing houses, desperately need to invest in employing and representing diverse writers, editors, agents, and fact checkers alike.

References

Mullin, Benjamin (April 23, 2025). Columbia Journalism Review Faces the Kind of Crisis It Usually Covers. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/business/media/cjr-sewell-chan.html

Ad Fontes (2025). Columbia Journalism Review Bias and Reliability. https://adfontesmedia.com/columbia-journalism-review-bias-and-reliability/

Hoyt, Mike (November 15, 2011). In Our Time: CJR’s editor takes stock. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/reports/in_our_time.php

Selected writing by CJR

Nagy, Ivan L. (September 16, 2025). Liveblogging Through It: Vetting, “transgender ideology,” and the race to fill a breaking-news void in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/analysis/liveblogging-through-it-charlie-kirk-tyler-robinson-misinformation-transgender.php

GalvĂŁo, Carolina Abbott (November 17, 2025). Visualizing Trans Coverage: A new tool, the Trans News Initiative, draws from data to reveal patterns and proportions. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/news/visualizing-trans-coverage-data-journalism.php

Petrin, Kae (November 20, 2024). Covering the Actual Story of Trans Lives: After an election in which trans communities featured heavily, guidance from the Trans Journalists Association. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/criticism/covering-the-actual-story-of-trans-lives.php

Morais, Betsy (June 29, 2023). Moral panic, queer expression. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/pride_month_bachelor.php

Massara, Graph (May 25, 2023). The complexities and nuances of transgender coverage. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/analysis/trans-coverage-guide-suggestions.php

Massara, Graph (September 5, 2023). How a local paper grappled with an anti-trans firestorm. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/analysis/trans-student-athlete-controversy-california.php

Neason, Alexandra (December 20, 2021). Truth-Telling: A new journalism podcast looks to history to counter ‘objectivity.’ Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/60th/truth-telling-lewis-raven-wallace.php

Allsop, Jon (June 15, 2020). The movement for Black trans lives. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/black-trans-lives-matter.php

Wallace, Lewis Raven (September 30, 2019). Five tips for journalists on covering trans and nonbinary people. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/analysis/trans-nonbinary-subjects-tips.php

Lang, Nico (April 26, 2019). The journalist telling the complicated, hopeful truth about LGBTQ life in red states. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/samantha-allen-real-queer-media.php

Sultan, Zainab (March 26, 2019). Increasing visibility of non-conforming gender communities in stock photos. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/analysis/stock-photos-vice-transgender-nonbinary.php

Neason, Alexandria (January 25, 2019). The perils of publishing without a fact-checking net. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/analysis/journalism-book-fact-checking-jill-abramson.php

Perlman, Merrill (January 22, 2019). How the word ‘queer’ was adopted by the LGBTQ community. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/queer.php

Vernon, Pete (August 9, 2018). Q&A: Steven Thrasher on what queer experience adds to any newsroom. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/q_and_a/steven-thrasher.php

Lang, Nico (May 25, 2017). A ‘disgusting slap in the face’: Reporters must stop misgendering trans murder victims. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/criticism/transgender-murders-news-journalism.php

Grimaldi, Christine (September 1, 2016). I tripped up while reporting on gender and sexuality. Here’s what I learned. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/the_feature/gender_sexuality_reporting.php

Nesmith, Susannah (April 6, 2016). How the Miami Herald’s Steve Rothaus became an LGBT pioneer in mainstream journalism. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/miami_herald_steve_rothaus_lgbt_coverage.php

Perlman, Merrill (December 7, 2015). Un-gendered. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/language_changes_were_fond_of.php

Perlman, Merrill (March 23, 2015). Why ‘transgender’ is preferred over ‘transgendered.’ Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/opinion/transgender_transgendered.php

Truiit, Jos (August 6, 2014). Why The New Yorker‘s radical feminism and transgenderism piece was one-sided. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/minority_reports/new_yorker_feminism_transgenderism_jos_truitt.php

Truiit, Jos (February 11, 2014). The ‘don’ts’ of interviewing trans people. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/minority_reports/interviewing_trans_people.php

Pring, Nicola (March 12, 2014). Journos weigh in on covering trans people: A panel at CUNY on Tuesday night offered advice. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/minority_reports/transgender_coverage.php

Friedman, Ann (January 23, 2014). The difficulty of sticking to a story. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/realtalk/realtalk_012314.php

Vanasco, Jennifer (May 3, 2013). How not to report on a transgender victim: Cemia Acoff identified as a woman in life and should have been in death, too. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/minority_reports/how_not_to_report_on_a_transge.php

Vanasco, Jennifer (April 26, 2013). Where is the media on ENDA? An important bill that would protect gay workers from discrimination gets little media coverage. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/minority_reports/where_is_the_media_on_enda.php

Vanasco, Jennifer (May 24, 2013). More than just marriage: A guide to covering other issues that affect the LGBT community. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/minority_reports/more_than_just_marriage.php

Perlman, Merrill (July 17, 2012). En-gendered: Terms for sexual identity. Columbia Journalism Review https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/en-gendered.php

Resources

Columbia Journalism Review (cjr.org)

  • Transgender [tag]
  • https://www.cjr.org/tag/transgender

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

InfluenceWatch (influencewatch.org)

AllSides (allsides.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Facebook (instagram.com)

Bluesky (bsky.app)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Data & Society is an independent nonprofit research organization which aims to “advance public understanding of the social and cultural implications of data-centric technologies and automation.”

2018 YouTube report

In 2018, Rebecca Lewis released a report on a network of YouTube accounts that uplifted people and channels associated with the alt-right or “reactionary right” movement. The report was focused on white nationalism and far-right extremism, but the same “mainstream” conservative accounts have frequently been involved in laundering anti-transgender extremism into mainstream media.

YouTube personalities mentioned include:

References

Lewis, Rebecca (September 18, 2018). Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube. Data & Society https://datasociety.net/library/alternative-influence/ [PDF]

Resources

Data & Society (datasociety.net)

Twitter (twitter.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Medium (medium.com)

  • points.datasociety.net [deleted]

Mastodon (mastodon.social)

Ad Fontes Media is an American media watchdog organization that monitors and reports on media issues.

Background

Ad Fontes Media was founded in 2018 by attorney Vanessa Otero. It emerged from Otero’s blog All Generalizations Are False, founded in 2014.

Media Bias Chart

Their Media Bias Chart ranks organizations by overall source reliability and political bias, resulting in a pyramid or bell curve with what they consider the most reliable and least biased outlets at the pinnacle.

Organizations in their top tier of neutral/balanced fact reporting:

Organizations they rate as neutral or balanced complex analysis:

Resources

Ad Fontes Media (adfontesmedia.com)

All Generalizations Are False (allgeneralizationsarefalse.com) [archive]

  • redirects to adfontesmedia.com

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Facebook (facebook.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Accuracy in Media (AIM) is a conservative American media watchdog organization that monitors and reports on media issues. They frequently attack media coverage they consider supportive of trans topics.

Background

AIM was founded in 1969 by Reed Irvine and has several programs critical of what they consider liberal news bias.

Anti-trans activism

AIM has conducted undercover investigations in several school districts, particularly in Texas, exposing administrators advising parents how to sidestep state laws that require trans athletes to compete in sports based on their biological sex. In one video, a school official suggested that presenting a modified out-of-state birth certificate could allow a transgender girl to join girls’ sports teams, despite Texas’ “Save Women’s Sports Act.” This investigation even prompted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to launch a formal probe into the districts involved.

AIM argues that school administrators are coaching parents to withhold or conceal a child’s sex assogned at birth and use altered birth certificates. In Ohio, they recorded a counselor instructing “parents” (undercover AIM operatives) to keep the child’s original birth certificate secret from the school system.

AIM frames these practices as part of “transgender ideology” that represents a radical activism undermining existing laws and parental authority. Their tone suggests that such policies are driven by ideological zeal that deliberately flouts legal boundaries.

As a result of AIM’s investigations, they have triggered real legal and administrative consequences. In Texas, an exposed administrator resigned following the report. In Ohio, their undercover footage of school officials advising how to evade gender-based sports restrictions led to a Title IX complaint being filed with the U.S. Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services.

Reed Irvine Award

They also bestow an annual Reed Irvine Award to media figures whose work promotes conservative viewpoints in the media, including many prominent anti-trans media figures.

Recipients include:

  • Jeanine Pirro
  • Chris Plante
  • Rep. Lamar Smith (R.-Texas)
  • Bill Gertz
  • Glenn Harlan Reynolds
  • Catherine Herridge
  • Jim Hoft
  • Sharyl Attkisson
  • Dana Loesch
  • U.S. Navy Capt. Charles Rozier
  • Tucker Carlson
  • Kenneth R. Timmerman
  • Andrew Breitbart
  • Marc Morano
  • M. Stanton Evans
  • Karl S. Denninger
  • Lee Edwards
  • Michelle Malkin
  • Mark M. Alexander
  • Harry MacDougald
  • Paul Boley

In 2018 AIM announced a rating system to assess news as accurate, debatable, misleading, clear bias, and “fake news.”

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Accuracy in Media (aim.org)

Accuracy in Academia (academia.org)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

The following organizations monitor and report on media coverage.

GLAAD is an American media watchdog organization that monitors and reports on media issues. Their focus is sex and gender minorities, and they have done more than any other organization in history to improve media depictions of our community.

In keeping with their initial mission to fight defamation, they have a convenient way to report defamation.

Background

GLAAD was founded in 1985 as Gay and Lesbian Anti-Defamation League, to protest the New York Post’s sensationalized and homophobic reporting on HIV/AIDS. The name was changed a few years later to Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. In 2013, they moved to using their initials GLAAD exclusively.

Over the years, GLAAD has been instrumental in pressuring media and entertainment companies to improve how they depict LGBTQ people. The GLAAD Media Awards were established in 1989 to honor fair and accurate media depictions of LGBTQ people. Since the 1990s GLAAD has published a Media Reference Guide for journalists and other media creators. In 2013 GLAAD began grading entertainment companies with a Studio Responsibility Index. In 2021 they launched a similar Social Media Safety Index.

In 2015, longtime GLAAD employee Nick Adams was named Director of Transgender Media & Representation.

Accountability Project

Of particular interest for this project is the GLAAD Accountability Project (GAP), created in 2012 and relaunched in 2021 with expanded listings. GAP monitors and documents individual public figures and groups using their platforms to spread misinformation and false rhetoric against LGBTQ people, youth, and allies. 

It profiles many key figures in anti-trans activism, including Tucker Carlson, Germaine Greer, Alex Jones, Helen Lewis, Paul McHugh, Candace Owens, J. K. Rowling, Ben Shapiro, Jesse Singal, and Debra Soh,

References

Srikanth, Anagha (April 5, 2021). Backlash from GLAAD’s new accountability project is proof it’s working, says LGBTQ+ watchdog. The Hill https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/546518-backlash-from-glaads-new-accountability-project-is-proof

Resources

GLAAD (glaad.org)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Facebook (facebook.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

YouTube (glaad)

TikTok (tiktok.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Pew Research Center project on Journalism & Media is an American media watchdog organization that monitors and reports on media issues. Pew was previously called the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ).

Selected trans coverage

Rachel Minkin, Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Luona Lin and Dana Braga (May 29, 2025). The Experiences of LGBTQ Americans Today. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2025/05/29/the-experiences-of-lgbtq-americans-today/

Staff report (May 20, 2025). 3. Views of how much discrimination transgender people, gay and lesbian people, women and men face in the U.S. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/05/20/views-of-how-much-discrimination-transgender-people-gay-and-lesbian-people-women-and-men-face-in-the-u-s/

Staff report (February 26, 2025). Americans have grown more supportive of restrictions for trans people in recent years. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/02/26/americans-have-grown-more-supportive-of-restrictions-for-trans-people-in-recent-years/

Juliana Menasce Horowitz (January 24, 2025). U.S. teens are less likely than adults to know a trans person, more likely to know someone who’s nonbinary. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/01/24/us-teens-are-less-likely-than-adults-to-know-a-trans-person-more-likely-to-know-someone-whos-nonbinary/

Carrie Blazina and Chris Baronavski (September 15, 2022). How Americans view policy proposals on transgender and gender identity issues, and where such policies exist. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/09/15/how-americans-view-policy-proposals-on-transgender-and-gender-identity-issues-and-where-such-policies-exist/

Michael Lipka and Patricia Tevington (July 7, 2022). Attitudes about transgender issues vary widely among Christians, religious ‘nones’ in U.S. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/07/07/attitudes-about-transgender-issues-vary-widely-among-christians-religious-nones-in-u-s/

Kim Parker, Juliana Menasce Horowitz, and Anna Brown (June 28, 2022). Americans’ Complex Views on Gender Identity and Transgender Issues. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2022/06/28/americans-complex-views-on-gender-identity-and-transgender-issues/

Anna Brown (June 7, 2022). About 5% of young adults in the U.S. say their gender is different from their sex assigned at birth. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/06/07/about-5-of-young-adults-in-the-u-s-say-their-gender-is-different-from-their-sex-assigned-at-birth/

Anna Brown, Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Kim Parker and Rachel Minkin (June 7, 2022). The Experiences, Challenges and Hopes of Transgender and Nonbinary U.S. Adults. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2022/06/07/the-experiences-challenges-and-hopes-of-transgender-and-nonbinary-u-s-adults/

Rachel Minkin and Anna Brown (July 27, 2021). Rising shares of U.S. adults know someone who is transgender or goes by gender-neutral pronouns. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/07/27/rising-shares-of-u-s-adults-know-someone-who-is-transgender-or-goes-by-gender-neutral-pronouns/

Resources

Pew Research Center: Journalism & Media (journalism.org)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) is an American media watchdog organization that monitors and reports on media issues.

Note: for the anti-transgender organization with the same acronym, see Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism.

Background

FAIR was founded in 1986 by Jeff Cohen and Martin A. Lee. FAIR publishes the criticism publication Extra! and also produces the audio project CounterSpin.

FAIR is critical of corporate sponsorship and ownership of media, as well as government policies and pressure, which FAIR believes restricts journalism and distorts public discourse.

Selected transgender coverage

Escalante, Alyson (November 15, 2018). Transgender Lives Are Not Up for Debate. https://fair.org/home/transgender-lives-are-not-up-for-debate/

Jackson, Janine (March 16, 2017). ‘That Violence Against Our Community Is Often Not Told by Media.’ https://fair.org/home/that-violence-against-our-community-is-often-not-told-by-media/

Jones, Tegan (March 13, 2017). Covering the Critics of Conway, Not the Murders of Transgender Women. https://fair.org/home/covering-the-critics-of-conway-not-the-murders-of-transgender-women/

Hollar, Julie (March 1, 2014). When Transgender Is a Plot Twist. https://fair.org/extra/when-transgender-is-a-plot-twist/

Khalek, Rania (October 1, 2013). ‘I Am Chelsea Manning.’ https://fair.org/extra/i-am-chelsea-manning/

Hollar, Julie (February 14, 2013). On Transgender Healthcare, NYT Reports Tree, Ignores Forest. https://fair.org/home/on-transgender-healthcare-nyt-reports-tree-ignores-forest/

Hollar, Julie (April 1, 2013). Missing the Bigger Picture on Transgender Healthcare. https://fair.org/extra/missing-the-bigger-picture-on-transgender-healthcare/

Tady, Megan (June 1, 2012). Being Transgender in American Media. https://fair.org/extra/being-transgender-in-american-media/

Hollar, Julie (November 1, 2007). Transforming Coverage. https://fair.org/extra/transforming-coverage/

Staff report (July 8, 2005). New York Times Suggests Bisexuals Are ‘Lying.’ https://fair.org/take-action/action-alerts/new-york-times-suggests-bisexuals-are-quotlyingquot/

Resources

FAIR (fair.org)

Britannica (britannica.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

US Library of Congress (loc.gov)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Mastodon (mastodon.world)

Instagram (instagram.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com/)

Facebook (facebook.com)

SourceWatch is an American media watchdog organization that monitors and reports on media issues.

Resources

SourceWatch (sourcewatch.org)